What This Means for Businesses

Incorporation of other businesses' services

Small business usually have small budgets. Thus, the less they have to spend in developing their their own web site or application, the better. Various tasks, such as identify confirmation, credit card checking and billing, and the like are common to many small business. These types of services are ideal for exposure as a web service. Companies that specialize in those areas, perhaps the credit company itself, could expose these services over the Internet for usage by customers. And bill for the service too, but this is more or less irrelavent from the client's standpoint since they'd be paying for it anyway. The difference is, they can now directly integrate that functionality into their own service in a way not before possible - increasing their value to their own users.

Small business in turn can do the same - develop highly specialized surfaces that others don't have and provide them to larger businesses. And make money doing it. These services may even use that other business's data - all readable because of XML.

Web sites no longer need be an "island" - they can enjoy all the power that collaboration can bring.

Data anywhere

Finally, through software as a service and .NET businesses can benefit by making their data and processing available not only to other applications, but to other devices. A smaller software module can be developed to run on a PDA like a Palm pilot. This too can access the full functionality of the business's web services - and so for a much cheaper development cost, they've just added an entire new potential customer base to their site.

References: F