This white paper is intended for IT executives and line-of business management. It introduces business strategies, trends, and issues related to enterprise resource planning (ERP), financial management, operations management, and human capital management (HCM) that drive the consideration of enterprise services architecture (ESA). It also examines the importance of such architecture and the role it plays in guiding organizations to create value, improve efficiency, and respond to evolving business needs in ERP - on any scale and for any industry. The document then illustrates and compares a number of deployment examples with and without ESA and clarifies why businesses are adopting an enterprise services approach to compete effectively in a dynamic marketplace.