• The durability of the application: a supplier study should be considered in order to predict the longevity of the product. We generally consider supplier-associated criteria such as maintenance and support conditions, customer references, the capital base of the company, etc.

• The technical constraints: even though the service architecture has been defined so as to abstract out the implementation constraints, there are often technical constraints that need to be taken into account from the start of the study. These constraints need to be considered when choosing the applications (and often it is better to bear them in mind when designing the service-oriented architecture in order to avoid embarking on studies when it is clear in advance that they are unrealizable). For example, if the operating system is an imposed choice (on account of the existing hardware pool), the catalog of applications will inevitably be limited.

• The use of standards: consider whether the chosen application is based on standards, perhaps in terms of data export (XML format), data storage (relational base), the man-machine interface (reduced learning time), etc. These considerations determine the potential for future evolution.