18. Implications of Web Services for Consultants and Media
Imagine that a reporter or a consultant just finished up a report/story on the latest technology trends. Instead of posting it to a web site or emailing en masse to a set of customers (some of who may not want it), he/she will be able to let the world know about the availability of this report at his/her convenience (or as soon as he/she is finished proofreading it) and let those who are interested access it from its source location (local hard disk). In this process, he/she will also be able to ensure copyrights and Intellectual Property rights are protected, the security and integrity of his/her source location is protected, and payments and royalties, if any, are collected.
As Web Services are widely adopted traditional business structures will be altered. Generalists and aggregators will give way to the highly focused and nimble specialists. Competencies and processes will have a narrower focus. Individuals and firms will be able to offer their core competencies (content management, trade execution, contract administration, specialist editorials, and many others) for sale and make money. As business processes assume a narrower focus, companies no longer need to nurture core competencies in-house. They will be able to purchase Web Services to develop unique and innovative processes to create new competitive advantages. As standards take hold and transaction costs are lowered, there will be an exponential growth in transactions and this will result in greater business growth worldwide.
As businesses cope with seismic changes in competitive landscape, there will be a significant amount re-engineering of business processes, value chains, creating competitive advantages and inventing new ways to deliver to customer value. Monolithic and vertically integrated businesses (and software applications) will give way to smaller and highly focused specialists whose products are highly customizable (with little effort and in real-time) and that can be mixed and matched to create innovative business processes and unleash product/service innovation unparalleled in history. This will keep the consulting and media industry busy for years to come.
