Your next IT strategy

Companies have traditionally viewed their information systems as proprietar y. They buy or lease their own hardware, write or license their own applica tions, and hire big staffs to keep everything running. This approach has ma ny flaws - it's cumbersome, expensive, and hinders collaboration. But there 's been no alternative. Until now. Today, we're seeing the emergence of an entirely new approach to corporate information systems: Web services. Rather than own and maintain all their own hardware and software, companies will soon buy their informat ion technologies as services provided over the Internet. The authors guide executives through this new IT strategy, explaining what the Web services a rchitecture is, how it differs from traditional IT architecture, and why it will provide significant cost savings to businesses while creating new opp ortunities for growth. They lay out a step-by-step approach for adopting th e new architecture. The experience of companies such as Merrill Lynch, General Motors, and Dell Computer that are already transitioning to the new architecture offers thr ee guidelines. First, build on your existing systems, connecting them to th e Web services architecture to gain immediate benefits. Second, start at th e edges of your company, focusing on those applications that connect your o rganization to customers or other companies. Third, work with your partners to develop a shared terminology for your shared applications, coming to ag reement, for example, on the precise meanings of XML terms. As the new architecture matures, the distinction between users and supplier s of Web services will fade. The location of particular capabilities and ap plications will become less important than executives' ability to discover and orchestrate these capabilities so as to deliver greater value to custom ers.