Here is an interesting e-mail that I have just received by e-mail:
=========================================================================================================Think
Smaller
The day is coming when big SOA providers-Oracle, BEA, SAP, IBM and
others-are going to have to stop behaving as if the enterprise is all
that matters.
The latest announcements this past month illuminate this point:
Numerous announcements of SOA deployments with big companies: large
insurance firms, big chemical companies, transportation powerhouses,
and, more recently, government.
By way of footnote, BEA recently underwrote a strategy piece by the
Center for Digital Government, which looks at how SOA can make
governments more "collaborative" in reducing redundant infrastructure,
and helping them serve citizens better. Well and good. Efficient
government has long been a sell point, regardless of who is in the
Oval Office.
The obsession with big clients for SOA deployments is understandable,
even forgivable. It's easier for firms like Oracle, IBM, BEA, SAP, and
others to go after their old clients with a new product. People in
sales don't need to branch out too much, and the IT budgets of big
players are rightly considered to be low-hanging fruit.
That's fine for now, but here's the catch: IT spending is growing
faster in the small to mid-size business (SMB) sector, and has been
for years. Forrester Research pointed out that US IT spending by small
and medium-size businesses hit $320 billion in 2004, or about 48
percent of total spending. It hopped another 8 percent in 2005. IT
spending in the same year for the enterprise class jumped 6 percent.
So, small, nimble companies aren't spending as much, yet, as big
companies and governments, but the day is coming when they will. More
importantly, it's a faster growing segment, and the company or
companies that can make the small to mid-side business pitch is going
to grab territory.
Let's take that to the back of the envelope. According to the Gartner
Group, the worldwide market opportunity-that's world, mind you-of SOA
could hit $143 billion by 2008, or a little less than half of what the
U.S. spent on IT services in 2004.
It's reasonable to assume, if the success of firms like Salesforce.com
are any indication, that the company that will reach the small to
mid-size business with an SOA pitch will be a service provider with
many clients. But why should the big players cede ground to an upstart?
Think about the sales stories we've been hearing over the past year
for SOA. The enterprise needs to start small, do one thing well, maybe
make a portal as an initial play. Or perhaps revamp some portion of
their logistics management. That's a great story for a big enterprise
getting its feet wet in the SOA pool. But it's equally great at the
SMB level too. Who wouldn't want to kick the tires before they go
whole hog, after all?
The problem for the Oracles of the world is that SMBs don't generally
have millions in the bank, can't wait as long for a return, and don't
like big total costs of ownership.
If the SOA story-that companies can save millions, and don't have to
wait for years and years to see black ink-is to prove credible, then
that means there's gold sitting untouched in the SMB market. It's more
spread out, and the sales teams will have to work the phones a little
harder, but it's there for the company or companies that can take the
time to go out and pick up the business.
However tempting it may be to stand on their past strengths as big
iron, or big database companies, SOA players cannot ignore the growing
purchasing power of the small to mid-size business. SMBs want business
agility. They want reusability. They don't generally have in-house IT
departments, and they can't afford large numbers of decision-makers or
a lengthy approval cycle. Sell the CEO on it, and you're done.
The company that cedes half the market opportunity because their sales
force doesn't know how to work a particular market should probably
take a breath, look within, and focus on their own adaptability. It's
what thriving companies do best.
Sean Wolfe
Editor, SOA Pipeline
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.SOA-Pipeline.com
=================================================================================================================================
A lot of this is certainly true. Most salespeople instinctively think
it is better to target major accounts. Apart from anything else it
enhances their sense of achievement, self-importance and
marketability. And by "salespeople" I include the companies that
employ them. If you work for the likes of Oracle and IBM it is easy
to forget that companies like Microsoft have also made bucketfuls of
revenue selling to small businesses and the domestic market.
Where does this fit in with SOA? By its very nature there exists an
implicit assumption that SOA is applicable to enterprise-scale
applications. This after all is its most obvious application area. I
have in the past questioned why only the application layer could
benefit from a SOA approach. Perhaps we should also look at how smaller
users/apps could benefit. Does it for instance make sense to have a web of
apps sitting on your desktop or LAN in a SOA structure if you are a SoHo or
small company user (using XML as a common data/metadata format perhaps)?
There has been talk of using WS to provide reusable services not just
across an intranet, but across the Internet as well. This could be
either in an EDI context or an ASP app-on demand context. Where do
any of you see this going if at all?
Gervas
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