Impact of service-oriented architecture on enterprise systems, organizational structures, and individuals

In the fast-paced global economy, a corporation must be flexible and agile to meet the shifting needs of operating in an on demand environment. Aligning information technology (IT) systems using service-oriented architecture (SOA) to provide end-to-end enterprise integration and virtualized IT services is a critical step. To be truly effective, however, the SOA paradigm also needs to be extended to transmute organizational structures and behavioral practices. In this paper, we first explore the governance, economic, and enterprise challenges to SOA-based IT transformation. Next, we raise the need to redesign the existing organizational models, and we propose the Human Services Bus (HSB), a new organizational structure that optimizes the workforce and streamlines cross-unit processes to leverage the new IT systems. Finally, we discuss the cultural transformation that is required to support the HSB transition and induce the changes required in management and behavioral practices. The issues and insights at all three layers—IT systems, organizational structures, and cultural practices—are based on IBM's experience with adopting on demand methods.