Building on their early successes with pilot projects, many companies are pursuing enterprisewide service-oriented architecture (SOA) initiatives. These longer-term, expansive projects demand personnel with proven SOA skills. Yet the challenge of acquiring SOA skills is more than just another skirmish in the larger war for IT talent.

Obtaining the best SOA skills requires a new approach. Companies must create a global development team, balancing geographically dispersed employees, outsourced personnel and expert consultants for hire.

Do not assume, however, that the old tactics of rote outsourcing, hiring consultants and re-hiring for new skills will work here. The rules have changed. Outsourcing the responsibility for IT architecture is not a sound approach. Hiring an army of external consultants is too costly. Firing and replacing the entire staff is impractical.

What is the alternative? IT organizations are choosing to "re-skill" or retrain their existing resources. By investing in skills development, CIOs ensure that information workers receive the new training and education they need to support the companyr&squo;s transformation to a service-based infrastructure.

The Will to Re-Skill
Evolving to new SOA skills is a long-term strategic investment, but one that is worthwhile—after all, it can create the right DNA for a corporate IT team. Unlike many outsourced technical initiatives (such as system migration or application maintenance), where the process is secondary to the end result, SOA requires laser-like focus on the methods and practices of creating and supporting service-based IT.

Recognizing this reality, leading companies are beginning to recognize the value of retraining for enterprise SOA. A recent survey of more than 150 business and IT executives by GCR Custom Research LLC reveals that more than 31 percent of all SOA budget funds are spent on re-skilling existing staff resources. That same survey found that nearly half of all companies are spending more than $1 million on their SOA initiatives. At that rate, companies are spending an average $310,000 on SOA skills development and training.

The focus on educational development grows as corporations extend their SOA initiatives. According to the data, 26 percent of companies invested in training for SOA pilot projects. As the initiatives grew to become cross-enterprise, 36 percent of those surveyed dedicated funds to re-skilling.

Yet most companies do not postpone training efforts until they expand their SOA initiatives. In the GCR research, re-skilling accounted for 27 percent of the budget for SOA projects costing less than $500,000. Once SOA spending reached more than $1 million, the percentage dedicated to training fell to only 19 percent. As SOA maturity grows, the cost of education falls.