When Harley-Davidson's SOA is fully implemented, Haney said, he expects the company's IT department to be able to change a business process -- such as revamping advertising in the spring, when people are more likely to buy -- without having to change underlying IT systems.

"By decoupling all those applications, we can bring these [processes] to the forefront as services. We can change one, [and] do it quickly," he said.

During the teleconference, IBM touted 11 new products and 20 upgrades that officials said can help users overcome barriers of entry to building an SOA. Some of the products are shipping now, and all of them will be available within six months, IBM said.

Bob Berckman, assistant vice president at The Pep Boys, said the Philadelphia-based auto parts and repair company has been working with IBM for two years to replace legacy business applications at its 593 stores with an SOA built using WebSphere Application Server and the WebSphere broker for enterprise messaging.

The company has replaced some individual pieces of its infrastructure -- such as a point-of-sale application -- while keeping other legacy business applications running smoothly by using a Web services-based integration layer, Berckman said. The Pep Boys is now installing new inventory software without affecting the point-of-sale application, he added.