Jane Thomson, MD, Softworx, an EOH company and reseller of Infor in Sub-Saharan Africa, says that in the past, most applications were “built to last”; their longevity and robustness being the most prized features. However, today, the most important thing about an application is that it is “built to change”; its ability to reflect the dynamic nature of business now being its most important feature.
“With the rapid pace of change today, the need for transformation through flexible software applications that can change direction rapidly has never been greater. Yet the structures, processes and systems that we have today are inflexible: they are incapable of rapid change. 'Built-for-change' applications like service-oriented architecture (SOA) place the factors most likely to change - process flows, policies, and services - at the centre of the application's design and provide a means to manage their prompt evolution.”
The core philosophies of SOA are interoperability and reusability through which the re-use of services and components is promoted, meaning that new applications can be quickly assembled to respond to changing market conditions or demands. With the shortening of project time frames comes a faster response to changing business requirements. SOA moves companies from a “previous generation” systems architecture based on independent applications, tightly coupled together by custom messages or processes, to a new type of architecture based on independent services tied together by a standards-based messaging.
“The cost to upgrade complex and monolithic computer systems is very risky for businesses, since the transitional phase can interrupt critical activities and often employees have to be re-trained on the new system. With a SOA, your company can move away from single-platform, closed systems, to a set of loosely-coupled Web services that bring you all the benefits of a monolithic application, without the restraints,” Thomson says.
And, she concludes, in these fiercely competitive times, without effective and agile IT systems, your business operations cannot be implemented with the level of control that is required to execute an effective business model. The true value of SOA is not simply aligned with the impact it has on IT; the true value of SOA is the impact that it will have in freeing your business processes.
Share
Softworx
Softworx is a successful South African business applications company that prides itself in being able to deliver world-class products to its extensive customer base, which includes a number of Fortune 500 companies. In addition, Softworx supports clients in industries ranging from manufacturing, retail, distribution and financial, to supporting various government entities. The company is dedicated to marketing, implementing and providing support for its range of complementary software products to medium and large enterprises that require effective solutions to optimise their business processes.
Softworx has positioned itself as a leading provider of business applications in South Africa, specialising in end-to-end business solutions. The company prides itself on being able to deliver true value to its customers through the implementation of business solutions based on a powerful combination of leading edge products and consultancy. As a wholly owned subsidiary of EOH, Softworx has increased the number of services and products that can be offered to its customers from within the group.
EOH
EOH is a business and technology solutions provider creating lifelong partnerships by developing business and IT strategies, supplying and implementing solutions and managing enterprise-wide business systems and processes for medium to large clients.
EOH operates in the following three clusters of business units as a fully integrated business:
Technology - Through a number of subsidiary companies, EOH is able to sell, implement and support a range of world-class business applications including ERP, CRM, business intelligence, advanced planning and scheduling, e-commerce and manufacturing execution systems.
Consulting - Concentrated under the EOH Consulting brand are business units offering services ranging from strategic and business process consulting, project services, change management, supply chain optimisation and education.
Outsourcing - EOH offers comprehensive maintenance and support of client's IT infrastructure and applications through the rendering of full IT outsourcing, application hosting and managed services. In addition, EOH offers full business process outsourcing services.
EOH has a presence in all major centres in South Africa and operates in the rest of Africa.
Editorial contacts