Many may say that service-oriented architecture (SOA) is not the "next big thing" in 2010 and beyond. However, to arrive at the future of SOA and all its potential, the time to act is now -- build business services today.

Although some business and IT practitioners would not consider SOA to be the "next big thing" anymore -- as they progress to a new set of emerging technologies -- most practitioners would still agree that SOA has evolved during this decade to become one of the most effective architectural approaches for consistent information exchange or data sharing.

Outsourcing can be an important asset in the firm's arsenal, but it is no panacea, and it must be proactively managed. This very realization is what motivated our interest in an issue entirely dedicated to the client-vendor relationship in the IT outsourcing context.

We first address the central challenge facing client-vendor relationships and then look at the evolution of these relationships.

This installment of CBR focuses on one of the most enduring issues in IT management for both practice and research: IT outsourcing and the management of the client-vendor relationship. Helping us navigate the topic are experts from both the academic and the practice sides of this important issue. Our academic contributors are David Murungi and Santiago Peña, PhD students at the E.J.

This survey investigated client-vendor contract and relationship management. Eleven percent of the 45 responding organizations have more than 50,000 employees, 7% have between 10,000 and 50,000 employees, 27% have between 1,000 and 10,000 employees, 36% have between 100 and 1,000 employees, and the remaining organizations have 100 or fewer employees.

Enterprise architecture is finally becoming a mature, mainstream activity in large organizations. This includes controlling complexity and aligning to the business in light of current realities such as outsourcing.

Enterprise architecture is finally becoming a mature, mainstream activity in large organizations. This includes controlling complexity and aligning to the business in light of current realities such as outsourcing.

There are long-standing enterprise architecture (EA) frameworks that are very complete and ready to be leveraged. However, a focus on technology and frameworks can undermine an EA effort. To successfully develop and mature an EA practice, it takes principles and action plans coupled with collaboration, engagement, and leadership.

Recession? TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Bag Large Outsourcing Deals.

-- Economic Times

Enterprise architecture (EA) plays an important role in delivering the business value for any large or complex enterprise. In practice, however, the real business value of EA is still not recognized to its full extent in some cases.

Cloud computing is a paradigm shift to a new form of enterprise distributed computing that takes place outside of the cloud consumer's computing environments. In cloud computing, everything is considered a service, including software services, the application development platform, and infrastructure supports. Cloud computing presents a range of simplified, flexible, and convenient service choices to enterprises.

Enterprise architecture (EA) practices1 have evolved and matured significantly over the past two decades. However, EA as a discipline continues to be largely misunderstood by management, who questions its value, and EA initiatives still often fail to achieve actionable outcomes.

Enterprise architecture (EA) practices1 have evolved and matured significantly over the past two decades. However, EA as a discipline continues to be largely misunderstood by management, who questions its value, and EA initiatives still often fail to achieve actionable outcomes.

By now, agile methodologies have become established as a means of correcting a variety of ills within the software development environment. The next step is to move them to center stage within the enterprise.

Agile methodologies have moved forward considerably since they first appeared in the 1990s, but implementation as standard practice within the enterprise has lagged.

This is the final Executive Report in a four-part series by Dr. Sara Cullen on the outsourcing lifecycle. The series is based on a detailed understanding of the outsourcing experiences of 107 organizations. This report takes you through the last three building blocks focused on transition, management, and the next generation (that is, the next contract). It is during these building blocks that the work done (or not done!) in the earlier part of the lifecycle, discussed in the previous Executive Reports, can hit hard. And even if done well, there are many challenges, as you will see. 

Innovation

Companies have pursued efficiency, economies of scale, and mass markets at the expense of products that excite consumers and promote loyalty. The upside has been declining unit-cost curves, which have allowed products to reach consumers at prices more affordable than ever before. However, the downside has been a series of "me, too" products that fail to inspire.

Innovation

Companies have pursued efficiency, economies of scale, and mass markets at the expense of products that excite consumers and promote loyalty. The upside has been declining unit-cost curves, which have allowed products to reach consumers at prices more affordable than ever before. However, the downside has been a series of "me, too" products that fail to inspire.

Innovation

Companies have pursued efficiency, economies of scale, and mass markets at the expense of products that excite consumers and promote loyalty. The upside has been declining unit-cost curves, which have allowed products to reach consumers at prices more affordable than ever before. However, the downside has been a series of "me, too" products that fail to inspire.

A big idea, that collaborative innovation requires us to reconceive our idea of "failure," seems to be taking hold. We're getting it that an iterative process will include segments that don't achieve closure, don't solve the problem, aren't ready for the market. We're getting it that, since we can't foresee an emergent outcome, we have no way of knowing when exactly we'll get there.

A big idea, that collaborative innovation requires us to reconceive our idea of "failure," seems to be taking hold. We're getting it that an iterative process will include segments that don't achieve closure, don't solve the problem, aren't ready for the market. We're getting it that, since we can't foresee an emergent outcome, we have no way of knowing when exactly we'll get there.

For any IT governance to work, we need the active participation of business management in these decision-making areas:

Project approval (e.g., project sponsorship)

Decision-making processes (e.g., setting the ground rules for making prioritization decisions)