Small manufacturers lose millions of dollars each year due to unreliable systems and costs associated with maintaining poorly performing applications. Manufacturers are under increasing pressure to coordinate operations more closely with their supply chain partners and would benefit by using technology that ties in with their customers' business operations. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) provides a technical platform that can help build next generation business applications. This white paper will examine the manufacturing pains that are driving the conversion to SOA business applications, focuses on the relevance of SOA as a tool for business process improvement and compares and contrasts SOA product development strategies of various ERP vendors.