Longhaus have developed a set of enterprise wiki reference models for organisations of various profiles. These models depict the fundamentals of a successful enterprise wiki. As a result of these reference models, the Longhaus Enterprise Wiki Readiness Assessment tool provides tailored analysis to assist organisations in making decisions regarding wiki implementations. The tool aims to provide answers to factors including necessity, readiness and vendor choice of enterprise wiki implementations based on an assessment driven questionnaire received in relation to your organisation.

In 2007-08 Australia’s medium to large enterprises spent $11 billion or 10% on managed and professional services from external third parties. Although discussion of the Australian ICT services market in the boardrooms of both end-users and vendors focuses on managed infrastructure services the reality is that outsourcing in the area of application development and maintenance is undertaken by 5% more firms than server management. The Longhaus 2009 ICT Spending and Investment Priorities Study also revealed that in the area of managed and professional services 28% of local organisations expected to decrease spending, with only 22% expecting to increase spending. In fact, managed and professional services spending was the only area in the study with a net number of firms decreasing spending. While the shift in the ICT economic cycle from infrastructure to application renewal will provide some opportunities for outsourcing of application maintenance, the current economic conditions will make life hard for both local and multinational services firms with a net average of less than 2% of existing client organisations increasing spending in 2009-10. Based on the study results it seems times will be especially tough for firms whose order book is oriented towards strategy or project-based activity such as Accenture, SMS Management Technology, and Oakton. Given the tight market, now is a perfect time for end-user organisations to engage in smaller scale strategic projects using high calibre external resources that are likely to be sitting on the bench inside many of Australia’s ICT services vendors.

Oracle officially launched the latest version of their Fusion Middleware platform, known as Fusion 11g, in the Asia Pacific Region on 9 July 2009 as part of 8 worldwide launches which began on July 1. Oracle’s Greg Taylor (General Manager Asia Pacific, Oracle Fusion Middleware) and Amit Jasuja (Vice President, Development for Oracle Fusion Middleware - Identity Management) outlined key features of the latest platform, including finalisation of the BEA WebLogic integration. Oracle partners, Renewtek, Integral Technology Solutions, and Red Rock Consulting provided their perspectives on the value of Fusion 11g for clients in Australia and near shore markets. Longhaus spoke to customers attending the event including SingTel Optus and Department of Community Services (NSW) to gauge the drivers behind interest in Fusion Middleware 11g. Based on the presentations, previous briefings on the BEA integration process, and discussions with conference attendees Longhaus compiled a series of key highlights for clients unable to attend the launch in Sydney.

After years of relatively modest but comfortable ICT expenditure increases Australian businesses are about to be hit by a severe ICT budget slowdown. Longhaus’ 2009 ICT Spending and Priorities Study forecasts only 1% ICT budget growth in 2009-2010; down from 8% last year. When combined with a slump in inflation and domestic economic growth this forecast is likely to be further discounted leaving little change to the size of the local ICT market currently calculated by Longhaus as just under $170 billion per annum. Within the typical ICT budget, the proportion of funds going toward new investments will also decrease to 14%, down from 18% last year, with R D and new purchases the big losers. On this basis Australian ICT decision makers will need to come to grips with a starker financial reality than has been faced for sometime. However, the coming year will present a notable spending priority change with a move to increasing application renewal spending arising from a shift from hardware purchase to business application upgrades. The beneficiaries of this increased upgrading activity directly translate to higher spending on “applications-oriented” service providers, applications development platform vendors, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), and systems integrators.

Longhaus have long suspected that because of the architecture and integration of email into a larger workspace, IBM’s Lotus Notes was adopted by organisations that had a greater use of collaboration tools. On the other hand, Microsoft’s Exchange was employed by organisations focused less on collaboration and more on communication and workforce mobility; a trend that continues with their Information Worker platform. The results of the Longhaus’ 2009 ICT Spending and Priorities Study showed that Microsoft Exchange remains the dominant corporate email platform in use by 53% of all Australian medium to large enterprises. However, the study also revealed that Australian enterprises need to re-assess their collaboration strategies and take account of changing user demands and behaviour which have the potential to fundamentally alter the traditional email market. Among these is the need to distinguish corporate account holders from the transient and non-collaborative elements of their workforce, with serious consideration as to whether some users should be driven instead to free-mail platforms. With 100’s and 1,000’s of students now passing through the education system and opting for freemail accounts from Windows Live (Hotmail) and Gmail, it may take less than 10 years to see the ground permanently shift; a shift that may assign Lotus to the pile of great brands lost forever.