Joe McKendrick, ebizQ's SOA in Action Blogger, is a nationally published author and consultant
with deep knowledge and insights regarding trends and developments in
the technology industry. He is a contributing editor to a number of
national and international publications and Websites including
Database Trends & Applications, ZDNet, and Webservices.Org. He also
serves as analyst for Evans Data Corp., and is lead analyst for Evans'
Web services and enterprise development management issues surveys.
SOA in Action Blog
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« SOA and Business Process Management Don't Need Each Other, But... | Main | SOA Helps Tally Up the Miles » July 17, 2007A New Chemistry Brews Between ERP and SOA Can SOA help forstall or even render big ERP upgrades unnecessary? I have heard a number of accounts of how enterprises were able to move various pieces of functionality off their aging ERP systems to a service-oriented middleware, and in the process, modernize their operations with replaceable standardized components. A pipe dream? Recent reports in ComputerWeekly (here and here in ComputerWeekly describes how one of the largest corporations in the world was able to SOA-enable its SAP R/2 system, making an upgrade to R/3 unnecessary. Don't feel too bad for SAP -- they're willing partners in this end-run around a new systems upgrade. Dow's "Next Enterprise Architecture (NEA)" is based on SAP's Netweaver and MySAP. The report notes that the SOA implementation will allow Dow to develop new systems while running existing SAP R/2 and in-house systems, which it plans to replace over the next 10 years. Don't bother with upgrading to our next version -- we'll help you do something cheaper and more effective -- how's that for vendor cooperation? Also interesting is that the SOA effort is designed to do what SOA is ultimately designed to do -- provide the company greater flexibility to respond to market changes quickly. In the chemicals sector, speed to market can mean billions. Here's a big money-maker -- most of the SOA stories I've come across so far talk more about developer productivity and cost savings. Dow tested the SOA tools by building a system for its product development department to streamline regulatory documentation. Melanie Kalman, Dow's information systems program director, said, "We have not yet quantified the results, but the team saw such a drastic reduction in time that all future products will take this route." The first five applications Dow is developing as part of NEA will provide a highly integrated view of Dow's And here's s statement for the longevity of SOA -- Dow said it expects to use NEA for the next 15 to 20 years. One more statement about SOA as a journey: Kalman said that "the biggest challenge has been getting key IT suppliers to understand that Dow is on a transformational journey. We are not simply executing a technical upgrade of the capability we have today we expect the IT capabilities to help us deliver the desired business results." Posted by joemckendrick in SOA | Digg This | Add to del.icio.us Trackback Pings TrackBack URL for this entry: Great Comments, SOA is so new and taming the concept inline with Business Process Management is critical. Our company Matrix Systems is Tackling many projects that couple Business Process Management, Service Oriented Architecture and ITIL. Having BPM, SOA, & ITIL work together makes for an efficient organization as a whole especially in IT Portfolio Management. Having no structure can be a headache especially in an organization with an undefined Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System. Matrix Systems & Technologies Inc. Business Process Management in Washington, DC ITIL Consulting, IT Consulting. Our consultants tackle tough projects all the time so let's stay optimistic about Business Process Management and SOA. We invite questions: help@msandtinc.com (301)583-4625 Posted by: Matrix Systems at July 29, 2007 06:26 AM Post a comment
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