New technology does not offer a magic bullet. It has to be implemented correctly before it can be turned to competitive advantage. IBM's Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) solutions offer a business-driven IT architecture that enables your organisation to react more flexibly to changing business needs. A study by the IBM Institute of Business Value found that although most of the firms that had invested in SOA had been looking for cost savings, they ended up discovering that the actual benefits were far broader. With the right processes in place, business flexibility improved and revenue grew as the organisations were able to react to new opportunities more quickly and effectively. The IBM SOA approach treats the business as a joined-up whole rather than a series of unconnected silos. And so enables faster and more effective sharing of information. In this article you will discover an in-depth guide to how SOA could help your business and how to achieve the necessary buy-in from stakeholders, all backed up with relevant case studies.