With economy in crisis, IBM SOA strategist Carter sees business processes under scrutiny

report by  Jack Vaughan, SOA News.

Business processes in organization are under new scrutiny in the midst of the ongoing world economic recession, IBM’s Sandy Carter, VP for SOA and WebSphere Strategy, this week told an audience at a meeting of the SOA Consortium in Washington, D.C. Some of that process scrutiny could lead to greater energy savings in IT and other parts of companies, she suggested.

Companies are beginning to look more closely at what they define as ‘cost,’ Carter indicated.

“As they break away their processes, companies are optimizing on more than one variable,” she said. Carter cited an example of potential energy savings from the supply chain – and the food chain.

“A carrot in the U.S. typically travels 1,500 miles before it gets to your plate,” she noted. “It’s ‘efficient’ but it is not the greenest way to do things.” Clearly, the ‘carbon cost’ of all that travel could be considered too. report.