A new era of flexibility: software on your terms through Web services.

The shift to Web-based association management software (AMS) predicted here two years ago is, in fact, taking place, and at a rapid rate. With Web-based software now the standard in our industry, what is next on the association technology horizon? There is exciting news to report.

The next development, and one that is already available to you today, is the ability to easily assemble and modify your own ideal software tool set using a large and rapidly growing number of nimble, exchangeable software components. We are leaving the rigid client-server world of vendor lock and entering an era of true freedom of software choice made possible through XML Web services.

Until now, much of the complexity and difficulty of integrating different software applications across an organization stemmed from the absence of a standardized data exchange methodology. XML Web services provide a set of standards that allow applications to exchange information in a universally accepted format. This vastly simplifies the integration process and makes it possible for organizations to add and subtract software tools with a minimum of cost and effort.

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Is this significant? William Ulrich wrote in an article for Computer World ("Plan for Transition to Web Services," August 20, 2001) that "Web services will have as profound an impact on information management as the assembly line had on the auto industry."

Associations know the cost of the historical lack of standards only too well. Across the past decade, many have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars integrating their Web sites to their back-office AMS applications. If complex business rules need to be preserved across the two systems, the cost and complexity increases. Products built as XML Web services enjoy a significant advantage--they share data readily using a standardized format.

Venture capitalist Fergal Mullen extends the earlier analogy in a May 19, 2003, article in Computer World. He sees ".... a world in which we construct software in the same manner as we construct automobiles. Assembly will be the operative word. Across the next three to five years, best-of-breed software components, developed internally or discovered externally, will form the building blocks, and Web services will be the glue that binds the components together to form new applications."

Web services also provide benefits by fostering a wonderful proliferation of services available to associations and their members. We have already seen Web service integrations to UPS/FedEx services, online e-fax services, online survey tools, mapping programs, and a host of other useful spot solutions. Amazon.com has already released its XML interface to more than 30,000 independent developers that are building integrations to their products and services. Our company has done the same within the association market, by releasing our XML Integration Library to a host of specialty software tool providers via our "Avectra Connected" program.

Member-based organizations should insist upon software that is built to take full advantage of XML Web services. Member expectations will continue to rise with the ever-improving levels of service and communication that they receive over the Web from the private sector. To prosper, associations will need to provide services of a similar quality.

Fortunately, the association industry is not without direction. The Association Data Standards Consortium is pioneering XML standards specifically for association-industry integration needs and for software vendors to follow.

Allan Vermeulen, Amazon.com's chief technology officer and vice president, commented in a 2003 keynote speech for syscon.com: "It's exactly like the incredible wave of innovation that happened at the beginning of the 20th century around electrical appliances. The connectivity is in place, the basic standards are sufficiently agreed upon, and the building blocks of distributed software exist."

In short, we are leaving the era of client-server technology and entering the era of Web services, .NET is a superior platform for building XML Web services, and organizations or software developers that have already invested in .NET technology are therefore well-positioned. Fortunately, associations that have not yet done so are not too late.

Robert Miller is president of Avectra, McLean, Virginia (with offices in Chicago). E-mail: [e-mail].

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COMPANY BIO 

Avectra is the leading technology provider to the nation's most influential member-based organizations. First achieving success as a high-end provider of traditional client-server membership applications, Avectra became a global leader in Web-based software when its technologists pioneered the delivery of membership management applications to associations of all sizes via the Internet.

Avectra's industry-leading netFORUM is a complete Web-based solution combining member management, Web site content management, e-commerce, and e-marketing. netFORUM is enhanced through Avectra's PartnerNET--a range of optional, add-on third-party products and services that complement netFORUM's ever-expanding functionality. PartnerNET includes best-of-breed offerings from both the member-based and commercial sectors.

Contact:

800-858-8272

www.avectra.com