New skills for new era
IT services firms, platform giants, gear up for Web services via education and certification
By Roberto Michel, editor -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 5/1/2002 12:00:00 AM
No one is saying that widespread adoption of the latest e-Business infrastructure software is going to be simple, but insiders like Derek Bildfell believe that by getting everyone involved—including application providers, tool vendors, and consulting firms—the process will be a whole lot easier. Bildfell is program director of WebSphere Market Development Strategy for Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp., and says that vendors of e-Business infrastructure software such as IBM must educate the market and collaborate with other players, not just sell software.
Education will increase the ability of systems integrators to deploy and leverage new classes of e-Business infrastructure software such as Web application servers, and new protocols and standards that support Java and the Internet.
"We're doing a number of things to work with the market," says Bildfell. "Our latest partner initiative, called 'WebServices on WebSphere,' is one example. There are about 25 partners we've brought together in this program, and not just third-party consulting firms, but application vendors such as J.D. Edwards [a Denver-based extended enterprise suite vendor]."
IBM isn't the only vendor of e-Business infrastructure software to reach out to consulting firms and others to offer education and some form of certification. Other major vendors in this space—including Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems; Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, and Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Oracle Corp.—offer partner programs for organizations, and certifications for individual information technology (IT) professionals.
But some observers warn that certification programs for Web services technologies—much like the technologies themselves—are still in their infancy, leaving no single seal of approval for judging consulting firms. "The only way to really know if a consulting firm can pull off a project from a technical standpoint is to ask about relevant experience at the individual consultant level," says Pierre Frickle, an executive vice president for IT research firm D.H. Brown, Port Chester, N.Y.
At least some consulting industry executives agree with this conclusion, although many also are working closely with platform vendors on certifications. "You have to make sure the company and the specific consultants bidding for a project have relevant experience and project references," says Marc Hebert, president of Sierra Atlantic, a Fremont, Calif.-based IT services firm that focuses on integrating e-Business and supply chain applications for manufacturers. "Services has been, and will continue to be, a reference-driven business."
Technologies involved
Web services involve multiple standards and technologies, but perhaps the most prominent is eXtensible markup language (XML), a standard way of tagging business messages and transactions so that they can be understood by disparate systems. And while experts say that XML is really more of a standard alphabet than a "lingua franca" for e-Business, other technologies also play a role in Web services.
"Arguably, the term Web services is not very specific, which is why at Microsoft, we put XML in front of it as a prefix to put more focus on what it really means," says Ron Sielinski, Microsoft's industry technical strategist for the manufacturing sector. "More specifically, Web services solutions leverage a particular protocol stack based on open standards and Web technologies."
Stack is a common term that technologists use to describe the different layers of software that make up IT solutions. The base stack, for any type of system, involves tools, systems software such as databases, and applications. In the client/server era, the stack more specifically involved fourth-generation programming languages, relational databases, and packaged applications running on UNIX and Windows operating systems. Today, enterprise applications vendors are supporting Web application server software within their product architectures, making it an increasingly important element of the technology stack.
On the most basic level, these "app servers" act as intermediaries between front-end Web applications and back-end legacy and enterprise systems. They may include commerce server functions for carrying out Web-based transactions, portal server solutions, and security and log-on functions, but their main role is to link up browser-based client access and requests with back-end sources of data and application logic.
Vendors such as IBM, with its WebSphere product family; Sun; Oracle; BEA Systems, San Jose, Calif; and Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif., all offer app servers. Microsoft's .NET family of server software products also support key app server functions. Most non-Microsoft app servers are built on a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) architecture.
Learning about app server products will help business managers make more informed decisions on IT consulting engagements, says Frickle. "There are a lot of first-time deployments of Web services going on right now," says Frickle. "Those making services decisions need to have some understanding of the differences between a project involving a J2EE app server, and a Web project in general."
