"With the advent of technologies such as Java, XML, SOAP and WSDL, many suppliers have recently discovered the advantages of Web services," said Kimberly Trudel, webMethods' vice president for product development programs. "As these standards continue to evolve, they will make Web services more accessible to companies seeking to extend critical business processes to their trading partners over the Internet."
As companies continue to build out complex IT infrastructures, they are looking for ways to best leverage data within these applications, across their enterprises and over the Internet with trading partners. webMethods and other B2B integration providers offer companies a foundation for converting their existing business processes into Internet-enabled Web services.
Companies can also use a B2B integration platform to gain greater visibility into their supply chain, insight into manufacturing capacity and ability to forecast data.
webMethods worked with other companies to define the early specifications for SOAP and was a co-submitter of SOAP 1.1. The software company also co-authored the XKMS Web services security standard built upon WSDL and SOAP.
