In fact you have probably been using a myriad of Web services for years without even noticing.
Charles Stirling, .Net developer evangelist for Microsoft says that consumers will probably continue to be barely aware of Web services developments.
-As a consumer it is not going to dramatically change your life," Stirling says. -You will gradually get more functionality by doing less."
Web services have been around since information was first posted on the Internet, and have had as many names as the spin-doctors have been able to think up. However, there is an important change afoot, as in order to roll out the next level of Web services - developers are implementing a set of standards that are facilitate the process by which Web sites talk to each other, online and offline.
Duncan Bennet, managing director of Sun Microsystems' iPlanet, is looking forward to Web services allowing him to book a table at his favourite Italian restaurant from his mobile phone, automatically downloading his credit card details, and his food preferences. Okay, Okay so it looks more like mobile commerce--and indeed it is--but it is also a Web service, as his details have to be transferred digitally from his mobile to the restaurant's computer system.
"Web services is the answer to the challenge the industry has faced since the Internet first emerged," Bennet says. "Web services holds the promise of dramatically reducing the cost and the time involved with providing services, via the Internet."
IBM's Scott Cosby, US-based manager of Web Services marketing, has a brief insight into the emerging world of Web services, from experiences with his company's Web services pilot. Focussing on its Singaporean suppliers, Big Blue launched an aggregation site based on open standards.
-It didn't matter whether our supplier was big enough to use SAP or a small company using Clipbooks, we were able to maintain our relationship, sending and receiving contracts and invoices and consolidating the data in a single format," Cosby saus. -No more faxes or fussing about with data entry, the project produced tremendous savings, and that type of thing goes straight to the bottom line."
Oracle's business development manager for 9i, Paul Marriott, puts it fairly succinctly.
-If I was a CIO, I wouldn't be sitting up at night thinking about why I haven't implemented Web services. I would be sitting up at night thinking how I am supposed to save many and do things more efficiently," Marriott says. -And efficiency is what Web services will achieve."
First to marketplace?
IBM's Singaporean suppliers found themselves caught up in the swell surrounding the IT giant's Web services strategy, while other suppliers should be paying attention to developments in the field, lest they miss the tide altogether.
Sun Microsystems likes to capture the consumer focus of Web services by chacterising it as services on demand, however, the tail end of the supply chain will ultimately enjoy the overall benefit of improved service, whilst remaining barely conscious of the process by which the services is delivered.
For example, few subscribers to Internet-based bill presentment and payment services have heard of Sun's iPlanet, on which much of the technology is based.
SAP's marketing and alliance director, Len Augustine, sums up the Web services evolution.
-Initially Web services were no more than static information, and while it soon progressed to live updates, this process was fairly labour intensive and the information could only really move in one direction," Augustine says. -We then moved through to a more transactional and dynamic environment, which is about the stage many are at the moment."
According to Augustine, Internet users will move from a phase in which certain Web-based information can be passed between certain sites, to one in which information can spread quickly and easily across the Web.
-The final stage is seamless collaboration between companies," Augustine says.
This level of broad integration, however, is set to arrive in stages. While this level of interest from corporate giants will see many suppliers take up Web services as a necessity, others will be forced to take their own initiatives -- sooner rather than later.
-Suppliers within similar industries, or vertical markets should be looking at forming strategic relationships with their competitors, in order to form Web-based marketplaces," Augustine says. -Often your suppliers are also your competitors' suppliers, so one way or another the whole market will benefit from increased Web-based integration."
According to SAP's Gary Dean, business development manager in portals and marketplaces, smaller players should be on the look-out for opportunities to participate in public exchanges.
-They will need to look for chances where someone else has put in the sunk costs of building the exchange, and make sure they have the technology to provide some of the content," Dean says. -Within 18 months it may be too late to play."
A developer's dream
Oracle's Marriott, looks at the Web services revolution from a developers point of view.
Working with a Java development tool, Marriott wants to write applications which call on tools and services written in a myriad of disparate languages.
-I want to call on services that may have been written in a way that -- from a developers point of view -- is totally transparent," Marriott says. -I want to look for features I can integrate into my application using a huge range of tools and functions."
However, he says Web services is a small part of the infrastructure which has been built over years of data collection and collation.
-The back-end has to be strong, and the functionality compelling, then all you have to do is wrap it up with Web service standards and expose it to the Web," Marriott says. -From a developer's point of view it is great -- we are looking at a simple way to solve integration headaches."
