I concur with J.P. et al, compliant to what? There are a couple of groups that have tried (or are trying) to address: what is SOA, but no consensus yet.
Looking at the standards bodies is a good starting point, but not conculsive either as the body of standards related to SOA are often competing and just too many to contemplate. But if the CRM product states that it is SOA compliant, what they probable mean is that you can access the CRM "engine" via web services. What you should investigate is: what sort of interfaces do they provide? Do they comply with industry standards (e.g. WS-I profile). Sometimes the vendor simply offers you a massive API enabled by web services, which may not really be SOA at all. At this point, you should ask them if they have a coarser grained interface that you can interface with. If you plan to use the CRM as a service, you should ask them how it would integrate into your anticipated or existing SOA architecture. Hope this helps. --cheers Suhayl --- In [email protected], Teresa Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I agree that in this context it was pure marketing speak and I shall be > leaving that claim well out of my review of the product. > > > > However, I think that the point that Todd raised was important - if an > application vendor can say "yes, we have all these services available in our > application, and you can use them directly if you wish" it could be a > valuable consideration if a potential buyer wanted to be able to pick and > choose the services that they actually wanted to use. But how could a vendor > actually claim this? I know that at least one apps vendor is now looking at > things like the OAGIS standards for 'business objects' and starting to use > these. Is this the way forward? > > > > Teresa > > > > > > _____ > > From: Mark D. Carlson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 27 June 2007 18:04 > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [service-orientated-architecture] SOA-compliant > > > > For this term to have meaning one would have to ask "Compliant according to > what defined standard or specification?". If I assert that a Web Service is > compliant with WS-I Basic Profile 1.0, that assertion can be tested either > manually by reviewing its characteristics against the published rules or in > an automated fashion using one or more tools. In short, my compliance claim > could be verified. > > > > This vendor's claim of "SOA compliance" can neither be proved nor disproved > in absence of some finite set of compliance tests or at least a widely > agreed upon specific definition. Their claim is like claiming "object > orientation compliant" or "distributed computing compliant" or "client > server compliant". It is a marketing construct and useless for any real > evaluation of their product. > > Thanks, > > Mark > > > > _____ > > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Teresa > Jones > Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 9:30 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [service-orientated-architecture] SOA-compliant > > > > I'm currently looking at a CRM product that the vendor claims is > 'SOA-compliant' yet it is also claimed to be an n-tier architecture. A > quick search on the concept of SOA-compliance brought up this article:- > http://blogs. > <http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/eai/engineering/archives/my-soa- compliant-toaste > r-and-cell-phone-7362> > ittoolbox.com/eai/engineering/archives/my-soa-compliant-toaster- and-cell-pho > ne-7362 > which was quite fun! > I suspect that the CRM vendor concerned actually means that you can > integrate with it using web services.... > Question for the group - can an application be regarded as > SOA-compliant? Or is that rather a meaningless phrase? > thanks > Teresa > > > > This Message has been scanned by www.blackspider.com > <http://www.blackspider.com> > > Click here to report this email as spam. > > > > IMPORTANT NOTICE > > The contents of this e-mail are privileged and confidential and intended for the addressee at the specified e-mail address only. Its contents may not be copied or disclosed to anyone other than the intended recipient. If this e-mail is received in error, please contact Butler Direct Limited immediately on +44 (0)1482 586149 with details of the sender and addressee and delete the e-mail. > > No responsibility is accepted by Butler Direct Limited in the event that the onward transmission, opening or use of this message and/or any attachments adversely affect the recipient's systems or data. It is your responsibility to carry out such virus and other checks as you consider appropriate. > > www.butlergroup.com > > Butler Direct Limited is a private limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 3360695. The registered office is situated at Charles House, 108-110 Finchley Road, London, NW3 5JJ. >
