As a business leader, there is no way you can close your eyes and ears to a discussion about web services.  However, like many other emerging technologies, the definition of web services keeps evolving and providers of web services still have a lot of flexibility in defining what web services are.  As a management consultant, however, I wanted to understand what web services are from the perspective of a non-technology person and what kind of role can they play for a business, and what should a business leader look for before implementing them.  

As a part of my research efforts, I did some serious background research and attended a panel discussion on web services moderated by Chris Greendale, General Partner at Kodiak Venture Partners.  Other panel members included Kevin Bedell, Editor-in-Chief of LinuxWorld, Bob Kothari, Vice President & General Manger (East) at ICG Commerce, and Jim Moskun, Founder of Mindreef.  

What are web services?

A web service is a way to provide a business functionality over the Internet using a protocol that makes it portable, interoperable, and not tied to any one vendor.  This is the reason why it is so useful and is creating so much buzz.  Right now web services are used primarily as a means for businesses to communicate with its partners without intimate knowledge of each other's IT systems.  A lot of IT problems happen because two different computer systems (sometimes within the same firm) just can not talk to each other.  Web services make that possible since they share business logic, data, and processes through a programmatic interface across a network.  Web services allow different applications from different sources to communicate with each other without time-consuming custom coding.  That is why web services are sometimes also called application services because they are so application oriented. 

Why should you be thinking about web services in your business?

Primarily for two reasons (1) better communication with your business partners which has a direct correlation on cost of doing business (2) no need to invest in technology/infrastructure changes so that you could simply communicate with your partner.  Since web services are still evolving, early indicators are that major uses in the early stages will be in integrating disparate web based applications, services, and devices with back-end systems.  This type of integration will enable your IT department to make your IT system less complex, leverage existing IT infrastructure, and by being able to talk to a variety of hitherto incompatible system, produce tremendous efficiencies.