REAL-LIFE WEB SERVICES

Before diving into acronyms and definitions, let us explore a real-life example of how the concepts behind Web services are already being leveraged by Dunn and Bradstreet (D&B) today. D&B provides a range of services to an extensive client base; D&B is best known for its credit-rating services. D&B’s credit-rating services are typically used to determine whether a new customer (or perhaps a partner) has a solid financial background and a reliable history of on-time bill payment.

D&B has offered direct system integration to its services for some time, historically using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Using EDI, the effort and cost associated with direct integration has been relatively high, often requiring custom integration and testing before a connection can be established. The costs associated with this type of integration are typically very high, and only larger organizations have made the investment required to complete EDI integration. This forced the small and mid-size organizations to rely on e-mail and the telephone as the primary vehicle for requesting credit information from D&B.

In May 2001, D&B introduced the D&B Global Access Toolkit. The toolkit provides D&B clients with the ability to easily integrate real-time credit information into existing applications and decision support systems. The toolkit leverages Web services standards to significantly reduce the cost and effort required to integrate with D&B’s services when compared to earlier custom integration efforts.

Strategically, through the implementation of the Global Access Toolkit, D&B has been able to do the following:

• Open New Market Opportunities —Lower integration and operating costs allow D&B to offer services at new price points while still maintaining attractive per-transaction profit margins. The combination of lower services costs and simplified service integration will inevitably be appealing to small and mid-level clients that otherwise might not have considered using D&B’s services.

• Create “Stickier” Client Relationships —By providing the Global Access Toolkit, D&B has significantly reduced the cost for clients to directly connect to its services. Typically, clients that are directly connected to a service are far less likely to swap providers than those who do not have this type of connectivity. In effect, directly linking a client to a service creates a “stickier” relationship. Even improving client retention by a few percentage points can significantly increase revenue and profitability.

• Improve Customer Satisfaction —By providing real-time credit-rating services, eliminating the turnaround time associated with responding to a phone call or replying to an e-mail, D&B can offer superior service to its clients—enabling them to make critical, time-sensitive business decisions based on reliable, up-to-date information.

This example shows how Web services capabilities are beginning to be used. Consider for a moment whether there are any opportunities in your organization where Web services might be used to create a “stickier” relationship with your customers or partners? Or, perhaps there are opportunities to reduce costs by using Web services, to offer products and services to small and mid-size clients that were not previously economically viable? Hold those thoughts. We will explore them further in later chapters.