Retail bank business functionality can be found through SOA, report reveals

NEEDHAM, Mass. - A newly released TowerGroup report has found that service-oriented architecture is poised to deliver the integration of business functionality that retail banks have been seeking to respond more nimbly to market opportunities and pressures.

The report, "The SOA Challenge: New People, New Models, New Ways," written by Jerry Silva, research director of the delivery channels and retail banking practices at TowerGroup, discusses the current thinking behind SOA at United States-based retail banks and offers guidelines for institutions just beginning the path to SOA.

According to TowerGroup, SOA can be viewed as the coordinated use of new and existing technologies to increase the reusability of business components and processes. This would speed up development of new applications and products, decrease maintenance costs, and more efficiently leverage legacy systems.