Category 3: Web Services Professional Service Providers
Up to this point we've examined complete, turnkey Web services application servers, software-based application servers, and a la carte approaches to building Web services environments. These approaches work well those organizations that have development expertise available within, but for many small and mid-sized companies lack such expertise. In this section, then, we examine a few of the professional services firms that are planning to offer Web services application design and deployment services.
GE Global Exchange Services
Market Positioning
GE Global eXchange Services (GXS) is part of GE Information Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the General Electric Company. GXS operates one of the largest commerce networks in the world and has over 100,000 trading partners who participate on its electronic marketplace (doing over 1 billion transactions annually). To date the company has largely focused on EDI as a means to foster transactions between partners, but recently it has introduced XML and SOAP into its product offerings, signaling its move into Web services provisioning.
Like many professional services suppliers, GE Global eXchange Services not only provides consulting and development services but also builds software that it uses for systems integration purposes. Specifically, GXS builds various business integration tools and utilities that are used to help its customers integrate internal systems and/or integrate applications with external business partners. But the company's major focus is on working with its customers to "define, measure, analyze, improve, and control day-to-day business processes." First and foremost, GXS is a professional services firm.
The company focuses on four specific types of services (organized by division):
GE Integration Solutions focuses on providing software and services that enable information sharing;
GE Interchange Solutions focuses on providing software and services that enable companies to communicate effectively and electronically with their business partners;
GE Marketplace Solutions focuses on providing solutions related to the creation of public or private digital marketplaces.
Consulting Services focuses on providing traditional consulting services such as needs assessment, business process consulting, and design and deployment services.
Product Positioning
Because GXS focuses strongly on supply chain and B2B electronic transactions, the company has many customers who make use of other program-to-program technologies to transfer transactional data between business partners. One of the first moves the company has made toward providing Web services for its customers has been to introduce an XML Schema that helps bridge different formats and communications methods (such as those used by Electronic Data Interchange EDI).
The company's recently released XML Schema Plug-in helps developers save time converting data to/from XML. They can use it to automatically map transactions that are in a proprietary form (such as some data created using certain ERP or legacy business application environments) into XML schemas that help define the structure, content, and semantics of XML documents. As a result, data can be easily shared between existing and/or legacy application environments and newer Web-services-oriented distributed computing environments.
Other Web services protocols are starting to show up in various GSX products, such as the company's PetroDEX business exchange service that helps petroleum companies manage information associated with the shipment and delivery of gasoline and other refined petroleum products.
Here is an example of how GSX used SOAP to deliver a back-office program-to-program service for PetroDEX users:
| GAITHERSBURG, Md., 09/18/2001 GE Global eXchange Services (NYSE: GE) today announced that it has added new capabilities to its PetroDEX data exchange for the U.S. Petroleum industry. The new capabilities include Web-based data management and back-office integration components that will enable petroleum companies to reduce costs and increase profitability through improved supply chain efficiency. PetroDEX's new capabilities will help companies to simplify transactions, enhance customer service and automate labor-intensive processes. Available now, these capabilities include:
"Having supported the petroleum industry with mission-critical data transactions for nearly three decades, PetroDEX now offer companies an even broader range of services for supply chain collaboration," said Harvey Seegers, president and CEO of GXS. "Through PetroDEX the petroleum industry now has a powerful new set of tools to manage information, increase efficiency and reduce costs." Source: http://www.gegxs.com/gxs/press/release/09182001. Used by Permission. |
Competitive Positioning
As a leader in providing the network, products, and services for B2B exchanges, GXS has few competitors that can scale to the over 1 billion transactions that the company now supports annually. And the company's recent business partnership with Commerce One (another large supplier of electronic marketplace services) further strengthens GXS' position.
However, GXS is not alone in providing large commerce marketplaces. IBM recently improved its position by partnering with Ariba and I2 and is now well positioned to compete with GXS. (And IBM with its WebSphere product line has been far more aggressive about building Web services than GXS.)
GSX Summary
GSX is a fine example of a large professional services supplier that is moving toward Web services provisioning. The company has a large EDI base, and over 60% of its customers are Fortune 500 (large) companies. That customer base will need to adopt a Web services strategy over the next several years, and GSX is ideally positioned to provide the conversion systems from today's EDI commerce networks to Web services-based transactional systems of the future.
EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 115