I was fortunate enough to be invited to ILOG’s DIALOG 2008 Conference about a month ago. I have to say there was a true sharing of ideas. As a business rules management company ILOG services a lot of industries outside of mortgage, but nonetheless all the buzz was about the business impact of service-oriented architecture.
Sandy Carter, VP of IBM service-oriented architecture and websphere strategy, channels and marketing talked about some research done by her firm that sought to decipher what was top of mind when it comes to technology among 1,000 CEOs surveyed. The answer was innovation. Ms. Carter argued that SOA must play a crucial part in any attempt to innovate.
According to IBM research 87% of the CEOs in the survey said there has to be dramatic change in their respective industries. Further, 78% said innovation requires a better alignment between business and IT. Ms. Carter argued that SOA was not about technology, but rather about bridging the gap between business and IT.
In making the case she shared a story whereby a prominent CIO told her, “We knew the business had to change but we poured cement over our processes and services so it took us two years to change. In fact, Ms. Carter said most long implementations fail because of the technology mess companies have accumulated and the fact that they don’t understand how any given change will impact the enterprise as a whole. In the graphics provided below by Lydian Technology Group the advantages of SOA over custom links are clear.In talking about the best SOA approach Ms. Carter recommended that a single department be isolated and automated first and then the company should extend that approach throughout the enterprise from there. “Once you’re end-to-end you can use SOA to transform your business,” she said.
“SOA and Web 2.0 can allow a company to create a platform that enables dynamic content creation and distribution. You’re giving power to the business person to create mash-ups and a more tailored system. Essentially SOA creates a mechanism for change,” Ms. Carter noted.
While SOA won’t cure cancer or bring about world peace, it does allow for an institution to get a better view into their processes. And when you have a better view into the process you can change quicker and not be held back by one or many systems that will try to dictate how the business should run. The business should decide how the business is run, not the technology.
