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222 Part Two Information Technology Infrastructure

developers reuse these services in other combinations to assemble other
applications as needed.
Virtually all major software vendors provide tools and entire platforms for
building and integrating software applications using Web services. IBM includes
Web service tools in its WebSphere e-business software platform, and Microsoft
has incorporated Web services tools in its Microsoft .NET platform.
Dollar Rent A Car’s systems use Web services for its online booking system
with Southwest Airlines’ Web site. Although both companies’ systems are based
on different technology platforms, a person booking a flight on Southwest.com
can reserve a car from Dollar without leaving the airline’s Web site. Instead
of struggling to get Dollar’s reservation system to share data with Southwest’s
information systems, Dollar used Microsoft .NET Web services technology as
an intermediary. Reservations from Southwest are translated into Web services
protocols, which are then translated into formats that can be understood by
Dollar’s computers.
Other car rental companies have linked their information systems to air-
line companies’ Web sites before. But without Web services, these connections
had to be built one at a time. Web services provide a standard way for Dollar’s
computers to “talk” to other companies’ information systems without having to
build special links to each one. Dollar is now expanding its use of Web services
to link directly to the systems of a small tour operator and a large travel reserva-
tion system as well as a wireless Web site for cell phones and smartphones. It
does not have to write new software code for each new partner’s information
systems or each new wireless device (see Figure 5.11).

FIGURE 5.11 HOW DOLLAR RENT A CAR USES WEB SERVICES

Dollar Rent A Car uses Web services to provide a standard intermediate layer of software to “talk” to
other companies’ information systems. Dollar Rent A Car can use this set of Web services to link to
other companies’ information systems without having to build a separate link to each firm’s systems.

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