The four pillars of business technology

My recent posting on best of breed led to a discussion with a few of our analysts and vendor clients about the future of technology. There’s consolidation by the big vendors (SAP, IBM, Oracle) but if we define the act of conducting business from the business view rather than the technology view what do we get? I’ll offer that business engages in four core activities: production, customer management, human resources, and accounting. If we go through the various solutions they either fall into one of these categories (supply chain in production, CRM and Web in customer management) or they become supporting technologies (content management, messaging, analytics). Given the economic reality that integration reduces costs and increases productivity, the long term evolution of technology would lead to solutions centered on these four broad areas. I’d offer this is a good direction that further focuses technology on business activities. On the downside I expect is will also drive an even greater number of managers with Chief (insert anything here) Officer titles.