The initial four frameworks -- for manufacturing and distribution, financial services, network service providers, and public sector industries -- extend HP's consulting services with industry-specific best practices, research, benchmarks, data models, and business processes that will more readily help companies in these sectors assess, design, and implement new SOA architectures. By leveraging its SOA frameworks, HP officials contend, companies can improve communication and information sharing among customers, partners, and colleagues by extracting data locked away in legacy applications and by integrating key business applications.
