Published Papers

Published Papers & Reports

Here are a few of HRG's published papers and reports. .

The current generation of Web Services known as Web 2.0 facilitate collaboration and sharing among people and
communities on-line. This on-line collaboration results in the creation of new applications, one example is a process
known as mash up. Mash up refers to creating new browser based applications that provide user experiences that more
closely resemble current generation desk top applications than previous generation static web page content. This new
generation of Web 2.0 service based applications can have significant potential impact on the performance and capacity
attributes of the web facing servers that underlie today's SOA solutions. These solutions are in large part focused on
delivering data, information, and content to web based customers. While Web 2.0 developed applications are essentially free the compute infrastructure of those organizations whose data, content, and application logic are used by those applications is not without cost. There are real and potential business benefits to be derived from supporting Web 2.0 however it is incumbent on organizations making this choice that they plan their infrastructure accordingly. IBM's WebSphere Extended Deployment (XD), WebSphere MQ, and IBM System x iDataPlex are well positioned to help today's internet focused businesses stand up to this challenge.

Risk Managemen t

Risk management is about consciously taking the risks we want to take, for a fair price, without taking on too much risk or being blindsided by the unforeseen. Executed well, risk management helps a firm maximize its return and general prosperity. Poor risk management practices, on the other hand, can lead to ill-conceived financial commitments, undetected fraud, and, as was the case with the Barings collapse in 1995, insolvency and collapse.1 Vital to business success, and mandated by regulatory law, risk management is increasingly a firmwide, board-level concern.

Enterprise Risk Mamangement

During the past few years, Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) has become a hot topic across America, especially in the insurance industry. Harvard Research Group (HRG) recently conducted research on Enterprise Risk Management through interviews with executive-level decision makers in the insurance industry. We were particularly interested in understanding the business drivers underlying enterprise wide risk management in the insurance industry, how they have evolved over the past few years and what industry decision-makers are saying about the future. In addition, we were interested in understanding what benefits risk management systems and processes provided to insurance enterprises and how these benefits may be changing.

Clearing and Settlement

Executing an order, “the trade,” declares the intention to buy or sell a security. “Clearing and settlement” refers to everything that happens after that initial declaration to cause the actual transfer of assets and ownership. Instructions and trade-related information must flow between broker/dealers, the securities exchange, central clearing parties, custodial banks, and security depositories, so that each takes the necessary action at the right time. How well the process works depends upon how well information flows between all of the players.

Autonomic Computing

The computer age began with vacuum tubes, green bar paper and punch cards. In the late 1980's automated or lights out operation was in vogue and now in 2003 we are on the verge of realizing the benefits of such grand visions as Autonomic Computing, and Grid Computing. The trend is toward increasingly automating those day to day repetitive operations that can be handled by rules based logic. Removing these sources of potential human error will also free up skilled and
valuable human resources for other higher value tasks.

Real Time Event Driven Processing

In the “always-on” unwired world:
• Customers expect immediate response and no mistakes.
• Partners expect instant notification and real-time visibility.
• Suppliers push the limits of the just-in-time supply chain,
Today’s enterprise thrives on continual change, signaled by all manner of events: a new purchase, a
cancelled sale, a materials shortage. We all run in a highly competitive race, to internalize business
requirements and respond effectively, as near to real-time as technology and human nature will allow.

E-Government

The Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the newly established Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) all have in common a requirement for the integration and safe sharing of data regardless of hardware platform, operating system, or data format. The FEA, if properly and effectively implemented, will drive the integration of federal IT resources across agencies and departments of the federal government. The result will be the delivery of actionable information and alerts when and where needed to produce desired outcomes. This will become real-time E-Government in action.

Future Proofing ERP and CRM

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) represents one large step toward the totally integrated enterprise. Most large organizations use ERP to run their operations, from order entry through manufacturing, delivery and service, as well as
Human Resource and Financial Management. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the next logical step, bringing a unified approach to customer care and opportunity development. Enterprise software will continue to push outward, toward eventual engagement of all constituents: customers, employees, business partners, suppliers, regulators and investors.

