Singapore's NTUC Income Insurance is doing it. So is Australia's national statistics collection body, The Australian Bureau of Statistics, as well as U.S. mobile operator Virgin Mobile USA. Corporate heavyweights are experimenting with Web services, an emerging approach to application development that promises to change the way companies build and use software.

Web services are made up of pieces of custom-developed code that let two or more Web-based applications talk to each other. These services can pull a single piece of data or an entire business process. Web services advocates believe that, down the road, the technology will allow organisations to integrate and reuse software that they or others have already built. The hope is that, through the use of Web services, the pain involved in integrating systems will dissipate, leaving both companies and consumers better able to use and exchange a wide range of capabilities and information over the Internet.

Adding to the momentum, top technology vendors, including BEA Systems, Inc., IBMIBM Corp., MicrosoftMicrosoft Corp., OracleOracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems, Inc., have agreed to support a set of standard software technologies that spell out how different computer systems should interact with each other. Alles zu IBM auf CIO.de Alles zu Microsoft auf CIO.de Alles zu Oracle auf CIO.de

In addition to the data exchange format, XML, three new standards - Web services don't come without drawbacks. For the moment, most companies are keeping their Web services projects behind company firewalls because of network security and reliability concerns.

Three organisations - NTUC Income Insurance Cooperative Ltd, The Australian Bureau of Statistics and Virgin Mobile USA, LLC - provide clear examples of how to begin a Web services strategy and gauge its potential for your business.