"You have to have enterprise architecture and goals about how you want processes to function -- where you want to be in a year's time. It comes down to business aspirations, operating principals, and rolling that into a [strategy], of which SOA will be a part," Brown said.

SOA creates return on assets via systematic reuse, Brown said.

Although the idea of reuse is not new, he added, "what SOA does is change it from a technology problem to a business problem."

A common language

A key benefit of an SOA approach is that it creates a common language between technology and business people, Brown said.