SAP has announced an education and technology programme
to make it easier for firms to move towards a service-oriented
architecture (SOA).
The purpose of an SOA is to let the IT infrastructure respond to
an organisation’s changing business needs and
market requirements.
SAP’s enterprise services architecture adoption programme aims
to offer a step-by-step approach to help companies manage the
strategic transition to an SOA based on their individual needs.
SAP said the programme maintained the productivity of existing
systems while helping companies create and implement a tailored
enterprise services architecture by using SAP Netweaver-based web
services.
"SOA initiatives can trigger a fundamental shift in the way
organisations develop, deploy and manage their software landscape,"
said Sandra Rogers, an analyst at IDC. "Education, co-ordination
and support across the enterprise is essential as companies seek to
optimise their business processes and IT assets."
The SAP programme has four key steps:
- Enterprise services architecture workshops and total cost of
ownership "discovery sessions"
- Building a tailored roadmap based upon individual customer
needs
- Implementing the offering and going live
- Harnessing the value of an enterprise services architecture
while effectively managing change.
At each step, SAP is providing customers with a portfolio of
field-tested support services, which include tools, templates,
samples and workshops tailored to address the separate needs of
each organisation.