Management, Governance Pose Formidable Challenges in Service-Oriented Architectures

Many Companies Push Ahead on SOA Projects Without Proper Technology to Manage and Govern Their Complexity


BOSTON, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 4, 2007 -- Lack of IT governance processes and inadequate technological tools are preventing many companies from effectively scaling their service-oriented architectures. The complexity of SOA challenges operations and development infrastructures, as well as the workers who use them, according to a new benchmark report from Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS).

The report, Management and Governance: Planning for an Optimized SOA Application Lifecycle, is based on a survey of more than 210 organizations worldwide. The survey found that lack of governance within IT organizations is the chief roadblock to running an effective service-oriented architecture. But that's made worse when an organization is working with inadequate tools to automate the management and governance of the growing number and complexity of web services and applications that fall within an SOA.

"Too many organizations are trying to scale SOA operations and development using obsolescent technology and processes," says Peter S. Kastner, Aberdeen's vice president for enterprise integration research, and the report's author. "But we found that the companies that come out ahead in managing and governing their SOAs succeed by investing in the right technology tools and realigning their organizational structures and processes -- governance -- to accommodate this significant sea change in corporate computing."

The survey found that:

--  Companies that employ SOA-specific operations automation and related
    governance software for automation consistently achieve much higher ROI on
    their SOA investments; and
    
--  About 40% of leading, or Best in Class, organizations have earned
    paybacks of more than $1 million on their SOA investments, compared with
    14% of the entire survey pool. These companies watch their application
    development lifecycles closely.
    
Management and Governance: Planning for an Optimized SOA Application Lifecycle is made available at no charge due in part to the following sponsors: Progress Software, iTKO, and Mindreef. To download a complimentary copy of this report, please visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=3944

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Peter S. Kastner Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5211 peter.kastner@aberdeen.com