"Other key areas of reuse are those that provide common information views. For example, 'get customer contact information' could be a very common routine used in many places—whether billing, sales, customer support, order processing, and more," she explains.

This move once again reinforces that all routine actions consistently get the same clean and approved information. Creating a foundation of data services can thus be a huge benefit. "Those enterprises looking to leverage what are being referred to as 'mashups' will also reap benefits of having specific views formalized into services," explains Rogers.

Other tasks such as an order process or credit check routine is another common place to gain efficiencies, especially when there are third-parties involved. "It also once again frees up individual divisions from the need to maintain systems that perform such standard processes," she said.

In a nutshell, reuse requires that all the shared elements and services be discoverable, accessible, trustworthy, and able to scale to demand. "Such issues, combined with overall organizational dynamics related to support and funding, need to be addressed if organizations expect reuse and shared services to be adopted throughout the enterprise," warns Rogers.

There are more subtle forces at work than just implementing technology, however. "Timing-wise, look to SOA when you have specific problems that SOA can solve. Look at it as an organizational investment, not just an IT investment or a science project," advises Craig. She suggests you watch your back in the process as an SOA move, like any IT initiative, has to be viewed with a highly critical and business-savvy eye. Craig recommends the following specific steps:

• Before you start, make sure you have skilled resources in-house who understand SOA and its benefits.

• Executive buy-in is equally important as technical capabilities, because SOA's benefits start small and grow over time. Executives have to view that time as an investment in the future, not as a failure to deliver.

• Make governance a part of the project from day one, because "SOA has a 'wild fire' effect — once it catches fire, it tends to spread very quickly within a company," she says.

One last piece of advice: Craig says don't try to pull off a "big bang" initiative. "Start small, with a non-mission-critical project and tackle bigger projects over time," she says. But be aware that you must keep on the move.

"Static relationships are just not an option when you need to be agile and to move at Internet/Cloud/Hype-Word-Du-Jour speed," Strong says with a grin.