Information Week has an article on ADP and the work they have done with SOA, SOA helps ADP deliver new services to customers, but the development process can be complicated and fraught with problems. Service-oriented architecture has been a huge time-saver for Automatic Data Processing as it expands into markets beyond its flagship payroll services business. Software components created to support its payroll business--such as one that records a customer's contact information--can be used for ADP's time and labor management, human resources, benefit administration, and other services.

To smooth these processes, ADP has piloted a workflow, provisioning, deployment, and asset management system that spans the entire software life cycle. This system manages handoffs among groups, synchronizes application environments, and automatically delivers software into development, test, and production environments. Among the improvements are:

• Upgrades and maintenance that previously took weeks can be performed in a single maintenance window.
• Consistency and repeatability in test environments can be achieved through the capture of existing and previous environments, enabling better use of hardware assets and people's time.
• An audit trail tracks the entire life cycle of product delivery, providing a controlled process that makes regulatory compliance as simple as a check box.
• Role-based access controls delineate workflow steps.

Source: 1

Prashanth Rai