Service-oriented architectures (SOAs) are regarded as the next major stage in the evolution of corporate IT. They enable business processes to be molded and adapted with greater flexibility. This is very convenient for users because, although many companies already use solutions from the SAP Business Suite to cover their basic processes, some individual processes have potential for optimization that extends beyond the standard. For example, during the maintenance procedure for a utility company, a particular control cabinet needs not only to be found in the directory service but also geographically located.
