Can a dose of SOA relieve tension?

Quote of the week:

"[Independent business units] are constantly seeking to diverge in order to meet the specific needs of their customers. At the same time IT continues to work towards increased centralization.As you can imagine, this is creating some tension.... Is SOA the way that this increasing tension might be relieved in many organizations?I doubt IT is going to give up working towards standardization and cost savings and I know that if business units feel their customers are not being served by what IT is providing, they are going to continue pushing for autonomy.If not SOA, how is this tension going to be resolved?"

- Robert Swanwick