The South East Asia SOA Weblog

With organisations like the IASA (International Association of Software Architects) growing momentum in South East Asia, it is now very clear that the community of architects is set to strengthen. In the near term however, strong leadership is needed in order to guide the community down the path to productivity.

Historically in Asia we have experienced a very hands on approach in the IT industry and organizations have typically focused on delivery of basic features and functions with less emphasis on the finer points of architecture and design. This approach is a double edged sword as it not only cheapens the industry as a whole but it also lowers the value that IT brings to business.

The era of SOA is to an extent set to change this continuum but the transition will take time as the level of thinking required to design a solution from which the business can truly benefit needs top be raised. Executing on enterprise architecture at this level takes actual experience and that just cannot be taught in universities.

For businesses, the stakes are already getting higher with deregulation and experienced foreign competitors hitting the local markets in all industries. Regulatory controls can only protect markets for so long as the pressure of globalization and trade agreements tears down the borders and exposes traditional markets to foreign competition. I am not yet convinced that many South East Asian businesses truly recognize this. The days of procrastination and cheap noddy solutions are over.

It is high time for South East Asia to adopt more mature processes for evolving enterprise architectures and grow the talent pool. The cost of IT is a very small line item in the context of what it can deliver to a business… just think of the 1,2,3 and 5% improvements that can be delivered to a $2B business and run that through your ROI calculator.