General Motors Corp. is already committed to using the Internet to routinely connect with employees, suppliers, and customers, and now it's looking at Web services--a set of XML-based protocols for universal application integration--to help make that happen. The automaker has launched far-reaching Web-services tests that, by year's end, should result in workers using Web-services tags to freely access GM's vast stores of data via the company's 130,000-seat Lotus Notes installation.

But that's just the beginning. Chief technology officer Tony Scott says Web-services standards ultimately will let his company create marketing partnerships in order to deliver new services. Behind his enthusiasm is the fact that any application incorporating Web-services standards--Simple Object Access Protocol, Web Services Description Language, Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration, and XML--can automatically discover and connect with any other Web services.

GM's Web-services test is the first step. Through EDS, its primary outsourcer, the company is testing Web-services software from Microsoft (.Net) and IBM (WebSphere), and Java 2 Enterprise Edition software from Sun Microsystems. Testers in a Detroit lab are probing the vendors' services for scalability, stability, documentation quality, and compatibility with GM's custom applications. Those apps work in concert with packages from i2 Technologies, SAP, and Siebel Systems.

GM's rollout would begin at the desktop. If all goes as anticipated, Notes users would be able to aggregate information that represents "the day-to-day churning of the business," regardless of its source, Scott says. That is, daily performance reports from various departments, as well as sales metrics and human-resources information.

That's not so easy today. An HR worker, for instance, might be running a Notes application that requires employee information not contained in the directory to which the application is linked. By exposing all data in a Web-services format, that person could gather information from any company directory.

Software vendors are tooling up for what looks to be a lucrative opportunity. Microsoft claims that future versions of Office will natively support the kind of Web-services compatibility demanded by GM. Microsoft has already released a Web-services tool kit for Excel. One possible use that it has discussed with GM: Factory workers could use Excel to access production information stored in a server. "It's a great way to provide access to a back-end system," says Kurt DelBene, Microsoft's VP of authoring and collaboration services. Last week, SAP released connectors that let its ERP applications communicate with software running on .Net and WebSphere, as well as third-party J2EE servers.

Web services would help GM expose key information to a wider set of users, Scott says. For instance, parties inside and outside the company--ranging from help-desk workers to dealers--require access to the unique vehicle identification number that GM assigns to each car it makes. GM now has to build hundreds of custom interfaces to link those user apps to the VIN database. Anyone with a Web-services-enabled version of SAP, for instance, could access the information. It would "greatly simplify" the whole situation, Scott says.

That's all good, but Scott has his concerns. Because GM uses hardware and software from almost every major vendor, he needs to be sure that each company's implementation will be truly standards-based. So far, so good on that front, says Jose De La Torre, national managing principal at integrator RCG Information Technology. De La Torre, whose firm does Web-services consulting for the auto industry, says he doesn't see any of the major software vendors lagging when it comes to support for Web-services standards. "We've worked with everything out there and it does appear truly interoperable," he says.

Still, Scott isn't totally convinced, given the long history of platform wars between vendors. "I'm happy with the talk, but it remains to be seen if they can actually deliver something," he says.

Security is also a concern. Because making the most of Web services means exposing information to more and more users, the opportunities for illicit access increase proportionately. But Scott is hopeful that by reducing everything to a common interface with a set of security rules and guidelines, Web services might actually help increase security by simplifying the IT infrastructure.