Every customer wants more for less ... more features, more functionality, more sophisticated applications ... and all for less money. As VARs struggle to deliver value-added offerings with high quality, low costs and significant ROI, the realization that this is some fuzzy math equation gone terribly awry generally sets in early and often. Today this age-old conflict has finally been resolved in the form of a growing technological evolution captured in three words: Service-oriented architecture (SOA).

SOA is defined as the use of loosely coupled software services to support a company's business process requirements. Resources on a network within a SOA environment are made available as independent services that can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation.

Simply put, SOA gives VARs the ability to deliver sophisticated applications in a hosted environment, regardless of customers' networks, databases or system requirements. While this fact alone is nice, the resulting implications are tremendous. VARs can now write a series of hosted applications that meet a variety of customers' needs. By leveraging economies of scale, these applications can be re-deployed as opposed to re-written, meeting diverse customer needs with significantly less development time.

But wait, there's more ...
VARs have always been challenged by building the middleware that integrates proprietary, scripted language data collection terminals with a variety of backend databases. Disparate systems, networks and databases deployed on the customers' side often further complicate matters. This has resulted in the need for development training, with extensive resources being required to develop and deploy different combinations of middleware and applications for each customer's diverse needs. These deployment times can often last many, many months.

Today VARs can potentially eliminate middleware entirely by deploying data collection terminals built on a Web services model that is ideal for SOA. Since these applications are hosted by the VAR and re-deployed as opposed to re-written, time and cost can be dramatically reduced. It is also possible to leverage open standard programming since many of these terminals are Java-based enabling VARs to create more sophisticated applications that better integrate into backend databases.

The result? More features and functionality for less time and cost.

Higher quality, lower cost
It has often been said that you get what you pay for, meaning higher costs should create higher value. Not so in the case of SOA. Since the applications and services can be re-used, VARs can implement higher quality services through increased testing cycles resulting from deployment and refinement in multiple customer environments.

Because data collection terminals that are built on a Web services model enable seamless data integration into a variety of backend databases, VARs that compete in the workforce management ina category such as can now provide additional offerings beyond time and attendance. Thist data can be used to easily create applications around access control, loss prevention, machine control and process control.

For example, VARs can now create applications that enable only authorized employees to use valuable and hazardous equipment, reducing disruption of expensive equipment. Similarly, they can create process control applications to determine employee productivity for better budgeting and forecasting. Or, using RFID data input, they can ensure that the employee leaving the building is the rightful owner of the laptop she is carrying. Data among a variety of databases including HRMS, security management, payroll and enterprise resource planning (ERP) is seamlessly combined to create synergies -- and resulting applications -- never before possible.

Now that's what I call offering more for less.

Jana Moak is president and CEO of Control Module, a provider of data collection terminals involved in workforce management, machine control and process control. CMI's terminals are Java programmable, built on a Web services model and ideal for SOA. (www.controlmodule.com)