Leveraging Web services for business intelligence

Web services - hailed by analysts as the next technology focus - will speed the development and deployment of applications, reducing time to market and costs.

"Basically, Web services are applications that call other routines using Internet protocols," says Bruce Jones, sales support manager at SAS, the leader in business intelligence. SAS recently announced its continued support for Web services through upcoming releases of its software.

SAS has extended its support for Web services in its latest version through enhancing the scalability and manageability of the SAS services-oriented architecture. Software in Release 9.1 will integrate with Java and .NET to support key Web services standards, as they mature, such as Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), and Web Services Description Language (WSDL).

"Our commitment to supporting Web Services is testament to our openness strategy," says Jones. "Currently, SAS' services-oriented architecture delivers Web services through Java and .NET. By leveraging SAS functionality through Web services, IT departments will be able to speed up the deployment of applications that expedite effective decision-making."

The power of SAS software allows businesses to make informed, accurate decisions that are based not only on historical information, but also on the ability to predict future trends. For example, SAS customers can forecast the most profitable timing for marketing promotions and campaigns.

"No other vendor can deliver this intelligence capability through leveraging Web services," says Jones.

"The development of viable industry standards is critical for the growth of SAS and other software companies. Businesses have positioned standards to drive consistency and to reduce IT costs. By supporting and implementing a wide range of standards and protocols, such as J2EE and COM, SAS' services-oriented architecture is capable of integrating into any IT environment. SAS will continue to support Web service standards in our future software releases."

For years, SAS has ensured that its technologies are open and adaptable for any IT environment. In February, SAS became an initial contributing member of the Web Services Interoperability Organisation, an industry group dedicated to the development of Web service applications that adheres to practical and vendor-neutral interoperability standards.

SAS representatives also participate on many committees within the standards community, including the metadata-focused OMG Common Warehouse MetaModel Group, portlet-centric JSR-168 and the data interaction-targeted XML for Analysis Council. SAS further demonstrated its commitment to support open standards by recently expanding its role on the XML for Analysis Council from contributing member to that of co-chair.