The Advent of Web Services

In today's world of extreme competition on the business front, information exchange and efficient communication is the need of the day. Information Technology has grown by leaps and bounds, and sustained, not because it seems savvy, but because businesses can function more efficiently. This need for information exchange brings in another need to make this information selectively visible, and its visibility to be changed on the fly.

For example, with the introduction of the telephone came the need to have a directory service. This gave rise to the ever-popular "Yellow Pages," which brought the consumer and the provider closer to each other.

The revolution of computerizing services of companies gave rise to isolated computer systems. Each company had software developed and customized to its specific needs. However, mergers, acquisitions, and business growths saw the need to share information stored in these isolated computer systems. The Internet did solve this problem to some extent. However, the Internet also opened many loopholes in security, making the owners of this information uneasy about the scope of their information's availability.

Hence, it became imperative that, for better B2B (Business-to-Business) communication, these systems must have the ability to link up to each other, grant permissions through a system other than the Internet, and which would make all the systems network with each other like an Intranet.