This IDC study considers the success, or lack thereof, of enterprise application suites and delves into whether a new model, referred to as enterprise solutions platforms (ESPs), will succeed enterprise applications suites and why. The study specifically describes how:
Enterprise applications suites failed to reach a critical mass as a product offering because of several mismatches with the needs of CIOs and the larger enterprise. A new breed of Suite, the enterprise solution platform, is, however, better suited to aligning IT with business. SAP, Oracle, IBM, SAP, Siebel, and Microsoft have started down the road to an ESP offering. Customers may benefit from ESPs, but they should also approach ESPs with caution."IDC's notion of ESP goes beyond simply empowering enterprise applications with service-oriented technologies," reports Evan Quinn, group vice president of Applications research. "Rather, ESP offers a new form of solution ecosystem around which multiple application vendors, software infrastructure vendors, and value-added service providers can help customers enjoy more business-centric IT solutions yet manage complexity."