The integration of service-orientated architecture (SOA) in enterprise systems could help firms avoid wasting money on advanced software features they neither want or need.

A report, ‘Exploting Enterprise Applications”, published yesterday [Wednesday] by analyst firm, Butler Group, suggests that no organisations in Europe ever use more than 50% of the functionality covered by their software licensing agreement.

“Certainly many organisations don’t use all the functionality included [in applications], so you can draw the conclusion that they are wasting their money.” said Butler Group senior analyst Mark Blowers.

Part of the problem stems from some organisations’ obsession with buying the ‘latest and greatest’ applications without taking the time to examine whether they fit precise business needs, but software vendor’s insistence on pushing buyers into regular upgrades is also to blame.

Blowers believes that emerging SOA software can help firms save money by eliminating extraneous software licensing costs and streamlining application delivery, but says that it needs support from network equipment manufacturers to be effective.

“SOA supports composite, rather than fixed monolithic, applications which allow enterprises to select the [specific] services which closely match their business processes and requirements,” he said.

“But SOA is not just software, there is also an impact on the network. This is why we see Cisco and others talking about putting some services, like those based on XML, into the network itself.”

Earlier this week Cisco announced its Unified Communications suite of voice/data/video products and applications based on the Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA).

The suite uses the data network as a service delivery platform to help users access specific collaborative applications like IP telephony, video conferencing, instant messenging (IM) and other resources through presence and preference information from fixed and mobile platforms.