Outlook Point of View, April 2003
By Tony Roby
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PDF Help With each era of business computing—from mainframe to
client/server to network-centric—the inability to effectively integrate
software has hampered enterprises in their efforts to make efficient
connections internally, much less with customers, suppliers and business
partners. Organizations have made strides in recent years with enterprise
application integration technologies and application interfaces. Yet the
greater goal of universal connectivity has remained elusive.
Now something new has been added to the mix: the emergence
of Web services-based applications carrying built in connectivity using open,
standard technologies. Web services give organizations the ability to achieve
integration of their applications, processes, systems and devices to support
scenarios that were previously either impossible or uneconomic to implement.
With Web services, developers of business solutions no
longer have to worry about how the underlying technology components integrate
and work together. All in all, Web services means organizations can focus on
creating and delivering services to customers, employees and business partners
rather than worry about system compatibility.
Given these significant business benefits, Accenture
believes that Web services-enabled architectures will become the dominant way
in which business solutions will be built.
Powerful New Business
Capability
Architectures based on Web services are
service-oriented; that is, they are no longer defined by the technologies but
by the services provided by the technologies—services such as
revenue-generating customer service interactions, cost-reducing supply chain
integration and the increasingly popular one-stop business and government
portal sites. Indeed, Accenture believes this service-centric functionality is
the most revolutionary aspect of Web services because it makes long sought
after interoperable business solutions more technically and economically
feasible.
With this new universal integration capability comes a
powerful new business capability: the capability to dynamically assemble and
run business solutions from a number of component application services
available either within the walls of an enterprise or from third parties across
the Internet.
When integration challenges are reduced, an enterprise can
assemble a suite of services and deliver them seamlessly and automatically at
the point of need. Both an
Accenture global
survey and our experience teaming with clients on Web services projects
indicate that the measurable business benefits of Web services can be
substantial, specifically:
- Better leverage of information technology budgets.
- Reduced time to delivery.
- Enablement of new revenue-generating services.
- Improved collaboration both internally and
externally.
- Easier connection of corporate and government portals,
content management systems, business intelligence and knowledge management
applications into enterprise applications.
An exciting aspect of Web services and universal integration
lies in the fact that the commoditization and standardization of technology is
pushing innovation out to the users of technology and the developers of
business solutions. Because companies need to be concerned less about the
technical aspects of integration, they can focus on innovative business
strategies to serve their customers and reinvent markets.
Web Services at Work
Web
services success stories abound, especially in the area of portals. For
example, Telenor Plus, a business unit of
Telenor, Norway’s
leading distributor of voice, information, knowledge and entertainment,
developed an online customer self-service portal using the Microsoft .NET
platform. The company completed development early and estimated that the
overall integration effort took only half the time due to Web services.
Accenture worked with a French railway company to design and
deliver an online travel portal using Web services built on the J2EE platform.
Société Nationale des
Chemins de fer Français (SNCF), used Web services technology to
integrate sales of its train tickets with other travel offerings on its
voyages-sncf.com eCommerce site. Customers can use the site to book train and
air travel and to reserve hotel rooms and vehicles via a Web services
connection with Expedia. In just 18 months, Accenture helped voyages-sncf.com
become Europe’s second largest travel site, saving SNCF $15 million annually in
distribution costs and generating $15 million in revenue each month.
Accenture has also worked with the
Australian Taxation
Office, the primary revenue collection agency in Australia, to more
efficiently share information between the business community and government,
and to reduce government operating costs. The solution, called the Australian
Business Register, is a Web services-based self-service portal. The register
holds key identification information that 2.5 million Australian businesses
were previously required to provide every time they dealt with a new government
entity or department.
Thanks to this Web services solution, government agencies
can refer to the register instead of requiring businesses to prove their
identities with each interaction. A business can update its information online
or tell one government agency of a change and know that it will be passed on to
all other agencies. By teaming with Accenture to streamline processes and offer
self-service capabilities, this Web services approach has helped reduce costs
both for the government and participating businesses.
Web Services: One Step at a
Time
Although universal integration and the provision of
seamless services over the Web are a few years away, many organizations are
preparing by taking a practical, developmental approach to their Web services
adoption. Those who take a “wait-and-see” attitude may be at competitive risk.
To best prepare to compete in a Web services world,
Accenture believes organizations should take the following practical steps:
- Learn about Web services technologies and
standards, and evaluate the impact of Web services on your existing
information technologies environment.
- Develop a roadmap to control and drive the
implementation of Web services through your organization. Focus on
managing business partners and involve them early in the
process.
- Consider the various ways in which Web services can
be enabled such as designing a new application to be Web service
capable, wrapping an existing application or leveraging leading enterprise
application integration tools.
- Look for value-creating implementations,
focusing on both non-mission critical internal applications or on projects
involving external partners that do not require higher levels of security or
robustness as well as specific mission-critical applications.
Using Web Services to Optimize Current
Assets
Accenture believes organizations should evaluate
the assets and data they already have in light of Web services-enabled
capabilities to:
- Package reusable corporate information technology
assets, such as customer or billing information. Web services opens
up accessibility to information in backend systems creating new options to use
that information in different ways.
- Develop new applications by reusing existing
application components. In the past, the only way to add
functionality to legacy systems was to rebuild from scratch. However, the very
nature of Web services means the flexibility now exists to easily add functions
to legacy systems or to connect to other systems.
- Generate new revenue streams. For
example, Web services can change the function of call centers by integrating
customer, billing, product and services information so call center agents can
more easily offer and sell targeted products and services to customers.
The connectivity and integration made possible by Web
services has the potential to spur business growth by fueling mobility in the
short term and universal connectivity in the longer term.
Tony Roby, partner-Accenture Global
Architecture and Core Technologies, leads Accenture’s global
Web services
capability development efforts.
For more information, please contact us.
The views and opinions expressed in
this article are meant to stimulate thought and discussion. As each business
has unique requirements and objectives, these ideas should not be viewed as professional advice with respect to your business.  To Top
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