Business Potential Unleashed

Business Potential
Unleashed
Building a foundation
for high performance
with Service Oriented
Architectures

“Service-oriented architectures will set new standards
of performance in productivity, agility, insight and
speed to market. With half of the organizations we’ve
researched globally already committed to SOA, we believe
it is time for businesses and governments to begin
connecting this powerful technology to the potential
performance levels it can unleash.”
Bob Suh, Chief Technology Strategist, Accenture
What is Service Oriented Architecture?
Service-oriented architecture, or SOA, allows companies to fluidly
combine existing and recent IT assets to deliver new applications,
business processes and business models inside and outside the
enterprise. The goal of SOA is to support high performance by
delivering services that can be reused across the organization
and assembled on the fly. This provides business- and technologydriven
responses to changes in the business, the competitive
landscape, partnerships and customer needs.
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Introduction
No technology advance on the
horizon is having a more profound
impact on information technology
and business processes than the
emergence of service-oriented
architecture (SOA).
The SOA era has begun and
will dramatically transform
business processes in companies
and governments.
Half of high-performing IT
organizations are committing
SOA technology to a significant
portion of their business, compared
to only 23 percent of all respondents
to Accenture’s high-performance
IT survey.
Service-oriented architectures
support the creation of composite
applications that bring together
numerous business processes
from multiple systems into a simple
user interface.
To aggressively pursue opportunities,
businesses need to envision, design,
build and implement SOAs as part
of an overall strategy of transforming
the organization.
The return on investment from
a service-oriented architecture
is best measured by the success
of the business solution the
SOA enables.
3

“The areas of consensus shift unbelievably fast;
the bubbles of certainty are constantly exploding.”
Rem Koolhaas, Architect and Futurist
From feature article, “Rem Koolhaas: New work, new positions,” by Marcus Fairs, Icon magazine, June 2004.
The impact
of technology
architectures
Information technology leaders understand Rem Koolhaas’
message. At this critical inflection point—when business and
IT are bound together as never before—technology architectures
and infrastructure increasingly govern whether businesses adapt
to change and thrive, or whether they fail.
Old architectural approaches that
once expanded business opportunities
now limit growth. Sparking
business innovation with a new IT
architecture is the next step in
achieving the renewed dynamism and
flexibility that high performers have
determined their IT organizations
must deliver.
Indeed, many businesses and
governments are tackling challenges
such as how to:
• Unleash highly responsive
business processes
• Launch new products and services
• Develop next-generation, productivity-enhancing
employee tools
• Harness relationships with strategic
business partners
• Build new partner, supplier and
outsourcing relationships, while
encouraging the use and reuse
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of IT assets and services, including
Web services.
And, as ever, deliver high
performance.
To help address these challenges,
high-performing IT organizations
offer crucial capabilities, including
a strong emphasis on business
productivity and the building and
integrating of new IT systems.
According to Accenture research,
high-performing IT organizations
focus 43 percent of their new
projects on business productivity,
while the average organization
focuses only 30 percent. Furthermore,
high-performing IT organizations
spend 40 percent more of their
budget on building and integrating
new systems versus low-performing
IT organizations.
In other words, high performers get
it. This is why there is now a rapidly
emerging consensus among highperforming
IT organizations that
service-oriented architecture (SOA)
represents the future: among leaders,
the bubble of certainty that older
architectures could respond effectively
to change has finally exploded.
Service-oriented architecture, then,
is not just a set of technologies—it is
an architectural approach that
encompasses broad organizational
and technological capabilities.
A software company, for example,
recently used a service-oriented
architecture to develop a set of
reusable services, providing access
to integrated customer information,
while breaking down business silos
that supported its financial, sales
and customer service processes.
As a result, the company improved
sales force productivity, increased
services reuse and reduced
application development costs.
In a business environment that
demands unparalleled sensitivity to
market shifts, responding to change
slowly, inadequately or

