eSolutions BEA, an authorised BEA Distributor and a leading provider of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and enterprise infrastructure software, has recently demonstrated the demand for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as an approach to shared services, is increasing among public sector organisations. The finding follows the publication of a landmark international research report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), commissioned by BEA systems, which queried 127 public sector executives.
The report investigated the opportunities and challenges entailed by using shared services in government and concluded that 54 per cent of the public sector respondents indicated that they use a shared services model, while an additional 16 per cent expected to introduce shared services within the next three years. Many leading governments and organisations among the GCC states, including Dubai eGovernment, use the shared services model by adopting BEA’s SOA solutions within their architecture.
Commenting on the findings, Diyaa Zebian, General Manager, eSolutions BEA, Middle East & Egypt said, “The report decisively indicates that public sector customers increasingly appreciate that SOA offers the infrastructure flexibility needed to build on legacy environments and adapt swiftly to change. With an increasing number of Middle Eastern organisations transferring their operations online, customers in the region are making a concerted effort to bridge transactions, enabling them to effectively deliver cross-organisational services that are transparent to the end user or customer.”
“By implementing the SOA software, Dubai eGovernment has assumed greater access to business services while improving all online services in the areas of reliability, dependability, confidentiality and security. We are constantly striving to help Dubai’s transformation to a digital economy and we believe that a comprehensive focus on technology has played a central role in integrating our government departments,” said Salem Al Shair, eServices Director, Dubai eGovernment.
The report also indicated that almost 30 per cent of respondents used multiple vendors for front and back office applications, with 17 per cent of respondents using multiple vendor offerings for business intelligence software, while 21 per cent used the same for multiple middleware platforms.
By using shared services, agencies can replace systems altogether or link disparate systems across the organisation. The survey results suggest that rather than tearing down existing IT estates or following a ‘rip and replace’ strategy, public sector entities were bridging shared services with cost effective SOA models.
SOA is an architectural approach utilized by IT that organizes the discrete functions contained in enterprise applications into standards-based services that may be combined, configured and reused on the fly to meet the ever-changing dynamics of business. This modular approach to IT can contribute to a company’s flexibility, agility and organizational speed.
“Modern architecture needs to be created so that it preserves essential processes and significant prior investments. The results of this survey conclude that BEA solutions are an effective approach in merging new and old technologies for successful integration across multiple government organisations,” Zebian added.
The EIU survey was conducted internationally and targeted organisations of varying sizes and organisational levels. Respondents included agency/ministry directors and deputies, financial chiefs, treasurers and comptrollers, technology directors, legal department heads and programme managers and officers. The public sector areas surveyed included public administration, social services, health services, enterprise support, resource management and infrastructure.
eSolutions BEA, located in Dubai Internet City, is the distributor for BEA Systems’ products in the Middle East and has been in operation since 1999. Apart from a further office in Istanbul, Turkey eSolutions BEA operates through partners or resellers in the following nine other countries in the Middle East. In addition to promoting BEA software products, eSolutions BEA offers professional services, customer support services and educational services. BEA solutions have been deployed by over 50 major organisations throughout the region with a strong focus on telecommunication, banking, Government and energy. With a keen understanding of the market needs and our highly experienced resources we have proven over and over again that we can deliver quality enterprise solutions that match the highest international standards.
A shared services model consolidates administrative or support functions (such as HR, finance, IT and purchasing) from separate departments into a single organisational unit charged with providing those services efficiently and cost-effectively. Merging functions that work well together enhances public service delivery and reduces costs.
BEA Systems, Inc. is a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software. BEA’s SOA 360o platform is the industry’s most unified SOA platform for business transformation and optimisation, in order to improve cost structures and grow new revenue streams. Information about how BEA is enabling customers to achieve Business LiquidITy can be found at http://www.bea.com/.
