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First of all, what are Web Services?

Web services are self described applications that could be invoked via Internet using protocols like SOAP(Simple Object Access Protocol). They are published on universal registries called UDDI ( Universal Description , Discovery and Integration), so that anyone wants to use them can find them along with the description of the service. Everything in web services are described and exchanged using XML. Web services could be written to expose the functionalities of any application or to access the data of an application or even for simple data exchange using the Internet.

So, what do we achieve with Web Services that we didn't achieve by using other distributed computing methods such as DCOM( Distributed Componenet Object Model) or CORBA( Common Object Request Broker Architecture), which are faster, thinner ( binary standards ) than Web Services.? Basically, the universal acceptance of XML makes the difference. XML is a wonderful thing to happen in the EDI( Electronic Data Interchange) world. Everybody accepts it. So using XML to send data across is much simpler and very much accepted than any other technology that was ever used for data exchange.

Let's approach the whole "Web Services in the CRM World" with two distinct points.


1. Benefits, if the CRM applications expose their functionalities via Web Services.



2. How the CRM applications can benefit if everyone else exposes their systems via Web Services.



Considering all the development that the CRM vendors are publishing about Web Services, one that is most common is , "Web Services will reduce the Integration Complexity". Definitely yes, if the Integration has to happen on a HTTP based Intranet or Internet.

Almost all the CRM vendors are primarily focused on exposing their application functionalities through Web Services, so that the integration with an existing system or developing a future system on top of the CRM system becomes much more simpler on a HTTP based network. A Web based application could be easily developed to access the data residing on the CRM database by accessing the data through Web Services. Also the web application can use the CRM application's features such as the Pricing engines and the Marketing Optimizer Engines by accessing them via Web Services. Traditionally we need to write our own middle layer even if we use XML. ( After all Web Services are nothing but another avatar of the middle layer).

Also Integrating the CRM applications with the existing ERP ( Enterprise Resource Planning) , Supply Chain Management ( SCM ) and Call Center applications become much more simpler with SOAP/XML than writing the traditional customized calls. Also this allows the different applications to interoperate using the Internet with SOAP/XML on top of HTTP than the traditional ways of basic customized RPC( Remote Procedure Calls) on a TCP/IP network ( although underlying HTTP is RPC). But If the integration doesn't need to happen on an Intranet or Internet( with HTTP), then using Web Services is definitely not a good choice due to the fatter protocol layer the Web Services introduce. This will be disastrously slower than using DCOM or CORBA(with IIOP).

Also unlike the traditional integration methods, Web services require both ends to support XML/SOAP. That requires the whole industry to be in sync with Web Services. Otherwise it will lead Integrators to build middle layers or Web services on behalf of the software vendors(Like building a web service to access your mainframe application - that you don't want to replace - and send SOAP/XML messages to the CRM application).

Examples of Benefits if CRM applications expose their functionalities via Web Services.

· An ERP,SCM or Call Center or any other home grown application can easily access the CRM systems engines and the data using Internet or Intranet resulting in easier Integration..
· A Website can get customer info from your CRM application to give personalization.
· The customer can directly get his billing info to his Excel worksheet from your CRM system using the Internet.

Now, let's look at how the CRM applications can benefit if everyone exposes their systems via Web services. This looks interesting and more promising than the first one in the near future.

Consider a field sales person who wants to get the Sales Data of a customer in real time to see whether he is effective on that customer. Currently the CRM applications get the Sales Data from a third party mostly in flat files and load them to the host database. Then they spool the data to the field users once in a month or sometimes weekly. Now, if the Third party exposes a web service to access the Sales Data, the field user can get the data for a selective number of customers directly from the third party in real time using his Internet connection. Then the CRM client application which resides on the users Laptop or the Sales Force Automation ( SFA) application( which are mostly thick client applications) is programmed to accommodate the real time data, It will be a wonderful, effective and a time saving process.


Let's look at one more example

Currently, the field users get their customer data validated from the Home office. Home office sends the customer data to a third Party data provider or to an In house Data mart and gets the data validated ( for example: address, phone number, license number etc) and pushes the data to the field users. This can happen in real time if the third party exposes a Web service. The field user can send the list of customers he needs( hopefully less in numbers) to be validated from his thick client application through Internet and get the data validated from the third party.

Theoretically even the Home office can get the data in real time. But due to the high volume, it is not practical to use Web services for this in the near future. Also A third party which tracks your customers online purchasing pattern can give the data in real time or the field user can get different analytical or predictive modeling solutions from different Third party vendors on the customer behavior through Internet and have his laptop applications use the data.

Well , the user could have simply accessed these information by searching the Third party website.. then why do we need Web Services for this? The key is, you can integrate the data to the field user's thick client applications residing on the users laptop in real time. That's a huge advantage!! Any field sales person will love it.

Arguably the thin client, browser based CRM applications are the ones which could benefit a lot from the Web Services. a website can have the customers ask questions in natural language and the company can get the natural language processed from a third party, if the third party had exposed it's Natural language processing Engine as a webservice. Also all what we have discussed above are definitely possible in these thin client apps. One more interesting example is having a single sign on ( not with Passport.NET yet!!!).

If an online E-Commerce site outsources it's CRM needs like, managing customer complains, emails etc , then a webserice is ideal to pass the sign on information across both sites. This will prevent the user (customer) to log in twice , once to buy something from the e-commerce site then to log on to the CRM site. These are very practical examples because of the volume of data that travels across is less.

Security

Well, SOAP and XML are plain ASCII text standards. Unless we have digital signatures embedded to the SOAP messages ,everything we have discussed so far will be insecure for corporates. Using SSL is another option. All include some tradeoffs in processing to encrypt and decrypt messages on both sides. Even Microsoft is looking into Kerberos based authentication for it's Passport.Net services.

Performance

HTTP is the biggest bottleneck the Web Service community is facing. Eventually it will be replaced.
Also embedding a thick layer of SOAP / XML messages and a set of security layers will definitely eat a lot of bandwidth compared to the binary standards like DCOM or CORBA. Also the telecom backbone will need quite a lot of reconfigurations to support the amount of data and timeout periods. Because for example, the current Internet telecom routers and switches will not keep a connection live till the web service processes a thousand customer validation. But Web services are accepted better than DCOM or CORBA by the industry. That's very important.

Finally, Web Services will make a difference in the CRM industry if the technology is used for the right purpose. But the real benefits from Web Services will happen only when the surrounding industries start deploying it.