IT assets that cannot flexibly respond to changing business needs can compromise business agility. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) addresses this issue by providing a standards-based design that creates an integrated IT infrastructure capable of rapidly responding to changing business needs, without replacing the entire IT infrastructure. SOA projects designed to support business goals are referred to as a "real-world" approach to service-orientation. This real-world approach to SOA enables organizations to align their IT assets with changing business needs.
Microsoft Dynamics business management software greatly simplifies real-world SOA projects. Core service-orientation capabilities are built not only into Microsoft Dynamics, but also into the native infrastructure—components based on the Microsoft Application Platform, such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft BizTalk Server, the Microsoft .NET Framework, Windows Server, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Microsoft Dynamics extends the reach of business solutions and enables business agility through real-world SOA.
Enhanced business decision-making
By combining access to business services from different sources and by providing relevant information faster, Microsoft Dynamics business management software enables people, processes, and systems spanning multiple organizations to be more readily mapped into a single unified view. This helps organizations react more quickly to problems as they arise.
"We now have the visibility we need to analyze critical business data from start to finish. The bottom line is that we can sell more, do more, and protect our profit margins through this integrated real-world SOA solution."
Joe Divona, Director of Information Technology, AES2
Greater individual productivity
By providing streamlined access to systems and information, in the form that meets the needs of individuals in different roles, Microsoft Dynamics allows employees to focus their energies on value-added processes rather than conforming to the limitations and restrictions of the underlying IT systems.
Stronger connections with customers and suppliers
Real-world SOA and Microsoft Dynamics help companies integrate different systems and applications, which tightens relationships with customers and suppliers, strengthens internal supply-chain processes, and increases the profitability of mergers and acquisitions.
What is real-world service-oriented architecture?
Microsoft has long advocated a real-world approach to leveraging service-oriented architecture (SOA). The approach is focused on rapid time-to-value, and it delivers business results through iterative, incremental steps that facilitate close alignment of IT resources with changing business conditions.
A real-world SOA project starts by defining clear business drivers. Then the incremental delivery on SOA strategy can begin.
Real-world SOA encompasses three distinct phases:
Expose. Identify which services to create from the basic applications and data. Service creation can map to a single business process, or multiple services can come together to perform a related set of business functions. Microsoft Dynamics exposes data and business processes such as standards-based Web services, decreasing integration pains. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics provides prepackaged connectors and adapters that further facilitate this phase.
Compose. Once services are created, they can be combined into more complex services, applications, or cross-functional business processes. To do this, Microsoft Dynamics uses the power of SOA as a mechanism to transact and interact. For transactions across organizational boundaries, Microsoft Dynamics uses Microsoft BizTalk Server as the management layer to orchestrate Web services, controlling the flow and aggregating individual services into a larger combined solution. Microsoft Dynamics helps increase productivity through the adaptable workflow capabilities provided by the Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.
Consume. In the final step of constructing an SOA solution, applications that consume the underlying services and processes are developed. These applications—based on Web technologies (such as portals), rich clients, business applications, or mobile devices—are what drive the productivity of the end user. Microsoft Dynamics serves as a platform to consume multiple services and create composite applications that deliver excellent business value. In addition, the Microsoft Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office consists of a number of self-service applications built to plug into the Microsoft Office system and Office SharePoint Server. These solutions use the inherent service-orientation capabilities of the Microsoft Application Platform to extend the reach of business solutions to end users.
Microsoft Dynamics business management software takes advantage of the Microsoft Application Platform to increase agility and extend the reach of business solutions through SOA and business process management.
