Web-services development products aren't without substantial up-front costs. In-house developers, particularly mainframe veterans, may face a steep learning curve and a sharp shift in mind-set. Web-services methodology derives from object-oriented programming, which is as different in concept and execution from the procedural logic of DB2, IMS, and Cobol as are hieroglyphs from sheet music. But once the learning curve has been scaled, development time can be dramatically improved; a Web-based console page with the functions of the old green screens in a modern setting can be completed in as little as a day.
Perhaps not immediately, but within a short period of time, Web services help improve productivity and efficiency for both the company's development force and its departmental staffs. Ian Archbell, Micro Focus International Ltd.'s VP for product management, heads a product line that makes Web services available through Cobol. "What we're looking at is incremental investment instead of complete replacement, to make [Cobol apps] more flexible," he says. "It's much more about architecture than about anything else. You don't want to feel locked in to something and not be able to move the business forward."
Making the end-user application more flexible, more customizable, and accessible for almost instantaneous improvements involves the user more directly in the application process. When the user is encouraged to embrace the application to the point where he's actually steering its development, not only is time to market improved, but training costs--for some companies, the largest single cost after software licenses--plummet substantially.
Some Web-services development tools are being marketed for a different purpose: consolidating logons and application access for users. In typical mainframe environments, multiple third-party applications are used throughout the day, and in many call centers, employees spend valuable telephone time exiting some applications and re-entering others, just to complete a single, unanticipated customer task.
"The whole single-sign-on, user authority, common directory challenge is a growing problem [for which] there aren't any quick and easy answers," analyst Ulrich says.
David Holmes, executive VP of Jacada Ltd., a provider of Web-services-enablement software, says his company's Interface Server product can create front-end applications that interface directly with portals to create a single look and feel "to mimic the desktop application or the portal and, at the same time, change the workflow. So if, as a user, I used to have to traverse through 15 or 20 screens to accomplish a specific task, I can actually reengineer that workflow so that I only enter information in two or three screens."
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