Some approaches
IBM's WebServices on WebSphere program was announced in February, and is expected to be operational during the second quarter of 2002. The program consists of an advisory council that IBM expects will number 150 business partners by year's end, and also includes:
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Technical enablement via Web services specialization to all key partner programs—including planning, education, support, architecture, packaging, and mentoring programs. IBM will dispatch IBM technical experts to select partner sites to evaluate their IT architecture and help them understand how to best adopt Web services to their business, including deployment, performance, management, and authentication.
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Through on-site and on-line programs, IBM will help partners understand how to identify potential revenue streams from Web services.
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A Web-based portal (www.ibm.com/websphere/wow) with access to program resources and information.
But the program, contends Bildfell, is not simply about selling more WebSphere licenses and projects. "We're spinning the focus around to what the end-user customers are going to need," says Bildfell. "Much of the discussion with the advisory board is about maximizing solutions' security, performance, reliability, and the development tool and service support so that the business goals of customers can be met."
Sierra Atlantic's Hebert says most major platform vendors are putting forth education programs for e-Business infrastructure software, although rigorous certification programs for entire consulting firms are more rare. Sun Microsystems offers a program called SunTone that certifies consulting firms in the deployment of a range of solutions that leverage Sun's computing platforms and technologies, says Hebert.
Herbert also says Sierra Atlantic's implementation services for enterprise applications from Oracle recently received SunTone certification. One of the firm's specialties is deploying Oracle's enterprise system on Sun platforms, especially for manufacturers in sectors such as high-tech. Additionally, he says, the company has been building up expertise in implementations that involve the use of Oracle 9iAS, Oracle's app server and e-Business infrastructure software.
Gaining expertise in the latest Web services technologies was a not a major leap for Sierra Atlantic's staff, says Hebert. "Education and certification are important, but the competency is not that hard to pick up for systems analysts and database experts who specialize in application integration," he says.
Business-case savvy
End-user managers evaluating consulting firms ultimately need to look beyond technical savvy and credentials, cautions Darius Vaskelis, a vice president with Inforte Corp., a Chicago-based consulting firm. "Why do IT projects fail?" asks Vaskelis. "The technology itself is rarely the reason; it's usually a matter of the project management going wrong, or because the deployment, once completed, does not solve a business problem."
The correct approach, says Vaskelis, is to look for firms that combine a proven technical pedigree with references for solving supply chain problems. At Inforte, he adds, the firm has built up references and experience implementing supply chain software solutions from vendors that include Dallas-based i2 Technologies. Improved demand management, says Vaskelis, is a key business area that Inforte specializes in with manufacturers.
"Technical credentials should certainly be in the mix, but they usually are not the strongest criteria," Vaskelis adds. "The larger consideration is, does the firm have a track record for solving a particular problem in a particular industry. The firm's track record for coming in on-time and on-budget with projects is another huge factor."
Web-based software underpinned by app servers and other technologies, says Vaskelis, should ultimately be used to make companies more demand-driven and more customer-focused. "The new technologies are useful for many things," he says. "In supply chain planning, Web-based systems can give a company a better view of demand, but the real challenges are how to use that improved view of demand to make decisions on sourcing materials, and on how to fulfill orders."
Finally, as major enterprise suite vendors such a Pleasanton, Calif.-based PeopleSoft, and Walldorf, Germany-based SAP make app servers and other new technologies part of their standard architectures, the consulting firms that work with these packaged apps vendors will be required to develop expertise in the new technologies. Such trends bode well for end users.
As D.H. Brown's Frickle puts it, "The fact that companies like SAP are talking about supporting Web services is a good thing. There is a lot of important information locked up in ERP and CRM [customer relationship management] systems. Web services eventually will lower the pain barriers for getting at that information."
| FOR MORE INFO: | ||
| BEA Systems: www.beasys.com | IBM Corp.: www.ibm.com | Inforte Corp.: www.inforte.com |
| i2 Technologies: www.i2.com | Hewlett-Packard: www.hp.com | J.D. Edwards: www.jdedwards.com |
| Microsoft: www.microsoft.com | Oracle: www.oracle.com | PeopleSoft: www.peoplesoft.com |
| SAP: www.sap.com | Sierra Atlantic: www.sierraatl.com | Sun Microsystems: www.sun.com |
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