Would Hershey Foods Corporation's story of undelivered candy that piled up in the company's warehouses in 1999 and of the more than US $100 million in lost Halloween sales that year have been any different had close executive board-level oversight of the infamous enterprise resource planning (ERP) initiative taken place?

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has been on the IT buzzword bestsellers' list for as long as any other phrase I can remember. Over the past 10 years, there have been prominent examples of enterprises that have successfully implemented SOAs and have achieved substantial advantages, including reduced costs and improved competitiveness. Unfortunately, such examples are not commonplace because implementing a successful SOA is difficult. However, when successful, the promise and business benefits of SOA are undeniably compelling.