Cutting Edge versus Just Average? Your SOA, Got BPM? by Mala Ramakrishnan
- by JuergenKress
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has completely transformed IT
from the time it was introduced well over a decade ago. Organizations
have been re-plumbing their infrastructure for reusability, efficiency
and gain and succeeding with it. Best practices have emerged and people
and technology have matured. We have got better at delivering on a
stable platform on mission critical applications and services.
Yet,
there is this one secret that sets some SOA customers apart from the
others. These companies grow and revolutionize their business and not
just transform their IT infrastructure. The differences seem subtle for
an untrained eye examining these organizations externally. And from
within the company, it’s a bit like an ant sitting on an elephant, hard
to differentiate between the IT trunk and business tail.
What is it that some organizations do differently that makes them succeed beyond SOA? These
organizations pull in business people more and more to weigh into their
IT decisions. They wrench understanding process over services. They
don’t settle easily when bridging business metrics and IT performance.
They anguish over business requirements not translating seamlessly and
quickly into IT. IT is not just an enabler but a pillar that
revolutionizes their business. Okay, I’ll give it to you. These
organizations layer Business Process Management (BPM) on top of their
SOA.
Think
about lifeblood business processes in your own organizations. If you
are Fedex, this would be shipping and handling. If you are Stanford
Hospital, this would be patient case-management: from on-boarding
through discharge and follow-up care. If you are Wells Fargo, this would
be loan origination. Now think about how your SOA ties into your
business process.
Can you decouple your business processes from your SOA so that the two can transform and change independent of each other?
Can
you forecast success metrics for your business process, make the
changes across the board and then look back over different periods of
time to see if you are on track?
Are your critical business
processes entrenched in the minds of few experts in your organization or
does everyone from the receptionist to your enterprise architect to
your CEO understand what they can do to revolutionize it?
Business
Process Management is a superset of SOA. It is the process of getting
your business to articulate business value and metrics and have it
implemented in IT without any loss in translation. It is the act of
extracting the business process from the minds of experts and IT
applications in your organization and valuing them as assets for
performance and gain. BPM is stepping outside your SOA and moving your
organization to the next level of innovation.
Oracle is
accelerating BPM across industries with the latest launch. Join us to
understand how BPM can give your organization a cutting edge over your
SOA.
SOA & BPM Partner Community
For
regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA
& BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.
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