InformationWeek

As journalists, we're always trying to be on the cutting edge of trends, and eager to find the next "new thing" to tell you about. And so sometimes it's surprising when the next new thing turns out to be one of the old things we thought the industry already had under control -- more or less.

Take large-scale ERP deployments. Guess what? They ain't over, not by a long shot. We in the media may have gotten a little jaded about them, having covered such roll-outs ad nauseum in the lead-up to Y2K and even for some time beyond. But more recently those stories generally have gotten shorter shrift. Been there, done that, right?

Well, not really. The truth seems to be that while companies have made great strides over the years in getting their organizations standardized on big ERP and supply-chain systems, that challenge only intensifies as these companies move ever further into the global arena, with more business being done in new locations, and more acquisitions made across borders, and across cultures. For example, one business-technology leader here told me that his company's SAP roll-out is still some years away from completion on the global stage -- not even counting the time that has to be spent explaining how such software deployments have to take into account regulations like Sarbox to puzzled overseas personnel.

There's a lesson to be learned here, and I think it's not exactly that everything old is new again. Maybe, and more to the point, it's that organizations have taken only the first step on a journey of a thousand miles.