ITWeb :Web services sound the death knell of e-markets, exchanges

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[ 27 June 2002 ] - Dr Jay van Zyl of Rubico, the business components company focused on the development of IT solutions in the financial services market, believes e-markets were a 'no-goer' from the time the concept was first initiated. He questions why people should pay a third-party for something they can set up themselves.

Now, the advent of Web services - the delivery of software-based services over the Internet - will hasten the demise of e-marketplaces further - and this is likely to be sooner rather than later.

Although market researchers believe that Web services will not become ubiquitous until 2005, Van Zyl believes the rate at which leading vendors in this space are driving the technology, should see the widespread use of this new technology by the end of 2003. Microsoft, BEA, Oracle and IBM are developing the necessary architectures at a staggering pace while enterprise applications vendors such as SAP, Baan and IFS are already enabling their solutions for Web services.

It won't be long before point-to-point communications will be easily achievable over the Internet and this will enable business to be carried out in a totally different way to how it is being done at present. This is why Web services will sound the death knell of e-markets.

Van Zyl cites as an example of the use of Web services, a company looking for the best prices for stationery from its suppliers. A Web service will enable it to query its suppliers' price lists. All parties can use their own infrastructures instead of those of an exchange.

So why should anyone use an e-marketplace in the future and pay for the privilege. E-markets just cannot deliver sufficient value-add to combat this. Web services will also impact the B2B markets, as the problem of integrating systems across the supply chain will no longer be a barrier to success.

• Rubico

Rubico is a component-based products company, delivering mission critical business solutions matching clients' unique needs via a set of reusable components. This is a solutions development approach that Gartner predicts as the applications route of the future. The company's focus is the financial services sector. Clients include Sanlam, Bankfin, Medscheme and Metropolitan. For revenue growth, the company is looking for 80% of sales to be generated overseas by 2004. The company has 180 staff members, 80% of whom are directly involved in product creation. Rubico business consultants are experts in fields other than IT, and the deliver the Rubico solution without ever having to write code. Rubico recently won the overall Grand Prix prize for innovation in the 2001 Novell-Convergence Age of Innovation Awards.

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