Trends and Issues in Integrating Enterprises and other associated systems using Web Services

A Web service is defined as an autonomous unit of application logic that provides either some business functionality or information to other applications through an Internet connection. Web services are based on a set of XML standards such as Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) and Web Services Description Language (WSDL). The notorious success that the application of the Web service technology has achieved in B2B e-Commerce has also lead to consider it as a promising technology for designing and building effective business collaboration in supply chains. The key challenges for enterprises nowadays are, how efficiently to integrate business functions and associated systems using web services. The business process automation has generated the need for integrating the available web services across different systems. To achieve this, a better understanding of current methodologies for service integrations is required. In this paper, we investigate the current trends and issues in integrating businesses and other associated systems using web services.