Introducing Web services will be worth the effort, once early
hurdles have been crossed.
Web services - the technology standards that allow any application
to connect to any other - are ready for use inside your business.
But there are issues to iron out before they are secure and
reliable enough to run core processes. There are three major
challenges.
Risk: the real value of Web services lies in flexibility and
openness. But these are also the biggest weakness. Security, trust
and privacy issues need to be sorted out before Web services can be
relied on to transmit vital information.
Work on encrypting XML (the common language at the heart of Web
services) is well under way. This will allow the creation of
digital signatures and other security measures.
But other reliability issues - including the development of
suitable service level agreements - still need to be addressed. IT
analyst Gartner says that these issues will be resolved between
2004 and 2007.
Accountability: Web services make it possible to build a
single business process out of components supplied by a number of
different companies.
This opens up opportunities but also raises the question of who is
responsible if the business process goes wrong New,
inter-organisational positions of accountability therefore need to
be created to cover business processes from start to finish.
Deeper integration standards: the basic Web service
standards that allow different applications to talk to one another
have already been established. The next step is to create further
standards - for the ways applications actually use the information
they transmit to one another.
Take, for example, an order system and an invoicing system: current
Web service standards allow them to exchange data but for the two
systems to really work together automatically, further standards
are needed that specify how an invoice should be structured or what
information needs to be given in an electronic order.
The commercial and legal framework: Web services give
companies the tools to change their businesses completely but they
do not provide a blueprint for what the new structure should look
like. Because Web services allow companies to collaborate more
closely, they will increase knowledge sharing.
The intellectual property and other legal issues that this will
create definitely need to be tackled.
Web services are still evolving. To make the most of the technology
your implementation strategy should follow this evolution.
First, it's important to build a long-term strategy. This should
then be implemented incrementally, bearing in mind:
- Which areas of the business would benefit most from the
increased flexibility offered by Web services?
- Which parts of the business are in need of deeper
integration?
- What trading relationships are ripe for enhancement and/or
expansion?
The use of Web services should start inside your business - where
risk can be controlled and minimised. Take an example from the
public sector. Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust is using the technology
to allow nurses and other clinical staff to send stock
replenishment orders to their purchasing system using handheld
Pocket PCs. The new system, Wander, is expected to free up nursing
time equivalent to 25 full-time members of staff, equivalent to the
staffing requirement for a new ward.
As your internal Web services applications begin to become
established, you can start using Web services with your trading
partners. Begin with existing partners that you know well and
trust.
Once security and service quality standards are established it will
be time to use Web services to link to new partners and suppliers,
to outsource non-core processes to third parties (via Web services
linkages), and to deliver new kinds of service to customers.
When they have become commonplace, in only a few years' time, Web
services will allow your company to plug in to any supplier's
systems at the drop of a virtual hat.
Web building
2002-2003
Build a business-focused strategy, and begin internal Web services
deployment
2003-2005
Connect to existing partners and
suppliers
2005+
Connect to new partners, outsource processes to
third parties, and offer Web services to customers.
Andy Tinlin is managing director at Atos KPMG Consulting.E-mail andy.tinlin @atoskpmgconsulting.co.uk