inappropriately may result in lost
sales, customers and opportunities
as well as have potential regulatory
repercussions. Earnings growth may
also be jeopardized.
Service-oriented architectures,
however, mitigate risks, allowing
businesses and governments
to capitalize on opportunity by:
Bridging business and IT. Businesses
must establish opportunities for
growth. Information technology
allows businesses to address opportunities,
build new capabilities, such
as integrated supply chain visibility,
and leverage existing services for
true responsiveness.
Improving performance. Serviceoriented
architectures enable businesses
and governments to harness
the full power of IT to improve
business performance, orchestrate
advanced business processes, and
better meet customer needs.
Driving cost reductions. Serviceoriented
architectures promote the
reuse of existing assets, increasing
efficiency and reducing application
development costs. They also enable
IT systems to quickly leverage the
most readily available code bases and
services from across any organization.
Furthermore, they improve
coordination across sales, marketing,
distribution and partner channels
and reduce costly, time-consuming
problem resolution.
Boosting ROI. Return on investment
(ROI) is there, but not necessarily
where you think. While a serviceoriented
architecture provides a
foundation for high performance,
value and return on investment are
to be found in the project that SOA
enables. Choose projects that deliver
ROI on their own terms or ones that
are required to provide competitive
gains or fresh capabilities.
Service-oriented architectures
also allow organizations to meet
IT goals. The technological value of
SOAs includes:
Reducing complexity via standards.
Service-oriented architectures are
based on industry standards and can
reduce complexity when compared
with integrating systems on a
solution-by-solution basis. They also
enable future applications to mesh
seamlessly with existing, standardsbased
services.
Enhancing architectural flexibility.
Service-oriented architectures
support the building of nextgeneration
composite solutions.
These performance-driven solutions
consolidate numerous business
processes from multiple systems in
a simple user interface.
Lowering integration costs.
Service-oriented architectures
make it possible for organizations
to develop, implement and reuse
processes that are technically
enabled and integrated through
the use of Web services standards
such as XML, SOAP and WSDL.
In addition, connectivity, data
exchange and process integration
efforts are simplified, reducing
integration-related development
and support costs.
5

According to Accenture’s research, 50 percent
of high-performing IT organizations are
committed to using SOAs for a significant portion
of their business. This major commitment to
SOA heralds an important new era in business
and IT—the era of SOA.
The new
architectural
challenge
As you read this, a crucial shift is
occurring between business and IT,
one that is making business processes
more valuable than ever. A strong
foundation for high performance is
being built, enabling enterprises to
reach new heights of responsiveness
to opportunities and threats inside
and outside the organization.
The challenge is that to fully
harness SOA, organizations must
seek short-term SOA wins with
existing applications and
infrastructure as well as plan for
long-term high performance with
more comprehensive SOA solutions.
As a case in point, a global insurance
company recently used a serviceoriented
architecture to streamline
the data entry, analysis and sharing
that supported business processes.
The result? Improved data quality
yielded better regulatory compliance
alongside an enhanced ability to
anticipate changing market cycles.
Organizations implementing SOA
today are doing so to outperform
their peers and gain long-term
competitive advantage. And they
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are driven to accomplish these
goals before any threat emerges
from companies that aim to
master the new competencies that
SOA demands.
This is why Accenture recommends
that companies and governments
explore SOA now—and, where
prudent, pinpoint compelling
business cases for SOA-based
programs. Today, businesses that
want to pursue opportunities
aggressively will have to envision,
design, build and implement SOA
as part of an overall strategy of
transforming the organization for
increased sales, profitability,
efficiency and effectiveness.
Service Oriented
Architectures are
about your business,
not only technology
Companies that innovate more
quickly—and distribute products and
services to market faster than the
competition—win in the marketplace.
And SOA means that technology
constraints will no longer prevent
companies from changing key
processes to suit business needs.
Instead, executives will be
empowered to change business
processes with greater confidence,
predictability and frequency, leading
to better agility and results.
There are important cautions,
however. To get the most from
SOA, governance and journey
management must be well integrated
into an overall approach. This is why
Accenture recognizes that SOA
requires a major shift in thinking.
It’s not enough to do an SOA project:
both business and IT organizations
must think differently.
To reap the largest rewards,
Accenture recommends businesses
and governments implement a
service-oriented architecture that is:
• Driven by strategic goals,
combining business process
acumen, enterprise architecture,
integration architecture, and
systems delivery excellence with
effective governance

