'SOA... what?' say City chiefs

Few City bosses have heard of the tech industry's latest three-letter acronym, SOA (service-oriented architecture).

Just one in 10 City department chiefs has heard of SOA, lagging well behind their German counterparts - 32 per cent of whom are in the know.

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While eight of out 10 (82 per cent) said IT plays a crucial role in helping them do their job, only half (51 per cent) of respondents in the UK said they have a dedicated plan for how IT should support their business objectives within their department, compared to 77 per cent of German respondents, according to the research commissioned by software company Ilog.

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, although more than half (61 per cent) said IT and business work together successfully in the business, 38 per cent of City managers admitted IT has prevented their department from achieving its goals.

Better interaction and communication between business users and the IT department must become a higher priority for UK financial services, if IT is to fulfil its potential in terms of supporting the overall business strategy, said Ilog market development director Julian Fowler.

IT chiefs need to show the rest of the business the advantages of SOA, Fowler said. In a time of heightened merger and acquisition activity within the European financial services industry, it is the sort of strategy that can bring so much value to banks' IT and business users attempting to consolidate and use a number of different systems, he added.