SOA vendors are racking their brains these days, trying to figure out how to sell in this emerging marketplace. For most of them, things don't seem to be going very well. At the heart of the issue is the fact that SOA is an architecture (hence the "A"), and not a class of technology. Rather than providing tools to help build a SOA, they are selling products that could be a SOA unto itself. . At the same time, the customer is pulling their hair out in total confusion.

SOA vendors are not bad people; they just need some education in the ways to most effectively sell their products. While I'm sure that most think they are doing a fine job, the sales statistics for many of these vendors is less than stellar. Moreover, they are leaving a trail of confused customers and fragmented marketplaces in their wake. These customers are my clients, so I guess I'm complaining on their behalf, but I'm also offering some education.
To that end, here are 5 things that all SOA vendors should know at this point if they plan to be successful in this emerging marketplace. Also included are some details as to how vendors can evaluate their sales and marketing efforts, and solve their problems before it's too late.

1. Make sure your product works.

Sounds like a simple thing, but many SOA vendors do not properly develop and test their products, and thus many SOA products fail when they are put into production, or even during proof-of-concept testing. At issue is the fact that, with the sense of urgency around the emerging market, many vendors push their products out the door too quickly. Thus, the products are "buggy," the customers discover that quickly, and your name is "mud." Your reputation takes a hit, and you lose the deal as well.

Developing a product is not easy, but you should never let a SOA product--which is typically built around infrastructure--out of the shop unless the product is rock solid and ready for the problem domains of your customers. Testing can take up to 50 percent of the development time and resources, when considering the complex patterns that SOA products employ, and the heterogeneous environments where they are deployed.

2. Make sure you know what SOA is.

This also sounds like a simple thing, but the fact of the matter is, most of those who sell SOA technology don't understand the first thing about SOA. They typically play "buzzword bingo," reciting terms such as "agility," "reuse," "loosely coupled," etc., and all the while they do not understand anything about their customers' issues, and perhaps not even about the content they provide.