With Web Services, a late-breaking business requirement does not require a complete refactoring and redeployment of the user-facing application; changes to Web Services typically require that only a small part of the implementation be modified. Such changes can usually be done in isolation, independent of the rest of the system, resulting in reduced downtime. And new services can be readily plugged into existing business processes.

The emerging use of business process flows implemented as business process execution language (BPEL) processes is evidence of how companies are recognizing the agility that Web Services and SOA bring. In BPEL, end-to-end processes are composed of various Web Services that are called into action according to defined events and rules. New and updated services can be plugged into a process without any interruption to users or the business.

Business Benefits that Drive Web Services & SOA Adoption
At the end of the day, any technology a company adopts must support its basic business needs, such as saving money and improving its ability to sell and deliver its product. Web Services and SOA are no exception.

With the connectivity Web Services provide, information can be accessed and used across the enterprise in a consistent manner. Because services are decoupled from the underlying implementation, users can interact with myriad systems through a single unified interface, rather than having to understand each of the various application silos.

Software vendors and enterprise IT groups alike look to Web Services as key to linking people, processes, and information together. Users are no longer even aware of the full suite of applications they're actually using as they weave their way through a business task. Empowering users this way results in better productivity and greater innovation.

In the same vein, the ability to connect internal applications with partners, suppliers, and even customers is another critical area of focus in enterprise IT. Business-to-business arrangements in particular have benefited from this connectivity: A supplier can now check stock levels by connecting directly with a customer's inventory management system, anticipating new orders before the customer is aware of the need.

Perhaps one of the most important yet often overlooked benefits of Web Services is their impact on the company's bottom line. CTOs faced with shrinking budgets and greater demands increasingly rely on solutions based on Web Services.

As noted earlier, Web Services and SOA let companies reuse existing investments by exposing existing applications and systems as services. Increasingly, IT management in such companies often attribute reduced development costs and increases in productivity to the adoption of the SOA model.

The external services available from industry-leading vendors have also reduced costs, because companies can incorporate vertical functionality into their solutions without the investment in building it. Management views Web Services and SOA as a way to save money and avoid investing in new technologies and development efforts, choosing instead to exploit existing solutions.

Savings aren't often immediately apparent, and in truth many SOA initiatives are too new to provide any quantifiable reductions in cost. Yet the adoption of Web Services - which thanks to their decoupled nature encourage reuse - and SOA initiatives are increasingly seen as avenues to saving money by reducing overall development costs.

Conclusion
The advent of Web Services and SOA models are compelling software vendors and enterprise IT organizations to re-evaluate how applications are defined, developed, and used in an enterprise environment. Companies are already realizing benefits such as greater agility, cost savings, and more streamlined requirement analysis and development processes through the adoption of Web Services-based initiatives.

As companies continue to seek solutions that increase agility and provide greater connectivity with a wide variety of users and systems, the Web Services and SOA models are certain to continue to grow in popularity.