Intelligent Chaos CEO Offers Insight into SOA Business Value

According to the President and CEO of EMS Consulting - Intelligent Chaos, the future is now for companies and industries looking to implement Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). “Service Oriented Architecture represents a new standard that assists the overall architecture that’s been designed to be replicate-able and reusable,” said Elaine Myrback. “And it begins to have a payback as you develop those web services within that architecture.”

Intelligent Chaos (IC), a division of EMS Consulting, has emerged as the proven innovator in bridging the traditional implementation approach to the next generation of services, leveraging Oracle’s Fusion Middleware family of products in the development of SOA.

Myrback outlined the reasons why the Tampa, Fla. based Certified Oracle Partner and leading ERP Systems Integrator is considered a gold standard SOA practice.

“Adopting the technology in the most user-friendly way is where we come in,” she said. “While the EMS Consulting side simplifies the implementation piece, the Intelligent Chaos side minimizes doing it the old way and brings in the new transformational way of doing business. And as that progresses and matures, it all becomes one.”

Intelligent Chaos brings a cost-effective alternative to investing in high-maintenance, non-reusable vendor specific ERP customizations, specializing in taking advantage of the more flexible and adaptable solutions offered by the SOA approach.

“We are really closely tied to the enterprise. We are SOA from the enterprise standpoint. In our organization we have two entities,” Myrback explained. “One is the consulting piece, which is the traditional implementation of those enterprise applications, so we know how to customize and how to implement.”

The second side of the coin takes the SOA architecture group and lays it on top of the traditional implementation. This is a solution provider that separates the experienced Intelligent Chaos approach by furnishing a vision and framework for the new tool set.

“We understand the empire so well on the consulting side, the technology on the SOA side. We meld the two together. That’s the EMS -IC approach and the experience we have on both sides. It’s very important and strategic to an organization,” Myrback said.

CIO’s and CTO’s across major industries are seriously thinking how web service technologies can assist in consolidating and streamlining internal IT operations offering savings and efficiency. Many are turning to SOA. Earlier this year, prestigious Northwestern University contracted Intelligent Chaos as the exclusive provider for SOA solutions.

“The higher education market is just catching on now. That’s a really nice market to be able to show the long-term
benefits of SOA,” noted Myrback. “Our strength is in being able to take our clients along the lifecycle. We teach them the lifecycle, we walk them through the lifecycle, and when we leave they are able to carry it forward.”

As more industry leaders begin to see the ultimate value that implementing SOA brings to the table, Myrback believes senior management, such as a CEO or CIO, are harboring differing visions about deploying the customizations and changes required for the business user.

An important aspect is getting a buy-in from middle tier management. There is beginning to be a universal understanding of the importance of SOA for the future and how it saves money in the long run. “So it doesn’t save you money your first 12 months. After your first couple of years, you’ll start seeing that your upgrades are easier, there’s less customization, there’s less cost, and less maintenance and you can utilize and facilitate the business more appropriately utilizing SOA,” she said.

Considering the rate of SOA adoption, a decision to implement the technology now versus later can mean a significant IT savings for the next upgrade and success in meeting marketplace needs. Myrback also feels it’s important to know where your wins are.

“The wins? They are most always in the user front end, where you can get creative and combine traditionally siloed
data or simply put a new face on a traditional back-end providing improved usability or intuitiveness,” she said. “Let’s get a couple of quick wins when your user community says, ‘wow’ I want more of this, then you get the ball rolling. There are progressive steps we can take, different levels of service at different pricing.”

Myrback also offers up some advice for early business transformation strategy. “Crawl before you walk. Not ready to go full SOA? Look at your infrastructure and how you want to handle it the next three to five years. Construct an achievable roadmap and start with the small wins,” she said.

To learn more about how Intelligent Chaos provides revolutionary, strategic SOA services and solutions, visit www.intelligentchaos.com.