Companies that are focusing on service-oriented architecture (SOA) are outperforming those that are simply deploying web services, new research has found.

Interviewing representatives from 400 companies about their SOA practices, IT industry analysts at Aberdeen Group found a deep division between businesses deploying web services-based applications, sometimes known as ‘SOA lite’, and those implementing full SOA middleware infrastructure.

Aberdeen identified three classes of respondent: best-in-class, industry average and laggard. Companies considered best-in-class are typically building out SOA middleware infrastructure. Most of that group view SOA applications as a good way to improve service to end users, to increase the business agility and reduce time to market. To facilitate that – and simplify and standardise their development infrastructure – best-in-class organisations have typically deployed one or more enterprise services buses (76%).

Interestingly, the drivers for deploying SOA and web services for those outside of that best-in-class group differ markedly. The other two categories of company put more emphasis on ensuring that the investment in SOA offers value for money and reduced business costs. There is also much more significance placed on the customer experience (61% compared to 41%) and on developing new business capabilities (64% compared with 39%).

Of the best in class businesses, 100% reported a reduction in application development costs, compared with 59% among those of industry average and a 23% increase among companies in the laggard category. It was a similar pattern with application maintenance costs, with 72% and 57% of best in class and industry standard companies respectively, reducing their application maintenance costs, while those deemed laggard witnessed a 26% increase in maintenance costs. The reduction in costs is however not linked to a reduction in satisfaction. Almost 90% of best in class companies saw an increase in user satisfaction levels, compared with just 14% among the laggard organisations.