Universities and colleges face the challenge of accelerating technological change – this is where we can help. Maven provides expertise in organisational and technological change for Higher Education in the UK. Sample client activities include:

• Strategy review and development
• IT architecture - moving to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in Higher Education
• Business process discovery and modelling
• Technology selection, from solution conception through Request for Proposal/Tender (RFP/RFT) and technical evaluation
• Development and Deployment support

Maven recently contributed this article to MiddlewareSpectra.

From the conclusion:

SOA may not be entirely new. But, arguably, understanding it has now reached a maturity level that justifies the attention it receives.

Nevertheless it is important to be aware that introducing an organization-specific SOA is a long-term course of action. It is a course that requires changes across the organization in both IT and business constituencies and, ultimately, results in an overhaul of both application solutions and business processes.

To realize the full benefits of SOA requires an extensive commitment to change that will last for many years before SOA fully achieves the status of 'business as usual'. Fortunately wholesale change is not required in order to begin this change programme. Obtaining early benefits is possible - and such benefits will initially be found in areas such as improvements to integration along with efficiencies for in-house and bespoke application development solutions.

To achieve the full expected benefits of an SOA strategy requires a commitment to process improvement that extends beyond IT systems and into the heart of the organization. In addition application vendors must be pressured to continue to update their applications solutions and so improve their role as service providers. In the meantime hiding legacy, non-SOA solutions behind service facades offers a means to advance.

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