By Alan Radding
The challenge: Supply chain management.
The time: Sometime in the future, maybe next year. Or maybe never.
The story: Big Retailer's replenishment system fires off an urgent, unexpected message over the Internet to restock. Midsize Supplier's order-entry service receives the message and triggers the production service, a Web service. The production service triggers a slew of other Web services both internally and externally, via the Internet, from component vendors, logistics providers, shippers, and others. Within moments, the urgent request has been acknowledged and confirmed. Messages fly over the Web, the systems of half a dozen companies leap into action. In short order, the goods arrive thanks to a hodgepodge of different systems running various Web services at half a dozen companies. No human hands involved.
Could this scenario play out today? Yes, but it wouldn't be easy. It would require the painstaking tuning and integration of multiple disparate systems of every company involved. The time, effort, and cost would hardly be worth it; no sooner had you finished than something would change and you would have to start all over again.
Could this scenario play out on a widespread basis in the future? Maybe, if Web services evolve as expected and deliver what they promise. Web services are software components that talk to each other, system to system, over the Internet, and promise to enable systems that otherwise aren't very good at cooperating to interoperate enough to perform a desired task.
For consulting companies, Web services promise to dramatically change the way they deliver enterprise application integration, supply change management, on-line commerce solutions, and more for their clients. However, Web services are not a magic bullet — although some of the recent hype surrounding them clearly suggests that. "You have to keep Web services in perspective. The technology is a tool, not salvation. And remember, we are in the early days of this technology. The standards are just emerging," says James Hall, managing partner, Accenture Technology Business Solutions Group.
