Multi Channel Retailing - Putting the Customer First - Part 4 - I thought SOA was just an IT thing!

From an IT perspective, the use of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is a logical fit to fulfil the multi-channel solution where core capabilities such as product, delivery, payment etc. are developed in such a way that they are created as services allowing for re-use across the enterprise. However, if the IT department is the only place where the SOA principles are adopted, then there can be no real alignment between IT and the business. Therefore, it is essential that the SOA blueprint is adopted throughout the enterprise rather than remain solely as just another IT acronym. In order to achieve this, the entire organisation must adopt SOA principles and the blueprint for this ideally is owned by the business. If the IT department alone is trusted in implementing the SOA architecture (as is so often the case), then the chances of the remaining parts of the organisation fostering the principles of SOA (and hence the benefits) are somewhat slim.