Suppliers may try to talk up a storm, but few companies are showing
a real interest in using Web services to communicate with business
partners beyond corporate boundaries. Andy Favell finds out
why.
Web services technology has been touted as something that will
change the face of corporate IT systems. Based on common data
transfer standards, it will link any applications and IT systems,
and revolutionise company supply chains and communications with
customers, its proponents claim.
Last week software supplier Borland published a survey which showed
that 80% of its customers were either using or planning to use Web
services in the near future. But the bold claims of suppliers have
engendered only confusion and apathy among the potential user
community, which argues that Web services will play a more limited
role in corporate IT systems for the foreseeable future.
At General Electric Global eXchange Services (GXS), chief technical
architect John Radko is enthusiastic about Web services but
believes that the hype surrounding the technology is excessive. GXS
is using Web services to improve communication with suppliers in
its vast supply chain.
GXS translates documents written in different protocols, such as
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Secure File Transfer Protocol
and Electronic Business Extensible Markup Language (EBXML) into
protocols or formats that will be understood by the systems of
customers and suppliers.
Radko believes that businesses will continue to stitch together
important applications internally or externally using proprietary
code, integration software such as Tibco or Webmethods, or with
conventional links such as EDI. But they will use Web services for
"little stuff" - things that did not previously justify the expense
or the security of such methods.
There is a perception that companies need to replace their existing
IT infrastructure to make better use of Web services technology, or
swap suppliers on the strength of their Web services offering.
Radko believes this would be a mistake. "I am not going to throw
out my message-queuing software or my database or my File Transfer
Protocol and we are still going to go ahead with EBXML," he said.
Other large companies have virtually ruled out using Web services
technology. At Debenhams, director of customer management Simon
Hawkes thinks it is unlikely that the company will use Web
services.
Where UK organisations are using Web services it is in a limited
role. They are wary about using Web services to support the
distribution of commercially sensitive data outside of the business
to suppliers and customers.
Utility giant Powergen, for example, has written a Web services
interface between its trading systems and the desktop using the
Borland J-builder tool kit. Web services will be restricted to new
application development and, like GXS, there is no intention to
replace any of the existing IT infrastructure, or to replace
existing systems integration which is based on Tibco software.
This is a far cry from the Web services marketing visions, which
Powergen's senior developer Andrew Bennett described as a "mixture
of rhetoric and sci-fi". Bennett also believes that big players
such as Microsoft and IBM have a lot of work to do addressing
standards for data exchange, technical security and real-world
issues such as non-repudiation before companies will buy into the
vision.
"In the meantime, companies like Powergen will continue to use Web
services for in-house integration of systems, and eventually
between [established] industry partners," said Bennett.
The software community, however, continues to give users mixed
messages about the practical application of Web services for users.
One model is to use Web services as a patchwork of Internet-based
services from different suppliers. Often this is presented as the
"virtual" organisation, with billing, customer relationship
management and sales ledger all seamlessly integrated.
Analysts are not enthusiastic. "The marketing notion seems to be
that rather than buying an application you're going to collect
thousands of Web services, wire them up and watch it all work,"
said Andrew Ball, industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "It's
nonsense."
The second vision for Web services, floated by IBM and other
suppliers, is as a vehicle to automate company procurement and put
the whole process online. Company IT systems will choose suppliers
or software applications automatically from a vast Internet
directory based on UDDI (the Universal Description, Discovery and
Integration specification).
However, Forrester analyst Laura Koetzle said she doubts whether
companies will drop the system of using long-established and
well-vetted suppliers in favour of a system of "promiscuous
partnering".
Many more things are needed to make this work than just a common
way of presenting data, she said.
But suppliers have begun to tone down marketing visions. The
problem, Koetzle believes, is that mass marketing - Microsoft's
.net Web services vision has been advertised on prime-time TV - is
seen by business people who do not understand the technical
implications.
Suppliers acknowledge that where Web services deployments are
taking place they are generally within organisations and, where
they are outside they are, and will continue to be, between
established partners, at least for the time being.
Microsoft's .net business manager Peter Bell admitted that the
company has failed to explain the benefits of Web services clearly
enough. But he is convinced that Web services will change the way
companies use technology and how they choose suppliers.
Alan Chambers, IT consultant at IBM Software, said companies will
gradually become more adventurous in their use of Web services.
"Just as the rapid growth in the Web a few years ago rapidly drove
the need for powerful search engines, so, as Web services become
more widespread on the Internet, the need for a Web services
directory such as UDDI will increase." This will enable firms to
find Web services that meet specific criteria to be identified, he
said.
Many IT managers - and suppliers - would struggle to explain what
Web services technology involves, let alone its uses, and it has
yet to make much impact on IT departments. However, the technology
does offer important potential benefits, particularly in data
integration between systems.
The consensus is that it is time to bury the hype and sit down to a
serious debate about what Web services has to offer and what it
needs to make it work.
What can Web services do for you?
Among dozens of
possible definitions, analyst firm Forrester Research describes Web
services as "software that talks to other software via Internet
standards and protocols".
At the heart of Web services is a set of standards for describing
and presenting data. IT managers hope that if these standards are
adopted across the software industry it will become easier to
integrate applications from different suppliers. Web services are
being used for integration projects, usually within an
organisation. There are examples of companies that have integrated
their applications with those of suppliers, but these are rare.
Based on figures from businesses across Europe, Forrester estimates
that companies currently spend less than 1% of their IT budgets on
Web services.