PARIS & NEW YORK, June 6, 2006--As they enter into a new era innovation, businesses and governments are expecting that Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) will help them transform their business models, according to a global survey of more than 1000 attendees at SAP Sapphire Orlando and SAP Sapphire Paris. According to pulse surveys conducted by Capgemini, a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing, organizations will, on average, increase the percentage of applications run on SOA by 20% over the next three years. The top reasons for utilizing SOA include innovation (30%), compliance (28%) and the speed of change (26%).

The surveys conclude North American organizations expect to increase their adoption of SOA at a faster pace than European organizations. While the majority (67%) of North American respondents suggest they will push for their organizations to run between 20% and 60% of their applications on SOA-based technology in three years, the same percentage (67%) of European respondents look to run only up to 40% of their applications on SOA-based technology.

Service Orientation defines systems as orchestrations of small, highly granular and flexible services, rather than inflexible and monolithic applications. And although a majority organizations plan on running between 20-60% of their applications on SOA in three years, more than 1/3 of respondents (35%) do not fully understand the concepts of SOA. While organizations understand the need for SOA, they rarely have a deep knowledge of its specific uses or needed technology. Attendees expect to deal with several dozen (42%) services in the forthcoming years, as opposed to several hundred (24%) or several thousand (3%).

"This survey demonstrates that SOA is seen as a strategic lever to drive innovation and business model transformation," said Andy Mulholland, Global Chief Technology Officer for Capgemini. "Organizations are moving from assessing the possible benefits of SOA to trying to understand how to implement and run SOA."

Globally, organizations are recognizing that SOA can improve both the top and bottom lines. A similar survey conducted at Oracle OpenWorld last year, showed that organizations overwhelmingly (40%) believed the number-one benefit of SOA would be cost reductions. This year, respondents have learned to innovate with SOA, with a majority (54%) indicating they now believe the top benefit they will attain from SOA will be increased flexibility to the business. The perception of SOA has evolved from a technology advancement to a transformational approach that can improve an organization's business model.

"SOA has ushered in the end of business as usual," said Ron Tolido, Chief Technology Officer for Northern Europe for Capgemini. "We have experienced high success rates in planning exactly where and how to use services to deliver business value."

Other key findings from the Capgemini pulse survey at SAP Sapphire:

-- The top benefits from utilizing SOA include increased business flexibility (54%), lower software integration costs (26%) and better alignment of IT and business goals (15%);

-- The biggest obstacles to utilizing SOA are a lack of understanding (37%), difficulty in justifying ROI of SOA projects (22%) and shortage of skills to run an SOA (19%);

-- While nearly half (45%) of attendees say business intelligence to be their number one priority, another (30%) suggest SOA will be their number one priority.

About the Capgemini Group

Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services, has a unique way of working with its clients, which it calls the Collaborative Business Experience. Through commitment to mutual success and the achievement of tangible value, Capgemini helps businesses implement growth strategies, leverage technology, and thrive through the power of collaboration. Capgemini employs approximately 60,000 people worldwide and reported 2005 global revenues of 6.954 billion euros. More information about individual service lines, offices and research is available at www.capgemini.com.

Contacts 
Capgemini
Jonathan Blank, +1 917-934-8842
jonathan.blank@capgemini.com