Companies that transform into service-driven enterprises glean substantial benefits on both the business and IT sides for a true "win-win" and, to top it off, wind up with both sides in better alignment.

The observation is made by the head of BEA's Enterprise Business Solutions program, Mark Atherton, in the BEA-sponsored ebizQ webinar, The Value of Service-Driven Solutions, part of the Service-Driven Enterprise: The Evolution of Business series.

"Service-driven enterprises leverage information technology to redefine how they serve their constituents in the self-service, anywhere/anytime model, streamlining processes for real-time and innovating with information-driven new products and services," Atherton explained. "It involves responding to business challenges we've seen over and over through the decades, but in new and innovative ways."

The service-driven model enables strategic transformations, he continued, in areas such as service effectiveness (lowering the cost to serve customers, employees, and partners through self-service business models, spanning multiple channels, whether via the Web, PDAs, or digital media on other mobile devices, providing real-time, instantaneous access to both information and processes), service efficiency (driving people out of the process and getting into zero-touch, real-time efficiency), and service innovation (developing new and innovative services, actually growing top-line revenue and often, profitability). Service effectiveness and service efficiency are usually about cost savings or perhaps differentiation, Atherton added, while service innovation is really about driving new areas of income and top-line growth.

Atherton spiced up the presentation with numerous examples of companies that are benefiting from the service-driven approach using the company's WebLogic platform. Interestingly, he also spoke about how BEA has been transforming it's own architecture to become service-driven, and the benefits BEA has realized.

He told how Wells Fargo is boosting service effectiveness by enabling customer self-service with its end-to-end commercial banking services portal; The Bank of New York is embracing service efficiency and better securities exceptions management by moving to straight-through processing, resulting in zero-(human)-touch trade processing and streamlined trade management; and Deutsche Telekom is engaging in service innovation, adding revenue streams through new customer services on mobile devices.