"A variety of challenges such as siloed back-end systems, information proliferation and popular demand for efficient online services have combined to drive SOA-related investments in the public sector," said Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Senior Manager of Emerging Software for Springboard Research.

Public sector IT spending in APAC will account for an average of 23 percent of total IT spending as measured from 2005 to 2010, according to the Springboard report SOA in APAC's Public Sector, which was announced last Thursday (July 31).

A critical e-Governance component

Buoyed by the success of SOA, the governments in Asia are viewing SOA as a critical component of their e-governance strategies, said Aggarwal. According to the report, 55 percent of SOA-implementer respondents from the public sector are planning deeper engagements by increasing their existing investments over the next two years.

The findings of the report are based on interviews with 61 CIOs and IT managers in the public sector in Australia, China, India and Singapore.

Springboard added that in countries with strong SOA momentum--including Australia, Singapore and India--SOA initiatives are typically driven by a single government agency that leads adoption in each country. These implementations typically take a centralized, integrated approach as compared to other verticals, where disparate and stand-alone SOA implementations within a single organization are often the norm.

One strong leader needed

"As government networks are comprised of multiple agencies and departments, there is a strong need for a single leader to launch a coordinated SOA approach, and this effort should include identifying the architecture and best practices necessary for users to reap SOA's benefits," said Aggarwal.

Meanwhile, public sector respondents in Asia have a stronger recognition of local system integrators (SIs) and ISVs than their counterparts in other key industry segments. Some of the local SOA vendors with strong mindshare include TCS, NCS, Ufida, Wipro and Huawei, indicated the report.

Among the global vendors, IBM leads in mindshare as a provider of SOA products and services for the public sector, although this lead is much less than for other vertical industries. In contrast, Oracle, which received the second highest number of mentions among respondents, has shown higher mindshare in the public sector compared to other sectors, according to Springboard's survey. Microsoft and HP tied for the third highest number of mentions.

The study added that "proven products and services" was the top reason for vendor selection among 29 percent of public sector respondents, followed by "vendor reputation and clearly defined roadmap," as reported by 17 percent of respondents.