Web Services Offer Growing Profit Potential

With that definition in mind, solution providers surveyed said they felt that Web services are a major priority to businesses of all sizes. Only security edged out Web services for the No. 1 spot. But while the opportunity does exist for solution providers to benefit, the capital investment needed to hire application developers and integrators is significant.

Solution providers polled said large firms are the most likely to leverage Web services in the near future, with midsize and small businesses lagging a little behind. But clearly, all levels of business are showing a strong interest in the technology. Large businesses most likely would benefit from the technology due to the fact that Web services can breathe life into older applications by connecting what were once isolated processes across the Web to create new applications.

Survey participants backed up deployment predictions with solid growth numbers. In August 2004, 50 percent of solution providers expected sales growth of at least 6 percent in the next three months, while in April 2005, that figure increased to 58 percent. Sales growth has shown a steady monthly increase over the time period surveyed and indicates that Web services has not yet reached a plateau. That leaves room for solution providers late to the party to still profit from deploying and integrating Web services—good news to latecomers, especially when considering that the trend behind surveyed solution providers planning to offer Web services has remained relatively flat from August 2004 to April 2005, with only 31 percent of those polled in August looking to enter the market. The latest numbers from April 2005 show only a 1 percent increase over August at 32 percent.

Roughly translated, that means there is ample room to enter the market. Couple that with an anxious client base looking to increase spending on Web services and steady growth in the market, and solution providers have a real opportunity to capitalize on this technology trend.

For solution providers, it's now or never when it comes to leveraging both the technology and profits offered by integrating applications via Web services.