Decreasing Business Costs

If your Web Service decreases your cost of doing business, it can help profitability, even if you don't charge for use of the service. You could provide a service over the phone or some other medium that typically requires a lot of human interaction. For example, an insurance agent may need to track the status of a given policy. If the policy has not been approved or denied, the agent could use an application from his or her Windows laptop to access another application on the corporate mainframe and discover if the underwriter (the individual responsible for analyzing the risk associated with a given insurance policy and deciding what it will cost to cover that risk) has noted any concerns. A Web Service could be used to tie the two systems together. This improves things, because the salesperson will not have to call someone to get this information. Self-service is just one way to reduce the costs of running your business.

Alternatively, you might have some useful information that many people access for free. Examples of this type of data include census data, package tracking information, and airline flight status. Much of this information is available via Web sites already. By scaling the data down to the minimal amount needed, companies can save money on bandwidth and printing costs. For example, when UPS or FedEx shows you the tracking data for your packages, they also display a large amount of graphical data. Even sparsely populated Web pages can return 10KB of data. Contrast that with a SOAP response of a few hundred bytes and you might see some real cost savings.

Free Web Services do not need to equate to anonymous access. You can require a Passport ID or other authentication and not charge for the data. You can also require a user identity if you expose the Web Service for free to trading partners. It can also make it easier for customers to place orders. Either way, the Web Service helps you save money and become more profitable.