Over the last ten years, the use of the Internet has moved from a small number of specialists to the population at large, including all ages and social groups. More recently, for those with access to computers and broadband, the Internet has become almost ubiquitous, with people using it at work, on the move, and for all sorts of leisure and personal activities. A new context is needed for higher education: a world in which technology plays a role in supporting people in whatever they want to do; a world in which technology is flexible, responsive, and easily adaptable to needs; a world in which technology no longer determines, or constrains, what people can do. The new software-design paradigm focuses on the use of small components that can easily exchange data with each other and that can be mixed and matched. This is the essential characteristic of a "service-oriented approach." In this article, the author looks more closely at the issues to apply this approach to the higher education context. He talks about applying the service-oriented approach to the issues of cost, performance, and control. He discusses several underpinning principles as well as the benefits of the e-Framework. (Contains 2 notes.)