Creating and Consuming Web Services in Visual Basic®

Decreasing Business Costs

If your Web Service decreases your cost of doing business, it can help profitability, even if you don't charge for use of the service. You could provide a service over the phone or some other medium that typically requires a lot of human interaction. For example, an insurance agent may need to track the status of a given policy. If the policy has not been approved or denied, the agent could use an application from his or her Windows laptop to access another application on the corporate mainframe and discover if the underwriter (the individual responsible for analyzing the risk associated with a given insurance policy and deciding what it will cost to cover that risk) has noted any concerns. A Web Service could be used ...