The Business Side of Web Services

Business services are everywhere. Today most of the First-World economies are predominantly service economies. In fact, more than 70% of the GDP of First-World countries comes from services that range from the performance of mundane tasks (retail) to the delivery of high-level knowledge content (insurance and financial services). Technological advances are about to dramatically improve firms' ability to deliver services and broaden the definition of services.

The IT landscape is evolving to support the digitization of business services. However, like any emerging topic, the service landscape is littered with myths and untested assumptions. Separating fact from fiction is challenging for managers and decision makers. Making the wrong strategic move based on incomplete or incorrect information can be devastating.

Managers are becoming overwhelmed by fragmented information sources and mounting technology complexity. Many would readily agree that the current technology landscape is beyond their comprehension. The challenge for effective managers is to understand the causes and needs for complex technology, thereby discerning trends from fads.

Featured Research

This research section articulates the fundamental drivers of services by examining the underlying people, process, and technology trends, which we list below.

		Business Trend: From E-Business to Services Digitization
		Business Trend: Superior Execution Requires Focal Points
		Business Trend: From Enterprise Applications to Service Platforms
		Business Trend: From Portals to Composite Applications
		Business Trend: Mutating Business Processses