Web services - challenges for users

The uptake of web services depends on lots of things but users seeing some return on their early investments is key. And that's harder than many realise, writes Tony Hallett...

Web services may not be the most widely understood concept in IT but even those with just an inkling of what web services promise know they're about making business processes mesh together more effectively.

While all the big IT vendors are well aware of this - and are predictably jostling for position on what is still very much a starting line - users are left in a quandary: They want to move forward yet they want to see a return on investment as they do so, all while not upsetting partners.

At this week's EEMA conference on web services, this was demonstrated clearly at the governmental, vendor and user levels.

EU Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society Erkii Liikanen made some basic points but, nevertheless, points worth repeating. Prosperity is directly linked to worker productivity and improving productivity to a large degree depends on ICT investment, he said.

"The bubble has burst but the fundamental argument for investment in ICT is still there," he said.

Assuming web services technologies can achieve that - by linking together all types of applications and processes over the internet using several key standards - we can see why every vendor worth their salt is saying they have seen the light.

But users are learning lessons the hard way. Colm Bermingham, project manager at Ireland's tax gathering body the Irish Revenue Commissioners, paints a picture of that central body having to fall in line with the expectation of those they work with - in its case tax payers and the accountants that file for them.

On the web services technology that could be implemented, he said "We couldn't use any sticks. We had to use carrots."

But even then, when the technology was properly used, Ireland's revenue service heard a common comment from tax-payers. "It was a case of 'You say I shouldn't see it, should I? So why should I pay for it?'," he said - which of course brings us back to the necessity for web services making interactions more efficient and affecting bottom lines, so no premium has to be charged for using them.

In a similar vein, just this week the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) admitted it must use open XML standards - the same standards that should be at the heart of true web services - to connect to various suppliers. A proprietary purchasing system just wouldn't cut it, it seems - in line with Bermingham's line about carrots and sticks.

And the companies that find themselves inbetween users and big vendors frequently hitting the headlines for arguing about standards - think AOL Time Warner, BEA, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Sun - know that there are arguments to be won in IT departments.

Speaking with reference to a recent implementation at a mobile phone operator, Raymond Danton, managing principal at HP EMEA enterprise integration practice, had the following advice: get the business people at an organisation involved early in any project and ensure the IT people are familiar with both the web services concept and tools.

But perhaps it isn't surprising most web services roll outs are now simply within companies. When asked what the biggest obstacle to their success is, Sun web services supremo Mark Hapner didn't cite bickering between vendors - though there's good reasons for him not to! - but web services failing to provide incremental value to users as they invest in them incrementally.

Getting those early wins, even on a small scale, is as important as working towards full blown deployments with partners, customers and suppliers, at least for now.