Confusion surrounding the real benefits of
service-oriented architecture (SOA) means CIOs are wrongly
dismissing it as a cynical marketing ploy.
Two-thirds of the 100 UK IT directors in a Diagonal-commissioned
survey believe SOA is a product of hype and marketing spin. Yet,
55% of respondents also say they’ve been hampered from meeting
business demands by rigid and complex IT systems - a problem SOA is
designed to solve.
Some 28% are making a “fundamental mistake” in thinking SOA is
simply about software development and architecture. This means they
are miss-selling it to the board as a technology rather than
business project. “Organisations must recognise that SOA is not
just about gluing technology together, it’s about changing your
technology architecture so IT systems no longer hold you back from
undertaking business improvement or transformation project,” says
Mark Williamson, managing director at Diagonal Consulting.
Given IT directors’ own confusion, it’s easy to see why 84% of them
believe their chief executives and financial directors fail to
understand SOA or its benefits.
“It’s also about automating parts of your business processes to
make them more efficient and agile. These are things that all CEOs
are clearly interested in.”
Research firm IDC says firms will spend $8.6bn this year enlisting
help for their SOA projects from outside services agencies. Within
four years, this figure will have almost quadrupled.
In the US, transportation, utilities, manufacturing, services and
finance sectors are already making major investments in SOA, finds
IDC. in March 2006 Last month, the Digital Standards Agency became
the first UK public sector organisation to adopt SOA.
