CRM - May 2008 - (Page 33)

SERVICES-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE—AND THE WEB SERVICES IT SUPPORTS—IS ONE OF TODAY’S HOTTEST SOFTWARE TRENDS. IT’S ALSO ONE OF THE LEAST UNDERSTOOD at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which saw a 2,500 percent improvement in file handling after deploying an SOA project, or Parametric Technology, a Fortune 500 software-and-services company that was able to achieve a single version of truth for its customers across all business groups in real time, using Oracle Fusion Middleware. (See sidebar, “They Did It and SOA Can You,” page 34, for more detail.) However, not all companies have been so successful: Hundreds of millions of dollars will be invested in SOA in 2008, according to AMR,“much of it wasted.” To ensure that your company’s initiative will be best-in-class, here’s a go-to guide to help you navigate the tricky business of SOA. I n theory, services-oriented architecture (SOA) is no more complex than its name. The Open Group defines SOA simply as “an architectural style that supports service orientation”—a way by which you can build your business processes, a glue to hold your applications tightly together. In practice, however, this principle can be extremely complicated and confusing. Going ahead with an SOA deployment can seem as daunting as building a basement for a decadesold house. How can you lay a foundation to support something that’s already built? How can you glue something together that already exists? Despite the intimidating prospect of an SOA initiative, today more companies than ever are investing in SOA services and technologies. In its “SOA Spending Report 2007–2008,” AMR Research found investment to be accelerating at breakneck speed: Fifty-three percent of companies surveyed use SOA today, more than double the 21 percent found in last year’s report. An additional 37 percent of companies surveyed this year were considering going ahead with their first SOA project by 2011. Investing in services and technology to support SOA can be costly, but part of the promise of the approach is that this outlay will quickly pay for itself in increased productivity, business efficiency, customer satisfaction, and a reduction in cost through reuse. Additionally, by investing in SOA, a company can save money over the long term by avoiding costly point-to-point integration projects that have to be repeated for every product upgrade. (See “SOA Simple,” February 2006, for a more detailed look at the technology of SOA.) Business wins garnered by applying SOA principles have been seen in countless organizations across all verticals. Look STEP 1: DO YOUR HOMEWORK Despite SOA’s growing popularity, confusion still swirls around what exactly SOA is. Paul Stockford, president and chief analyst at Saddletree Research, says that one of the most common misconceptions regarding SOA is that it’s a product. “It isn’t something you can buy off a shelf,” he says. Instead, SOA refers to the principles for development and integration of applications; Web services are the set of standards which enable this. Because of the hype and attention SOA has been receiving in the past few years, it would be easy to think it a business panacea—an architecture that once established will cure all service aches and pains. The reality, however, is messier and Seven Steps BY JESSICA SEBOR Success CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | MAY 2008 toSOA 33 www.destinationCRM.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - May 2008

CRM - May 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Is CRM Too Hard for Microsoft Vendors Go Virtual For Feedback Sense-sational Marketing How UGC Can Benefit CRM DestinationCRM Dashboard Price Check, Aisle 5 Required Reading The Moving Target The Excellence Myth Seven Steps to SOA Success And They're Off! Are You Ready to Party? Skin in the Game The Right Numbers Secret of My Success Re: Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - May 2008

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