3. SOA momentum gathers with new entry points

Nearly two-thirds of midsize and large corporate firms in Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) will commit to early stage service oriented architecture (SOA) adoption in 2007, with initial projects concluding in 2008. The appeal of SOA has to be tempered with caution regarding internal process assessments and re-engineering. As many corporations in the region are still struggling with managing business processes, a near-term opportunity may lie with vendors and systems integrators to aid with both re-engineering and roll-out.

4. Consulting and systems integration vendors refine delivery models to improve profitability

As vendors have been forced to over-commit with extra services to meet tight delivery timelines, profitability has often taken a beating. Consulting and systems integration (C&SI) firms will, in 2007, take a more discreet service approach to counter the erosion of their profitability through 'standardization' of these services. These services will have standard prices, fixed service level agreements and pre-defined deliverables.

5. BPO customers test drive before making long-term commitments.