Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SOA within professional services organizations from three perspectives: from the point of view of the consulting firm, who must understand how its business must change; from the perspective of the enterprise user, who must select and manage a consultant; and from the point of view of software vendors who wish to work with consultants to help them meet the needs of their customers.

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting for Enterprise End-Users

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SO

Service-Oriented Architecture Consulting Partnership Landscape

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SO

ZapNote: Avanade

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Web services in capital markets: The real story

XML, the founding technology behind Web services, has been enthusiastically welcomed by the financial services sector. According to ZapThink — an XML-focused industry analyst group, the pressures of integrating complex, disparate systems, Straight-Through processing (STP) and T+1 settlement are making XML adoption a reality. The Group predicts that expenditures on XML technologies by the financial services sector will grow to $8.3 billion by 2005 from $985 million in 2002.

Read more at: TechTarget

Sun, webMethods Join WS-I Board

Sun is definitely the Web Services underdog in the market today,” ZapThink Senior Analyst Jason Bloomberg told internetnews.com. “They have struggled for over a year to get their Web Services strategy (as well as their overall software strategy) on track, and there are indications with the new SunONE approach that they are moving in the right direction. With their election to the WS-I, there’s a good chance some of the political wrangling surrounding Web Services specs will calm down and vendors will finally get down to business.”

“WebMethods, on the other hand, is somewhat of a different story. The value proposition for the entire EAI space has been turned on its head by Web services, and even though webMethods claims to have been doing Web services for seven years, it’s still an open question as to whether they can drive toward a successful strategy moving forward as companies begin to adopt Service-oriented architectures. It’s also still not clear what their position is regarding their potential intellectual property claims on SOAP 1.2. Hopefully, their election to the WS-I board will help them move forward to more important issues.”

Read more at: Internetnews

Sun Finally Wins Spot On Board Of Web-Services Group

“With their election to the WS-I [board], there’s a good chance some of the political wrangling surrounding Web-services specs will calm down and vendors will finally get down to business,” says Jason Bloomberg, an analyst for ZapThink, a research firm that focuses on Web services and related technologies.

Read more at: InformationWeek

Services Boost Platforms

“If Web services are the trees, then SOAs are the forest,” said Ron Schmelzer, an analyst with ZapThink LLC, a Cambridge, Mass., research company. “Why? Because Web services without any architectural change just represent a new protocol for doing what we’re already doing–connecting systems together in a point-to-point fashion. What SOAs represent is a change in the way we build, develop and deploy applications.

“Instead of thinking of disparate systems that are connected together using standards, we can build systems that are themselves exposed as standards-based services or components.”

Read more at: eWeek

Recruiting WS-I Members from Vertical Industries

You joined the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) Organization to accelerate and encourage the adoption of Web services. WS-I plans to meet these goals by providing deliverables that assist in the interoperability of Web services implementations. For the WS-I to be successful in its mission, however, it is essential that it has broad industry representation within its membership. WS-I needs your help.

At this time, a vast majority of WS-I members are IT vendors. Whether you work for a vendor or not, it’s in your company’s best interest to expand the WS-I membership, expecially among industry members outside the IT community. This white paper is an important tool to help you in this important activity.

This paper seeks to explain why current WS-I members should recruit additional industry members, why industry members should join the WS-I, and what actions WS-I members should take to recruit new members. It should be a starting point for ideas about how you can help the WS-I grow and become more effective in achieving its goals.

SOA Consulting

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) represent an evolutionary approach to distributed computing that promises a flexible IT environment that leads to business agility. As companies look to leverage the business advantages of Web Services to address strategic business needs, they are increasingly looking to build SOAs. However, SOAs require special skills and expertise. When companies do not have such skills in-house, they turn to consultants, system integrators, and other professional services organizations.

The movement to SOAs present both opportunities and threats to consulting firms: on the one hand, there will be an increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs. On the other hand, as SOAs take hold and Service-oriented process solutions supplant integration solutions, the market for system integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus.

This report analyzes the market for SOA within professional services organizations from three perspectives: from the point of view of the consulting firm, who must understand how its business must change; from the perspective of the enterprise user, who must select and manage a consultant; and from the point of view of software vendors who wish to work with consultants to help them meet the needs of their customers.