Confronting the Reality of Web Services by Sara Grant (HBR Working Knowledge, May 16, 2005) is an interview with Andrew P. McAfee. McAfee recently published acase summary called "Will Web Services Really Transform Collaboration?" (MIT Sloan Management Review, Winter 2005).

'...McAfee argues that the benefits of Web services, in terms of data-sharing and communication exchanges, are not going to happen unless managers better integrate common standards... "The organizational challenge comes as all stakeholders get together and hammer out common definitions. This might not seem like the kind of work that leads to disputes, but it is," he says.'

McAfee found that large companies are leading the way in the use of Web Services to collaborate across organizations, usually by dictating that smaller suppliers adopt their mandates.

Web Services is one approach that meets the goals of a recent leadership exchange meeting I attended. The topic of discussion revolved around "integrated digital environments" for delivering program performance information to government customers. Larger government contracting organizations are waking up to the high cost of individual, customized solutions for each new contract, and are beginning the arduous process of developing reusable IDE solutions. It's a daunting process to standardize in-house, as McAfee points out, ask any Enterprise Architect. It's even more daunting when you consider the impact of including your subcontractors and primes across a collection of contracts. In developing our guest list we found that while everyone agrees on the value of finding solutions to the problem, the task may be insurmountably difficult at this time.

5:57:05 PM    
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