You’d be forgiven for thinking that service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a buzzword that represents all that’s cynical about the IT industry – old ideas rebadged as new ones, over-inflated stories of amazing customer transformations, and a focus on cool technology rather than practical advice. However, survey after survey shows that the topic of SOA is high on CIO agendas; that organizations are actively embarking on SOA initiatives; and those early adopters are seeing real results.
The two decades since electronic data communication became widely available to businesses has transformed retail – from a constellation of independently owned one-off shops and small chains to an industry dominated by multinational corporations which are shaping consumer demand and emerging economies. As that same electronic communication has become cheaper and easier to consume over the past 10 years, e-commerce and POS technologies are transforming much of the retail industry again.
