But Metzger soon realized that the effort was about more than this one application; it was an excellent excuse to begin mapping out the company’s most important business processes to create an architecture that would let IT develop and modify the supporting applications easily as business needs changed. Call it SOA or whatever you want, says

Metzger, but for him, the shift in thought that began with the portal application was a turning point in IT’s relationship with the business. "[We have] a much closer relationship with business [now]. It’s a great way to unify the organization," he says. A March 2006 survey by CIO and Computerworld shows that 77 percent of enterprises adopting SOA seek greater business flexibility.

In his eureka moment, Metzger also realized a key strategy that has guided his SOA effort ever since: "It’s not a technology road map but a business plan. Find a way to articulate the actual business process independent of any technology. That will best protect your SOA investment in the long term." Since 2002, Metzger has built a common portal and services manager to deliver the company’s various services—including credit processing, payments management and credit monitoring—both internally and to external customers.

The importance of process in SOA means CIOs should be addressing architectural issues at the same time that they consider purchasing or implementing SOA infrastructure, says Ron Schmelzer, a senior analyst at SOA research firm ZapThink. "You can purchase an SOA infrastructure, but it won’t be as useful as it can be unless an architectural plan driven by business process is in place," he adds.

That focus on process rather than on specific technology is what lets an SOA deliver on its promise of true IT-business alignment. But it also introduces new challenges for CIOs—challenges that stretch IT’s abilities in areas that have been chronically underdeveloped: process and architectural planning. Their staffs will also be stretched. In short, CIOs who expect that they can do SOA the same way they’ve always done technology implementations risk being blindsided.

Challenge 1: Deploy in Pieces But Create a Long-Term Plan

An SOA involves years of effort to get its ultimate result. That’s why respondents to the CIO/Computerworld survey cited the challenge of shifting to an SOA architecture while meeting current business needs as the top concern (63 percent).