Q&A: Mercury Interactive exec on outsourcing performance measurement

Computerworld - Regulatory compliance, outsourcing and business technology optimization are all top-of-mind issues for IT managers these days. So it's hardly surprising that Mercury Interactive Corp., a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of business technology optimization software focused on all three segments, is expecting nearly a 50% increase in attendees at its Mercury World 2004 user conference next week in Orlando.
Computerworld's Thomas Hoffman this week caught up with David Murphy, Mercury Interactive's vice president of corporate development, to discuss the key issues its customers are facing.
What are the top issues your customers are wrestling with these days? There are three things happening that are driving the agendas. One is complexity, meaning the complexity of running IT operationally and the complexity of all of the technology and applications and changes happening in an IT environment. One of the things we hear a lot of is this notion of complexity.
The second one is outsourcing. We're really seeing a lot of companies move to the model of having a whole chain of different third parties helping to manage their operations.
The third one is this whole area of compliance, from a vertical-industry level. Industries such as health care are being driven by changes in business compliance that's required.
How do Mercury Interactive's tools and services help customers address these issues? We had The Economist's intelligence unit do a very broad survey of 750 IT execs in 14 countries, a very non-U.S. survey. We also had permission to work with IDC on a survey regarding the business value of IT. [The results of both studies will be released at Mercury World.]

David Murphy of Mercury Interactive Corp.