High on the agenda of many organisations is the integration of their vast number of isolated information systems. Many integration technologies have been introduced in the last decennium. The technology for the coming era is based on XML, (web)services, and other standards: the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). SOA will become the backbone of many IT departments and with that it will become the information backbone of organisations themselves. All information exchange will pass through this architecture.

Due to mergers, new regulations and market changes, companies are looking at what SOA could mean for them. For some, SOA will be the basis for the automation of business processes. Others see it as a means to gradually remove their legacy systems, and others see it as a means to transform their organisation into an agile organisation – one that can adapt quicker to market changes and opportunities.