The Hindu Business Line : Data's the way to a CIO's mind

A recent research paper on www.ssrn.com is titled `The future of software as a business artefact'. The author, Darren Skidmore of the Department of Information Systems, University of Melbourne, looks at how software fits into an organisational context and investigates if there is a greater case for the use of Open Source Software (OSS) in organisations.

Many may visualise artefact (or artifact) in the context of archaeology. In which field, the word stands for "any object made or modified by a human culture, and often later recovered by some archaeological endeavour," as Wikipedia would help with meaning. Artefact is "anything that has been manipulated or self-consciously constructed for a specific purpose, especially if it is subsequently shown to be so," describes www.allwords.com, and gives an example: "The statistical data was nothing but an election-rigging artefact." Another meaning, as in the example, `those nasty touristy artefacts,' is as `something mass-produced and usually cheap.'

The use of `artefact' in the context of software isn't unusual. For instance, a page titled `Software artefacts' on www.scism.sbu.ac.uk begins with the dictionary definition of artefact as `product of human art and workmanship'. The page decries the fact that `although the body of knowledge which underpins software engineering is often called computer science, the current practice of software production is more akin to a black art'! The page postulates, "An honest appreciation of current software development practice might conclude that it (software engineering) is somewhere between being a black art and an engineering discipline."

Be that as it may, Skidmore begins with a discussion of two roles of information technology (IT), viz. commodity and strategic. The first is about software required to do a function, and to do it well, but not required to add value to the firm. On the contrary, "in the strategic role, the software needs to help the firm to differentiate itself from that of its competitors or give advantage to that organisation."

Please note that all strategic advantages may not be `exclusively tied to the actual software, or to the information generated by the software.' Skidmore clarifies that the software may assist, but other business and environment factors may be the source of the advantage rather than the software itself. "Also a software feature set can be replicated, by others, although it is of course currently possible to apply for a patent for a feature set, if the advantage is seen to be in the software feature set, as Amazon has done with the `1-Click' and several other patents that have been granted to the organisation."

Given the divergent roles that IT can achieve, it is imperative that you weigh any fresh investment in information systems against the existing ones, and also consider `the overall architecture of the organisation'. That's understandable; but does data play any role in software? Yes, `Data is vital to an organisation,' avers Skidmore. "As someone once said about software customers, `Get their data, and their hearts and minds will follow'," he quips. Data storage is important, be it as Office Suite files, or as files of ERP packages, emphasises Skidmore.

"For example to get full value from a specific package on the desktop and be able to share information with other users, the organisation may be forced to acquire a specific middleware solution, and a specific backend solution, which also limits the options the organisation can choose from in the future, because to replace one tier may require all tiers to be replaced or upgraded. There may also be separate costs to all three tiers, which can independently vary." Check if any patent applications can potentially `restrict the extraction of the data written to an open standard,' cautions Skidmore.

The paper devotes attention to crucial legal issues that may arise. Of current relevance may be these: "SCO's claim of its intellectual property rights to certain parts of the Linux Operating system, where besides targeting the vendor IBM, they have also targeted user organisations; the targeting of users of file sharing software; and patent claims by companies claiming patent infringement on small organisations, forcing the targeted organisations to either pay a royalty, or try and overturn the patent claim in court."

As in other cases of investment, cost component of OSS is `a deciding factor in firms adopting open source,' finds Skidmore. An insight of value is that with strategic software, customers may try to foresee if `the actual cost of the software in developing a CSS (C for `closed') solution and the maintenance of the code may be greater than the actual benefit the organisation extracts from the software'.

Sharing the software or specific ideas may mitigate the business risk in being the only company using a specific idea or software, says the author. "This may especially be true if the staff in the organisation have the expertise to exploit the software to a greater extent than their competitors. The disadvantage is that the staff might become more important and needed than the software."

A paper worth reading, for it is too practical to disagree with.

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