Consultants must respond to Web services, says analyst. (APP Dev News Review).

Consulting companies must re-invent themselves to take advantage of opportunities created by web services or risk going out of business as systems integration revenues dry-up. Analyst ZapThink has predicted that systems integration revenue by professional services organizations will decrease more than 70% by 2010 as the implementation of web services specifications in software vendors' products means out-of-the box integration.

Revenue from so-called Service Oriented Business Process, meanwhile, will increase 20 fold according to ZapThink. Systems integrators must learn business process design, optimization and execution.

In an earlier April report, ZapThink identified emerging specifications in the fields of choreography, composition, collaboration and coordination, among others, as specifications that underpin Service Oriented Processes.

ZapThink, whose research focus is in web services and Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs), identified IT computing supertanker IBM Corp, among others, as an example of a vendor attempting to change the way that it offers IT to customers.

Companies are using SOAs to deliver so-called OnDemand strategies, a nebulous and voguish term for more flexible computing that is better able to support business needs.

ZapThink has claimed that a "significant opportunity" exists during the next five years for consulting firms to help companies implement and adopt SOAs. In the long-term, ZapThink said, consultants can provide business process expertise.

The analyst predicted revenue from systems integration would be overtaken by revenue from SOA by 2006. "There will be increased demand for architectural consulting, business process consulting and the implementation tasks associated with building SOAs," ZapThink said. "The market for systems integration will dry up, requiring system integrators to change their business focus."