Web Services are usually inextricably linked with SOA. But Web Services are simply an enabling framework for the SOA, rather than a required component for one. Web Services themselves can be used without having an SOA in place. Likewise, companies can deploy SOAs that do not utilize Web Services. (Any distributed component architecture is technically an SOA. CORBA, for example, is an SOA. Web Services are considered key to making SOAs practical, because they provide a relatively easy-to-implement mechanism for enabling application interoperability).
Many HxGN customers have deployed HxGN EAM as part of their strategic SOA projects. More still, however, are simply using Web Services to extend HxGN EAM functionality in innovative new ways.
Web Services are based on an industry-standard protocol stack that includes individual protocols for discovery, description, and remote service calls, as well as HTTP and TCP/IP. The protocols in widest use today include WSDL (for discovery) and SOAP (for calling business services).
The Web Services implementation in HxGN EAM enables customers to use SOAP calls to access functionality from other applications from within HxGN EAM, and vice versa. It also enables unlimited user interface options on virtually any fixed or mobile computing device. This means, for example, that customers can extend HxGN EAM to virtually any mobile computing platform or application, to more fully support critical business processes.
Web services in practice
Web Services are in use today for a broad range of purposes, from rudimentary batch data transfer to more advanced application extension and SOA integration. Hundreds of HxGN EAM customers are using its Web Services functionality to extend the solution in new, innovative ways. For example:
A large pharmaceutical company had standardized on open source browsers, rather than Internet Explorer. Software products supporting only "pure HTML" could not meet the company’s needs. But HxGN EAM could, because its Web Services support made it trivial to create an interface for the Open Source browser.
One of the world’s largest diversified product companies wanted to deploy a customized inspection application on Tablet PCs and have it integrated with HxGN EAM. Through Web Services and Enterprise JavaBeans, HxGN EAM enabled the application to be developed and deployed in a matter of weeks. And, because Web Services-based integration is loosely coupled, application components are isolated from one another. This means that the customer can change its inspection application, and HxGN can upgrade HxGN EAM, without having to worry about breaking the integration.
A global facilities services company wanted to integrate its call center application with HxGN EAM to streamline service response time. The company used the HxGN EAM Web Services foundation and Databridge integration capabilities to create an innovative system that enables call center personnel to create a work order in HxGN EAM through their familiar call center application and then, with the push of a button, page the technician and transmit the work order as an XML document. This enables technicians to download work orders in the field so they can move from job to job with maximum efficiency.
These are just three examples of how Web Services are being used today to streamline work processes, accommodate existing IT infrastructure, and enable new kinds of integrated process- centric solutions.
The Bottom Line:
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Web Services enable customers to extend HxGN EAM in an infinite variety of ways.
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Web Services eliminate the problems associated with proprietary platforms and existing IT infrastructure, by enabling interfaces to be deployed on virtually any platform.
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Web Services enable customers, for the first time, to define IT systems according to business processes, rather than having processes defined by applications.