Julie,

A 'Service' is a piece of technology that provides a capability without
having to know anything about the thing that uses it.  The service specifies
an interface and as long as the client (or customer of the service) abides
by that interface it will work.  An analogy often cited is that of a CD
player.  The CD player is a 'service' for playing the contents of a CD.  As
long as the CD abides by the interface rules for content, the CD player will
successfully deliver its service.  The CD player does not need to know in
advance what kind of (Rock, Classic or Data for example) CD you intend to
play.

A Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is one in which you design your IT
systems to deliver 'services' as 'black box' capabilities which can be used
by other applications as long as they abide by a couple of common interface
standards(eg SOAP).

If you were to buy a vertically integrated enterprise content management
system (ECM) with everything in the box such as digital asset management,
records management, document management, workflow etc, then you would not be
following a SOA approach.  In a SOA environment, you would have, for
example, a RM application which can be delivered as a service to any number
of clients, say the CRM system, the ERP system, the DM system etc.

On the 'why I should give a hoot' front, increasingly compliance
requirements are demanding that RM capabilities be integrated with all
business processes.  The only really practical way to even contemplate that
is to have RM (technology) delivered as a service in a Service Oriented
Architecture.

Hope that helps ...

Cheers
David.

David Gillespie | CTO | 80-20 Software

Tel: +61 7 3217 9603 | Mobile:  +61 419 357 178 |
www.80-20.com/retentionserver

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Colgan, Julie J.
Sent: Friday, 24 March 2006 7:11 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [RM] Can anyone explain what ...

SOA (service-oriented architecture) means, in accessible terms, and why I
should give a hoot about it?  Thanks in advance!




Julie Colgan
Manager of Records Services
Arnall Golden Gregory LLP
Tel: 404.873.8164
Fax: 404.439.1811
[log in to unmask]  <mailto:[log in to unmask] >  



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