Sandy Carter keynote: The New Language of Business—SOA and Web 2.0
Sandy Carter, vice president, SOA and WebSphere Strategy, Channels and Marketing for IBM
Sandy Carter is responsible for driving IBM’s cross-company, worldwide SOA marketing initiatives. She is considered an expert in the SOA field and is author of The New Language of Business: SOA & Web 2.0.
Innovation that matters to CEOs:
- Extend the ability to collaborate inside and outside
- New innovative business model and processes
- Leverage information for business optimization
Most CEOs are looking for change at a dramatic level. The change needs to be at the level of both business and IT in order to have a significant effect.
This is where service orientated architecture (SOA) comes in. SOA differs from other technologies in that it’s service-oriented: SOA implementation is as much about business as technology.
This need for change has lead to the development In the field of business analytics, there is a move from KPIs to KAIs - that’s Key Agility Indicators. IBM have developed a benchmarking tool to show KAIs for different industries. Forrester and Gartner are due to publish reports in this area.
Sandy then went on to list key characteristics that make companies agile:
Evolutionary
Change business scenarios on-the-fly using current systems as building blocks. Smart SOA is the key. Start with a single project. Keep it simple. Then extend in an end-to-end fashion.
IBM practices what it preaches and does implement SOA. From 2002 there has been a roadmap for SOA implementation, moving towards the ‘Factory in a box’ model. The key is agility, rather than cost-cutting. IBM concentrated on how quickly it could switch suppliers. This helped make the business more agile and allowed it more flexibility in negotiations with suppliers.
Business-led
Allow your customers to make their own changes. Many companies find this difficult, as it means giving up a degree of control. However, Web 2.0 is driving the transferal of power to the consumer. This is possible through the adoption of dynamic platforms and the building of web-based communities. Sandy gives the example of her custom mashup dashboards she uses to track her business within IBM.
The provision of business policies is also important. Policies should be incorporated with business rules. Policies are in business language - not logical IT language or limited to strict procedural flow. These policies, once defined, are translated into business rules.
Collaborative
Continuous collaboration of business and IT delivers value, according to recent study by McKinsey/London School of Economics. Collaborative changes between IT and business far outweigh individual business process or IT process changes.
At the employee level, there is a new ‘collaborative’ skill-set appearing. This group have both strong business and IT skills. IBM has been at the forefront of training for these skills, which help individuals build the link between process and SOA. Gaming technology is used for teaching as simulators are more effective than a classroom teaching environment. IBM has developed online simulations that have been adopted by more than 2000 universities.
Closing note: make sure you understand what influences change in your business area and act accordingly.
Tags: business processes, IT processes, Sandy Carter, SOA, Web 2.0
