Web Services and Enterprise Integration - Friends Not Foes

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The emerging discussion of Web Services technology is generating both curiosity and confusion in corporate office suites. Vendor froth is exaggerating the scope, the depth, and the maturity of a technology still swaddled in its pilot project clothes. This uncertainty regarding Web Services affects current technology planning decisions and questions the role-and compatibility-of enterprise application integration (eAI) technology with Web Services.

What are Web Services?
At its conceptual core, a Web Service is an application communication service-a family of technologies and standards, really-that promises to respond to a set of pre-defined messages executed by anyone on the Internet or inside their own corporate boundaries. The Web Services may be free, a subscription, a license or pay for use. In theory, standards govern messaging between heterogeneous applications. Those applications are a "Yellow Pages" directory application; a "Send and Receive" messages application; a "Read" message application; and an "Understand and Use" execution application.

To illustrate the roles of Web Services and eAI, a consumer insurance rate quote process will stand as the example. Traditionally, a consumer would lug a Ma Bell yellow pages directory to the kitchen and select a company at random, call and ask the agent for a quote. The agent would review the company charts and supply the answer. If the consumer accepted, the agent would complete the appropriate forms and, at best, e-mail them to the company headquarters for statement processing.

In a sophisticated Web Services example, a consumer Web searches "insurance companies" for auto insurance ("Yellow Pages"), submits driving details to XYZ Insurance, Inc. ("Send and Receive"); the Web Service of XYZ Insurance, Inc. interprets the information ("Read"); and the consumer receives a price quote in return ("Understand and Use") and accepts or declines a policy.

Web Services Integration Scenarios Framework:
The sophistication of the particular Web Services, however, will depend on the integration deployed, external, internal or multi-channel.

• External Application Integration - An external Web Service, business-to-business application integration will alter external business partner transactions. Business partners will communicate transactions based upon agreed standard documents for each step in a business process, significantly reducing custom business processes. In addition, increased acceptance of Web and XML standards will diminish required data types and entry points for business-to-business collaboration. As a result, transaction efficiency will substantially increase.
• Internal Application Integration - An internal Web Services application can present a consistent view of business data over multiple applications through structured and controlled transactions that span seconds. As a result, Enterprise Systems will be exposed as a set of reusable Web Services, consumed by composite business applications. These "opportunistic" applications will discover and reuse existing services and will rapidly deploy to meet specific business opportunities.
• Multi-Channel Integration - Web Services will facilitate the development and deployment of applications accessed by Web, mobile and office devices. Web Services will permit application developers to better leverage existing business data and processes by invoking them as reusable services. Moreover, Web Services development tools will reduce search complexities for existing services and help combine them into "composite business applications." Finally, a multi-channel integration can retool existing applications across these different channels to adapt to business innovations.

What is eAI?
More than a technology or a tactical business solution, eAI is a partner to both technological adjustments and innovation. It is a vital strategic enabler that provides a common integration framework, enabling companies to integrate program-to-program business processes, workflows and data across disparate applications. eAI increases a company's ability to respond, adapt and collaborate with innovations quickly and relatively inexpensively.

In the eAI insurance example, a consumer, seeking auto insurance from XYZ Insurance, Inc. submits a price quote and approval request. XYZ Insurance's rates database generates a quote and approval. From quote and approval, XYZ transmits the customer policy to accounts receivables to generate a statement, and then forwards the statement to mail processing. eAI technology transmits the customer policy through all business applications, from price quote application to mail processing application.

eAI connects the key systems, translates message formats between them and controls the business process. eAI is active in the processing of the quote, not just the interface to the consumer.

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