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Edd
I agree with you that the it is the "exchanging XML" part of the web services that offers the real value today.
Using XML to exchange information becomes useful when it allows a community with a common interest to orchestrate (or choreograph) standardized end-to-end business processes involving multiple organizations and disparate information systems.
Once the community has (with some rigour) specified how the standardized end-to-end business process will operate (a huge challenge in my experience if the business process has any degree of complexity) the community then needs to agree on the structure and content of the XML business documents used to exchange information (i.e. agree on an XML schema and XML tag usage).
Finally, there must be agreement on how the documents are going to be transmitted (messaging) - this is rarely a major issue.
The hype suggests that web services technologies can make multi-enterprise business process integration a simple "plug 'n play" exercise. The theoretical potential is there, but I think this is many years away. In the mean time, SOAP and WSDL have a place as useful tools (among other viable alternatives) that a community may deploy to facilitate "through the firewall" application integration. SOAP and WSDL do not address the most significant challenge however: obtaining agreement up front within a community on a standardized end-to-end business process.
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