Information Technology Reference
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Exploratory Case Study Research on SOA Investment
Decision Processes in Austria
Lukas Auer
1
, Eugene Belov
2
, Natalia Kryvinska
1
, and Christine Strauss
1
1
Department of Business Administration, University of Vienna,
Bruenner Strasse 72, A-1210 Vienna, Austria
{lukas.auer,natalia.kryvinska,christine.strauss}@univie.ac.at
2
FH Wien University of Applied Science of WKW,
Waehringer Guertel 97, A-1180 Vienna, Austria
eugene.belov@gmail.com
Abstract.
Aligning information systems to financial key performance indicators
and measure its returns has become one of the most important topics over the
last years. However, despite the growing investments of many corporations into
IT in general, an increasing number of questions and concerns have been arising
to the effectiveness of these investments and their payoffs. Hence, an evaluation
of an enterprise's IT architecture, as a part of IT investments, has been increas-
ing its role throughout organizations worldwide. Numerous conceptual studies
and tools to predict the business value of IT/SOA investment portfolios are
being offered; nevertheless most of them substantially lack accuracy. For this
purpose, we empirically investigate the application of SOA investment criteria
in large Austrian corporations, which will be realized through a multiple case
study collection reflecting current investment strategies and measurements.
Keywords:
Business Value, IT, Empirical Study, Service-Oriented Architecture
(SOA).
1 Introduction
The business value of information technologies in general and the adoption of different
enterprise IT architecture paradigms in particular have been the cause of discussion for
both academics and practitioners for ages [1, 2]. A particular challenge IT departments
have been facing during the last several years is the question of how to measure the
value of service-oriented architectures (SOA).
The enterprise architectural model
called SOA can be defined as a
computing paradigm that utilizes services as the basic con-
structs to support the development of rapid, low-cost and easy composition of distributed appli-
cations even in heterogeneous environments [3]
. However, IT infrastructure maintenance
requires substantial financial resources; hence benefits should outweigh the costs and
suffice expected returns. It is often argued that enterprises which made substantial
investments in IT projects are often dissatisfied with their return on IT investments
[4], as value assessments are frequently conducted inefficiently, using improper or
not comprehensive methodologies, or are completely abandoned [5]. The challenge
of whether or not to pursue SOA as a key element of a company's IT strategy was
