Windows should rev up Web services

If you believed the early Web services hype in 2001, you would have expected that buying packaged applications should by now be well on the way to becoming passé, replaced by on-demand software services. And data, applications, business processes and identities would be nearing an integrated Utopia both within and outside your company walls. Instead, Canadian organizations are, at a very slow pace, just getting underway with deploying Web services.

However, there is hope for increased Web services activity, found in a rather unlikely place: desktop productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word.

When first writing about Web services in 2001, I preached generically about the IT and business value of bridging together siloed islands of data and applications. That wasn’t completely wrong, but it only covered part of the story. Like many others, I am guilty of having focused more on the technology, less so the business advantages and least of all end-user implications. Ask the average executive what they think about Web services and they’re likely (and rightly) to say, “I don’t care about technology, I only care about how to profit from it.” And ask the average end user their thoughts on the subject and you’d be lucky to get the courtesy of a blank stare.

IDC Canada research shows that the main reason why organizations across this country are not deploying Web services more quickly is that they are unable to see the business value in doing so. The pace of adoption should pick up, however, as software that directly impacts the end-user — such as Microsoft Office, IBM Workplace and OpenOffice — are marketed increasingly as platforms for building business-specific applications.

To be sure, companies have for years extended the capabilities of Microsoft Office or IBM/Lotus Notes in order to address particular business needs, such as sales lead tracking. However, now it is far more critical that the value propositions for these rich-client offerings are shored up in the face of a thin-client threat by the likes of Google and eBay. Victory in the battle on the desktop, particularly for Microsoft, has a large impact on the sale of related server software.

In mid-September Microsoft previewed betas of both Office 12 and Windows Vista, the next version releases to Office 2003 and Windows XP respectively, due out in late 2006. To its credit and the elevation of the potential for Web services success, Microsoft is further building on the concept of Office as a platform for application development.

When built around XML and Web services, the familiar Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs are going to spur the development of business-need-specific software by a plethora of independent software vendors. Office 12 will help crystallize for business managers and end users the value of dynamic application integration — a.k.a. Web services.

For the end user, Microsoft makes the experience compelling with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and makes information easier to find through WinFS. For IT and developers, better tools make it easier to extend the user experience deeper into information and applications through the Windows Communications Foundation (WCF). While for business managers, Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) enables the integration of applications into a company’s business processes.

Clearly, Web services success does not hang in the balance solely awaiting Microsoft’s next Windows and Office release. The point is that gaining end user buy-in, albeit quite indirectly, into the wonders of Web services is critical.

By democratizing the benefits of information, application, workflow and identity integration — extending beyond the portal metaphor into a familiar workspace like Office — a feedback loop between end users, business managers and IT/developers is created that drives forward Web services.

Like the value of a network growing by more than the addition of each new user, so too Web services are more valuable as they touch more points throughout the company — the desktop being a great lever to start the discussion.

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-- Senf is the manager of IDC Canada’s IT business enablement advisory service. He can be reached at dsenf@idccanada.com.