Christening the Good Ship...

It's an interesting time to cast our eyes on the world of Web services. IDC forecasts that global spending on such projects will rise from $1.1 billion in 2003 to reach $11 billion by 2008. Gartner considers the emergence of services oriented architectures (SOA) to be the number one software industry trend through 2009. It surveyed 110 companies and found that 54 percent are currently working on Web services projects or intend to launch them soon.

Web services, argues management theorist John Hagel, provide "a catalyst to help managers break out of the organizational, structural, and mental 'boxes' that have to date prevented organizations from achieving higher levels of performance." John Seely Brown, taking this logic even further, contends that Web services may hold "the key to our next wave of economic growth." Clearly, there are opportunities here to transform the software industry and reclaim the credibility that has been lost in the IT backlash of recent years.

It is in this enterprising spirit that we crack the Dom Perignon bottle on this blog and set it off to sea. The authors of this blog -- Joe McKendrick and Britton Manasco -- intend to provide insights, perspectives and discoveries that illuminate this powerful trend and help show where the most significant business opportunities lie.