Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
SOA and BPI
SOA and BPI are two of the buzzwords of the new millennium. SOA is for service oriented architecture, the practice of using enterprise services to abstract complexity in IT systems. BPI is for business process improvement, or the opportunity to refine or reinvent business processes to make an organization more effective. While these two buzzwords would seem to make unlikely bedfellows, they are inextricably linked and SOA is a key enabler in propelling BPI initiatives within an organization.
IT systems have grown up over the years, mirroring fragmented business processes. A process is developed to do a specific task and a system is developed to meet the needs of that task--but no other. As more and more processes were independently developed, so were systems to support them. This severe systems fragmentation was first observed in the mid-1990s, when business process re-engineering initiatives emerged in corporate America to streamline large business processes such as supply chain, purchasing and HR.
However, the difference in the 1990s versus today was that the strategy to have systems simplification was one of ”rip and replace”, where legacy systems would be retired and new ones brought online to support re-engineered business processes. This is the era where mammoth ERP systems like SAP and Bahn made their names and claimed …
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