微软的文章:what are xml web services

Here@#s a simple example: say you have an inventory system. If you don@#t connect it to anything else, it@#s not very valuable. You can track inventory, but it@#s a lot of work, and what that one system can do all by itself is limited. Every item you sell needs to be entered not only into your inventory system, but also separately into your accounting system, and your customer account records. Then you need to remember to order more of that item from your suppliers next time you place an order. The cost/benefit ratio is largely unappealing, because the gains from the system are close to the overhead costs of using it.

However, if you connect your inventory system to your accounting system with XML, it gets more interesting. Now, whenever you buy or sell something, the implications for your inventory and your cash flow can be tracked in one step. If you go further, and connect your warehouse management system, customer ordering system, supplier ordering systems, and your shipping company with XML, suddenly that inventory management system is worth a lot: you can do end-to-end management of your business while dealing with each transaction only once, instead of once for every system it affects. A lot less work, and a lot less room for errors.