The Future of Enterprise Applications in the Age of AI – No more the Buy vs. Build Dilemma

At the Gartner Application Innovation and Business Solutions (AIBS) Summit 2024, Las Vegas, one of this year's main themes is the future of enterprise applications which consists of four facets according to Gartner:

1) Composable architecture;

2) Autonomous orchestration;

3) Embedded intelligence (e.g. AI); and

4) Adaptive experience.

With the future of enterprise applications in mind, Denis Torii, VP Analyst Gartner, portrayed the paradigm shift from the traditional Built vs. Buy dilemma in buying a software solution to the new Buy, Build, Blend trend in his session titled “Buy vs. Build in the New (Cloudy) Business Application Era.

As shown in one of the diagrams shared by Denis Torii, the composable architecture underpins this new trend.

This aligns with the perspective we frequently share with our customers about the best practices for implementing and managing systems of records and systems of engagement.

a)  Commodity Core layer [Buy]

At AgilePoint, we refer to the system-of-records layer, such as ERP, CRM, HR, etc. Usually, this layer houses the functionality common to most organizations. The best practice is to keep the system of records as ‘clean’ and as native as possible. Avoid customizing the system of records such as implementing your unique requirements. e.g. business orchestrations (system of engagements) directly in the system of records.

b)  Add-on layer [Build and Blend]

At AgilePoint, we refer to the system-of-engagement layer that captures the business logic, collaborations among teams and cross-functionally, workflows, and end-to-end business process orchestrations that are unique to your organization and could change frequently.

AgilePoint’s abstraction-enabled composable platform enables rapid composition of future-proof and AI-ready ‘system of engagements’ in the form of adaptive end-to-end business orchestrations across 100+ most popular systems of records and platforms, including task management.

In my view, this new Buy, Build, Blend trend raises the discussion of composable architecture to cross-platform and tiered composability. Very intriguing!