Kristin Weller

Every emerging technology moves through predictable phases of adoption. Throughout these phases there are equally predictable signposts indicating whether the new technology will take root in the mainstream, or be relegated to the sidelines. No clearer sign of an innovation's merit can be found than when leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors begin tapping into that technology's promised capabilities. The evolution of Web services and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) have risen from once being considered bleeding-edge technologies to forming the strategy cornerstones of today's leading ERP vendors. But the reality is that the ERP vendors, too, are at an early stage of adoption. The initial strategy is to use Web services to move away from their traditional monolithic architecture by exposing component business processes as Web services. This concep... (more)