• Aligned with medium to
long-term strategic objectives
• Linked by an enterprise
architecture that brings together
capabilities in new and existing
services and enterprise application
integration (EAI).
One misconception about SOA is
that it is just another way to do
integration. In fact, SOA is a way of
thinking that affects how companies
approach and deploy business
solutions or services. A strong
understanding of the big picture—as
well as of the smallest details of a
business domain, technology area
or desired future state—is crucial for
successful execution.
And it is important to remember
that people are as critical to
SOA as business process and
technology. As the impact of SOA
grows, organizations will need to
ensure they develop and hire people
who are able to think and act with
flexibility and foresight.
Here’s why:
Business process excellence
is central. It is the foundation for
successful SOA across the enterprise.
While SOA is a technology enabler
for business processes, implementing
existing business processes on a
service-oriented architecture will
not be adequate for achieving high
performance. Successful programs
should result in changes to the
business process, taking advantage of
new thought capital as well as gains
in efficiency and business capability.
Governance is critical. Embracing
a service-oriented architecture
framework means that people
across business and IT must be
part of a formal governance
structure to ensure services are
built correctly, that business and
IT are completely aligned, and that
promised savings and efficiencies
are realized, not squandered.
Journey management is crucial.
Take a wide perspective on your
enterprise and attempt to build
SOA capabilities and identify
SOA-friendly projects strategically
and methodically.
What are composite
solutions?
Using an underlying SOA,
composite solutions consolidate
multiple legacy systems, custom
programs, information systems
and packaged applications into
a single user interface or workspace.
Through this workspace, executives
and employees do their jobs as part
of a logical workflow. Composite
solutions can deliver major cost
reductions, particularly in industries
such as the upstream oil and gas
industry—or in functions such as
warranty management—where people
must constantly access numerous IT
systems as part of a highly complex
business process.
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Service-oriented architecture is an enabler of
business change, IT transformation and high
performance. As a result of our research into
high performance, Accenture understands better
than any other company what it means to be a
high-performance business.
Why team
with Accenture?
Recognized by industry
analysts as a leader in this
space, we focus on value
creation and harness deep
industry, business and
technology know-how—
including a growing body
of best-in-class processes,
tools and methods—to help
your organization achieve its
SOA vision.
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As the world’s leading management
consulting, technology and outsourcing
company, Accenture offers
its clients unbiased advice and strong
business outcomes, and can work
with clients from strategy through
execution. We foster a culture of
innovation, collaboration and
teamwork along with unrivaled,
large-scale, complex change capabilities.
We have strong partnerships
with leading technology providers
and we influence technology
development within the vendor
community based on our deep
understanding of client needs.
Furthermore, with thousands of
SOA and Web services professionals
across 18 industry groups, we support
SOA strategy and implementation
with proprietary assets and our
global delivery network for quality,
speed and lower costs.
We offer an end-to-end life cycle
delivery approach, from design
through execution and management
of a solution. Using industry-based
best practices, our SOA offerings
help clients deliver business solutions
across and through their extended
enterprises faster and more costefficiently
than traditional methods.
Applying industry-leading expertise
on business processes and composite
solution development, as well as Web
services standards and enterprise
integration skills, allows clients to
achieve integration goals and build
classes of services and applications
that provide new revenue
opportunities.
Accenture offers a full suite of
methods, tools and architectures
for the complete SOA project life
cycle—from planning to deployment.
These include the Accenture SOA
Assessment Model; industry-specific
offerings; and Accenture Delivery
Methods and Tools. Our rich
and deep SOA service offerings are
helping the world’s leading
businesses and governments take
significant steps on their journey
toward high performance.
We launched the Accenture
Innovation Center for SAP
NetWeaver and plan additional
centers with other alliance partners.