Making Successful Sourcing Decisions

Harvard Research Group recommends that organizations include sourcing decision-making as part of their ongoing
strategic planning. While cost and technology are important factors, there are usually more strategic considerations. HRG interviewed C-level executives at Fortune 2000 companies to learn how they make successful sourcing decisions. We learned the following:

** When strategic sourcing involves entire functions, capabilities, or business processes, cost is not usually a
primary decision-making factor. However, for well-defined tactical sourcing decisions, cost is typically a
key decision-making factor.

** For sourcing decisions involving organizational, cultural, and human resource changes to succeed, C-level
executives need to be involved.

Interviewees tell us that cost is not the predominant factor in the majority of these decisions. However, business
expansion, revenue generation, streamlining business processes, and risk mitigation are more often key factors.

Server Consolidation in the Financial Services Industry

This HRG Assessment is based on interviews and obtaining detailed reports from an actual customer of IBM’s in the financial sector. The case represents work performed by the IBM customer from 2001 through mid-year 2005. The customer is continuing on the track of driving up server utilization while holding costs constant even though the specific server consolidation project has been officially completed. IBM can provide access to the customer behind this case upon written request assuming the customer grants permission to share information.

HRG Linux Summary

The Harvard Research Group recently conducted an assessment of the emerging Linux marketplace, with particular
focus on application deployment within the financial services industries. We appreciate your participation in our survey of Information Technology vendors, and are pleased to offer the following summary of our findings regarding the overall state of the market.

Productivity Indexing

Classifying business opportunities would be much easier if performance of organizations and their use of Information Technology could be quantified.

The major difficulty with any traditional ROI, TCO or other quantifying technique is the lack of pertinent data. Few, if any, organizations have the data necessary to quantify productivity and its correlation with Information Technology

Cross-Enterprise Data Integration

Executives understand the benefit of having access to the complete range of corporate data without having to be exposed to its underlying complexity. In the future, users will no longer have to be limited by or concerned with either the physical or virtual location of data, which application it comes from, or even if the data is structured or unstructured. As Data Integration matures and evolves, it will accommodate an increasingly wider range of data types. Ultimately no data, regardless of type or location, will be beyond integration. Initially, operational data coming from transactional systems as well as historical data coming from data warehouses and data marts will be integrated into a single, actionable view. In the future, unstructured data will increasingly be brought into that view such that it will play a larger and larger part in contributing to the benefits of cross-enterprise data integration.

Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003

Microsoft's recent investments in high performance computing (HPC) technology and business programs have positioned them as an emerging major player in this market. Today, with over 90 million desktop users, of which over 10% are classified as technical computing users, Microsoft has a huge opportunity to bring the advantages of HPC technology into the mainstream. Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (HP) together are collaborating with leading HPC Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to provide validated solutions, bringing to market real solution choices for customers preferring Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (WCCS) over Linux for HPC cluster solutions.

Cloud Computing

Keeping apprised of terminology in today’s constantly changing IT landscape can be a fulltime job for IT decisionmakers.
Some terms lend themselves to a fairly educated guess as to their meaning. But “Cloud Computing”? It’s no
wonder even the most technology-savvy among us shy away from attempting to define the term directly. This HRG
Insight provides guidance on what Cloud Computing means and more importantly, why you should care. It will also
discuss how one vendor, Red Hat, has approached it.

Subscription Services

The concept of “Subscription Services” in software is not new but has become a front-and-center topic recently.
Microsoft’s recent announcement that it will bundle the consumer version of Office with its OneCare security suite and
sell it through a “subscription service” mechanism is an example of its currency. However, the topic is fraught with
misconceptions. HRG’s Insight will summarize what subscription services are, why they have inherent value to the
end-user and how one vendor, Red Hat, has successfully approached the concept.

Virtualization

Virtualization? Everyone has heard about it but even the term conjures up a hazy, intangible image. It is one of those
technology topics many CIOs and IT decision-makers would rather avoid. However, they avoid it at their own peril.
This HRG Insight discusses what virtualization is, why it’s fundamentally important to your business and how Red Hat
is addressing it.