Integrating heterogeneous IT systems: a standards based approach using SOAP

Integration architectures are often found where large investments in software systems lead to heterogeneous IT landscapes. Existing application components cannot be easily replaced without huge effort, but recently standards and technologies for interoperability are evolving. This paper presents a SOAP based software architecture for the integration of interconnected, heterogeneous IT systems, discusses key solution concepts and our experiences from realizing such architectures. SOAP services are used together with existing middleware solutions in realizing a case study from the field of electric utilities, where the main business drivers for integration are the optimization of work processes to reach higher efficiency.