Main News Desk

SOA tops IT spending priorities

~ while business decision-makers remain cautious over level of investment ~

October 15, 2007

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is high on the agenda as 96 per cent of UK organisations place it in their top five IT spending priorities for the next 12 months, according to research from Omniboss on behalf of Software AG. Half of these companies have it as a top three IT priority.

The survey questioned 100 IT directors across financial services, manufacturing and retail companies on their attitudes to SOA. It found the financial services industry is most interested in the technology. One in four financial companies rank it as their number one or two tech spending priorities over the next twelve months, while fifteen per cent even said that SOA was already fully deployed.

However, the retail industry is lagging behind slightly, as over half (57 per cent of the industry) ranked SOA down as number five on the priority list. No retailer had fully deployed the technology.

“This research shows that SOA is no longer being seen as just a fad, but a crucial piece of enterprise technology,” says Jim Close, Senior VP and Country Manager at Software AG.

“More and more companies realise the long-term value in updating and extending existing and proven mission-critical systems, rather than ripping out and replacing with new solutions. The financial industry has always been the most conscious about avoiding down time of business-critical systems and spending time on managing unproven technology, and consequently, it has been blazing an SOA trail.”

However, the research has also revealed that actual deployment could be slowed down by lack of business support. When asked what the main reasons for not fully deploying SOA might be, just under half of IT directors feel there isn’t enough business support to introduce the technology. A further 23 per cent admitted that they themselves may need some more education about the benefits of SOA before deployment.

“It is clear that further education is required, especially at a business level, as a lack of understanding about the benefits of this technology still exists,” continued Close.

“It is up to vendors and IT directors to address these concerns and highlight the benefits of the technology to the business community.”

About the company

About Software AG
Software AG supports the mission-critical systems of over 4,000 customers globally in Government, finance, insurance, pharmaceuticals, retail and manufacturing. The company’s industry-leading product portfolio includes best-in-class solutions for managing data, enabling service oriented architecture, and improving business processes. By combining proven technology with industry expertise and best practices, our customers improve and differentiate their businesses – faster.

Software AG has more than 37 years of global IT experience and approx. 3,800 employees serving customers in 70 countries. The company is headquartered in Germany and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE 0003304002 / SOW). Software AG posted total revenues of €483 million in 2006.

Contact details

For further information, please contact:
Steven George or Tulna Shah at LEWIS
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7802 2626
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7802 2627
softwareaguk@lewispr.com
Internet: www.softwareag.com

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