Web services are not new, but, due in part to the bursting of the Internet bubble, they have failed to take-off as anticipated. However, that might be about to change, with a number of recent research studies predicting massive growth in the development and deployment of Web Services within the next few years. So why the sudden re-birth of this technology and why the interest in it by K3, a supplier of Syspro ERP systems to SMEs. Well, the answer is that since the initial conception of Web Services, there has been a major change in focus. Now, its potential as a much-needed "integration" technology is being recognized, and this capability is especially valuable for all business system suppliers and their customers.
A definition
Web services are any piece of self describing software that make themselves available to share data or software capabilities dynamically with another program over the Internet - essentially "machine-to-machine" services. They were originally conceived and developed as rentable building-block services for business. The idea being that they make software functionality available over the Internet, so that programs can make a request to a program running on another server (a Web service) and use that program's response in a website, WAP service, or other application. For instance, instead of a website having its own dedicated program for checking the latest stock information or postcode authentication, it makes use of an existing web service that provides that "service." So when needed, the website program simply makes a request for the Web services across the network and passes the parameter data. The Web service then performs the required action and sends the response back for the website to use.
These type of Web services do exist today, and range from news syndication and retrieving stock-market data to translating a passage of text to another language, validating a credit card number and package-tracking systems. But, too few companies currently provide web services, and too few companies use them. However, while this consumer-led application of Web services has yet to materialize, a more routine business role has come to the fore. Companies are now seeing that this same Web services technology also offers a way to designing and building software to make it easier to integrate incompatible computer systems, and share data, applications or business processes internally or with partners.
A key to system connectivity
Why Web services offer a better approach to system connectivity and interoperability than existing methods is essentially because of their use of standard, open protocols for calling services and transmitting data, which generally have widespread support across the Unix/Windows divide, and in particular the use of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) as a common language. As a result, Web services are not tied to any one operating system or programming language, so applications developed in different languages, running on different operating systems, can far more easily talk and share data through Web services.
Moreover, this capability is already far more than just a prospect, with an increasing number of companies, including Syspro, already offering Web services, or providing the platform for their development, as 'integration' software. For instance, Syspro e.net solutions, which is the foundation of the SYSPRO 6.0 ERP system, is one of the first products on the market to leverage the Microsoft .NET architecture and the XML standard, a combination that is already one of the leading development platforms for Web services. Also, Syspro has recently developed a series of business objects that enable customers, using Syspro e.net solutions, to easily build and customize a wide variety of Web services which will provide real-time access to information within their SYSPRO 6.0 system, such as stock availability, costing queries, order status, and more.
The benefits of this technology development are very significant. For example, for any company (major corporation or SME) that wants to integrate best-of-breed applications to their main systems, Web services not only offer a simpler approach, by avoiding having to get to proprietary Application Program Interfaces (API) to talk directly to each other and translating proprietary import file formats, but one that is likely to be far more cost effective in the long run. This is because Web services also bypass the issue of versioning, the need to upgrade the interfaces when new versions of the integrated applications are installed, which often becomes one of the biggest integration costs.
Reducing the burden
Similarly, the technology offers to make b2b e-commerce i.e. enabling existing customers to have real-time access to product pricing, delivery data or the ability to place an order on-line, far less of an IT burden and far more accessible.
Until now, companies had very limited options. They could go down the route of dedicated one-to-one EDI (electronic data interchange), but this has remained far too expensive for most companies. The alternative of an e-commerce website has proved a more acceptable solution, but one that remains costly to develop and maintain. Getting websites to communicate with main systems has meant dealing with APIs, and ensuring system security has often lead to the duplicating of complex ERP system functionality, such as customer specific pricing rules, into the site, which is costly to program and needs to be constantly managed and maintained.
Whereas, a company can now easily develop a set of Web services (that run on its own server) which will capture information requests, access the main system (through the appropriate business objects), use existing main system functionality to undertake the required tasks, such as a pricing enquiry or process general orders and then pass the response back to the enquiring program.
At one level, the front end for this e-commerce can again be the company's own website, which just calls up the appropriate Web service when required, and then displays requested information to the enquiring customer. Alternatively, the company's customers can simply add basic program code to their own system which when activated, manually or automatically, will place a request over the Internet onto the appropriate Web services with the required parameter and security data. The response that is sent back to the customer's application can then either be displayed or used to automatically update the customers' own records.
Machine to machine communications
As highlighted, Web services offer a far quicker, easier and less costly route to implementing and managing e-commerce, a route that should be especially welcome to the SMEs. Moreover, the technology has the potential for true "machine to machine" communications, and so could eliminate much of the human intervention presently needed with typical e-commerce activities.
In conclusion, there can be little doubt that the promise of Web services as an integration tool and new e-business architecture is very appealing, and a computing model that K3, among many, are now planning to take advantage of. While standards are still evolving and some concerns have yet to be addressed, we see Web services technologies as an important tool for helping businesses to increase productivity through improved integration of an enterprises' business functions, and reducing the costs of connecting businesses to value chain partners and customers.
