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 NEWSSIs retool Web services By Ed Scannell and Carolyn A. April October 28, 2002 1:01 am PT LOOKING TO LAY down a solid foundation for Web services initiatives, top-tier services providers are developing a set of packaged technology solutions designed to address an array of enterprise IT development concerns.
Accenture is converting years of best practices and intellectual property into prepackaged, tangible assets in an effort to make it easier for its network of integrators and consultants to deliver customized solutions. "In our insurance industry practice, we have packaged up a lot of software assets around claims processing, which can be used to hugely drive down costs and reduce the time scale of what it would take a major insurance company to do property or casualty claims processing," said James Hall, Accenture's managing partner of technology solutions in London. Accenture's technologies include development workbenches, business systems architectures with built-in security and error logging, and program structures intended to accelerate users' ability to deliver either .Net or J2EE solutions. Specifically, Accenture has developed a J2EE-based architecture known as GRNDS (General and Reusable Netcentric Delivery Solution) to serve as a platform for CRM, portal, legacy integration, and mobile commerce implementations. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Accenture's joint venture company Avanade has developed the Avanade Connected Architectures for .Net (or ACA .Net) toolkit. ACA.Net leverages Visual Studio .Net to speed the development of XML-based Web services and applications. The toolkits give Accenture the ability to help enterprises keep their IT costs in line with overall business objectives. Senior IT executives are under pressure to lower costs, and standards are a significant enabler. "[Customers] expect that IT is managed like the business is managed," said John K. Kaltenmark, a partner at Accenture in Chicago. Dimension Data, a $2 billion Epsom Downs, South Africa-based systems integrator is also on the toolkit trail, in October launching an internally developed framework for helping clients build, deploy, and manage Web services. Billed as a turnkey solution, Dimension Data's preconfigured platform comprises both hardware and software that is designed to get enterprises moving on Web services development, said Craig Miller, CTO of Dimension Data's North American division in Reston, Va. "There's a barrier to entry for customers trying to do Web services themselves," Miller said. "What we did is to develop a framework to deploy in our services engagements, so that customers have the toolkit and processes around them to getting started." The framework will also be used internally by Dimension Data to develop Web services-based applications that can in turn be introduced into its customer sites. It includes four utility services for monitoring, logging, notification, and security that are designed to serve as building blocks to Web services development projects. The deployment of such frameworks reflect the maturity of Web services standards such as XML and SOAP, SI executives argue. Yet despite the enthusiasm, Accenture is careful to position the frameworks as methods of delivering intellectual property, rather than a move to develop software that competes against the likes of Microsoft or IBM. "We are not necessarily looking to this as a way to generate revenues, but more as a prerequisite to maintaining leadership in our markets," Accenture's Hall said. Other executives agree, noting that, in many cases, best practices architectures and frameworks are deployed internally as part of an integration solution. "If clients aren't in a position to do Web services today, you still have to put into place the [framework] that will let them do Web services when they are ready. This is not a trivial need," said Bernhard Borges, managing director at IBM Consulting's advanced technology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz., which encompasses the former PricewaterhouseCoopers. " Web services is very early in the game, but there are definitely patterns in their integration that are emerging that are better than others," Borges said. Some industry observers see the long-term strategic significance of frameworks and other bundled assets. "The idea of pushing out a framework that lets people develop Web services or unlock the potential of Web services is something people are beginning to talk a lot about," said John Madden, a senior analyst at Summit Strategies in Boston. Madden argued that Dimension Data has jumped out to an early lead in this fledgling market, leveraging its strength in building network infrastructure to deploy Web services environments. But while one or two vendors with such frameworks have achieved success with some early adopters, Madden cautions that it could be some time before anyone generates significant revenues. "No one will make serious money from Web services until next year or even the year after. But the frameworks make sense," Madden said. Other analysts believe Web services projects offer professional services firms a rosy future. According to an IDC report released this summer, this market will be worth over $7 billion by 2006. Professional services as relates to Web services include consulting, application development, and a number of systems integration functions. Savvy SIs can cash in on the complex integration tasks left unfinished by Web services standards, such as SOAP, WSDL, and XML, including data transformation and synchronization across systems, according to observers. "You are not done when you make your apps talk SOAP," said Ross Altman, principal consultant at Plano, Texas-based EDS Solutions Consulting. "You still need to bridge the gap between data formats and semantics to provide a common and consistent business-oriented representation of an organization." Mark Jones contributed to this report. SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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