“SOA is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The end is
value—better business process, faster product introduction,
improved usability. The means is reuse through loosely
coupled applications built around real standards.”
Don Rippert, Chief Technology Officer, Accenture
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More than 300 leading organizations have
partnered with Accenture to improve
their business and IT performance through
Web services and SOA.
Performance
powered by
Service Oriented
Architectures
Examples from clients around
the world include:
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) and
Accenture collaborated using an SOA
approach to provide new services,
such as self-service upgrades and
transfers, through electronic kiosks.
The effort has also positioned the
airline to develop new applications
based on Web services, increasing
passenger choice—while reducing
handling and IT costs—through better
use of IT assets across systems.
A Leading Credit Card Provider
and Accenture implemented an
SOA to allow the company to add
new business functionality and
customers—and comply more easily
with regulatory requirements.
The solution included a Web service
that allows the company to win
new credit card holders through
strategic partner channels and add
them automatically to its fastgrowing
customer base.
A Major Telecommunications
Company and Accenture teamed
to create a messaging-based SOA to
support a large initiative to transform
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cross-channel relationships.
This functionality provided rich,
real-time customer-interaction
insight that drove the optimization
of the channel experience.
Société Nationale des Chemins
de Fer Francais (SNCF), the French
state-owned railway, partnered
with Accenture to build an online
portal to expand market reach,
lower distribution costs, improve
yield management, and drive
business-to-consumer services.
The result? SNCF’s online ticket sales
increased 80 percent—the equivalent
of US$18 million in revenues—while
saving the company US$18 million
in distribution costs.
United Kingdom Department for
Work and Pensions teamed with
Accenture to develop a real-time,
Internet-based pension estimate
service that uses a loosely coupled
SOA. Now, instead of waiting 40
days, clients go online to receive
accurate pension forecasts almost
immediately. In addition, citizens
use the popular solution to model
a number of possible scenarios, such
as early retirement.
Accenture on
Service Oriented
Architecture
Service-oriented architecture can
enable more efficient integration
and new business processes as
well as a new class of solutions
that can improve performance,
grow the business and deliver ROI.
To get the most value, approach
SOA from a strategic perspective
with a focus on business process
excellence, governance and journey
management.
In short, it is all about simplifying
the business on the inside while
differentiating it on the outside to
improve your business performance.

“Accenture is one of the few IT services
firms that has developed industryspecific
solutions based on Web services
and now SOA principles. The next step
taken by Accenture is one level up in
terms of flexibility and process intimacy,
with industry-specific solutions built
with composite applications.”
Source: IDC, Worldwide SOA Professional Services Vendor Analysis: 17 Service Firms Are Getting
Ready to Address a Fast-Growing and Expanding Market Opportunity, #33694, August 2005.
Now is the time for businesses and governments to
explore SOA-based solutions. For more information,
visit www.accenture.com/soa
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About Accenture
Accenture is a global management
consulting, technology services and
outsourcing company. Committed
to delivering innovation, Accenture
collaborates with its clients to help
them become high-performance
businesses and governments.
With deep industry and business
process expertise, broad global
resources and a proven track record,
Accenture can mobilize the right
people, skills and technologies to
help clients improve their
performance. With more than
129,000 people in 48 countries, the
company generated net revenues of
US$15.55 billion for the fiscal year
ended Aug. 31, 2005. Its home page
is www.accenture.com.
Copyright © 2006 Accenture
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are trademarks of Accenture.