In the last in a series of three articles on Web services, Atos
KPMG Consulting's Andy Tinlin offers 10 predictions for the
future.
The standards underpinning Web services will hold up.
All the major IT companies have agreed to the common set of
standards that underpin Web services. These companies are also
investing millions in their Web services offerings. So the
technology is not a flash in the pan - it is here to stay.
The financial services, travel, energy and public sectors will
be among the first to embrace Web services.
The beauty of
Web services lies in their ability to transfer information
seamlessly between applications. Sectors heavily reliant on the
flow of information will be first to take advantage of the
technology.
The US will not take its traditional lead over Europe when it
comes to Web services innovation.
Companies in the US and
Europe are currently neck-and-neck in Web services deployment and
pioneers are to be found in both countries. For example, in the UK,
Tesco is using the technology to link its customer-facing online
ordering system into its partners' systems. This allows the company
to use its Web site to sell a wide range of products supplied by
third parties without the need for re-keying of orders.
Web services will dramatically change the software
market.
Since Web services run over the Internet, they
can be "rented" from anywhere in the world. This means that
software will soon be sold as a service rather than as a product,
radically changing suppliers' business models.
There will be a shift in the balance of power between technology
suppliers and their customers, in favour of the users.
This will occur because suppliers are putting themselves in the
position of being held to account: they are offering not just
"out-of-the-box" software packages, but hosted business processes
that form an integral part of their clients' business
infrastructures.
Web services will become the basic building block of technology
and business infrastructures.
Just as Web sites have
become a universal format for publishing and retrieving
information, Web services will become the universal format for
providing and using applications.
Security issues - particularly personal privacy, authentication
and data ownership - will rise up the corporate agenda.
Web services make it easier to connect processes between
organisations, so they will inevitably encourage more extensive
sharing of information between firms.
For example, a Web services-enabled customer relationship
management system could be shared between a retailer and its
suppliers. This would necessitate water-tight encryption and data
security systems, processes and policies between the retailer, its
suppliers and its Web services provider.
Web services will boost broadband adoption.
Web
services will lead to greater connectivity within businesses,
across supply chains and with customers. As more functions are
carried out online, users will be increasingly hungry for
bandwidth.
We will see a growing demand for improved knowledge management,
data storage and data retrieval systems.
This will also
occur because Web services make it easier to share information
within and between businesses.
As Web services mature, they will bring new organisational
models, including the much-discussed "virtual
organisation".
This will happen for two reasons. First,
more applications and business processes will become available for
"rent" remotely as Web services provided by third parties. Second,
Web services will increase the number of business processes that
transcend traditional organisational boundaries - say, between
suppliers, manufacturers and distributors. The combined result of
these two trends will be a gradual transformation in traditional
organisational structures.
Andy Tinlin is managing director at Atos KPMG Consulting.
Real World is a regular column in which IT and management
consultancy Atos KPMG Consulting shows how the innovative use of
technology is helping companies to gain competitive advantage and
address critical business issues.