Book excerpt: According to recent press reports, everyone is developing Web Services, but many are still in the exploratory phase - learning what's involved and how to achieve ROI. This book is designed to give a working introduction to Web Services to help decision-makers prepare for the implementation in their companies. It demystifies the topic by providing a beginning level explanation of what this technology is, what it means to businesses, where to apply it, and how to make it work. Using numerous simple examples, the book explains the core concepts of Web Services: SOAP, UDDI, and WSDL, as well as tools and related concepts that will help create the "big picture" in readers' minds.