Will a Service-Oriented Architecture Help Your Business?

by Michael Rosen

We know that technology alone doesn't solve business problems; at best it can act as an enabler. Some combination of technology, business, and organization is always required to meet business goals. Likewise, a service-oriented architecture (SOA) can enable a flexible enterprise where higher-level services are quickly and inexpensively composed from an inventory of more primitive business processes. But alone, an SOA is not enough; it must be accompanied by business design (i.e., a business model). The business model is critical to creating a set of services that can actually work together to provide higher-level value. You can implement an SOA without an overall business model, but you will end up with a pile of incompatible services rather than an agile, flexible enterprise.