Enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA), which enables companies to rapidly respond to changing business requirements and competitive market dynamics, while maximizing existing IT resources, was one of the key tech trends discussed at the recent SAPPHIRE '07, SAP's international customer conference.

Points stressed at the conference were that enterprise SOA translates to rapid deployment of new product and service offerings, tighter integration with partner networks, streamlined common processes, a collaborative work environment to leverage knowledge across the organization and the ability to empower a mobile workforce.

In the 1990s, companies combined business process re-engineering with ERP systems to achieve new levels of operational efficiency," said Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP. "Today, companies are seeking to combine business network transformation with enterprise SOA to achieve new levels of competitive differentiation.