News

Gartner: Web services projects roll along

• By Rich Seeley
• August 13, 2003

While the sluggish U.S. economy is slowing Web services development, it has not stopped it by a long shot, according to a survey this summer by Gartner Inc. (www.gartner.com), a Stamford, Conn.-based consulting firm.

The Gartner Dataquest survey of North American enterprises found that while more than 48% of the firms surveyed had cut spending on Web services, the belt tightening was not so severe that projects were discontinued.

While almost half the respondents were trimming budgets, one third of the companies said that the economic slowdown had not impacted their spending on Web services, said Gartner.

Of the projects moving forward in uncertain economic times, Gartner found, not surprisingly, that 75% were internal projects focused on integration, security, portals and Web content management. External integration with partners and projects involving order fulfillment, payment and billing were lower on the priority list, noted the Gartner survey.

Continuing to predict consolidation among software vendors, Gartner analysts concluded that by 2007, vendors and consultants will need to focus on Web services for practical business processes and management.

Apparently, it will not be enough to re-market existing software products by adding XML to the name and creating a flashy demo. Companies will be looking for Web services applications that save them money.

''To take part in the Web services 'wave,' software vendors and systems integrators must communicate a clear, concise, cost-saving message to potential customers,'' concluded the Gartner analysts.

As part of that cost-saving message, Gartner recommends vendors and consultants focus on reusability of Web services applications and components.