Web Services Enter the Mainstream
Because Web services allow different systems to talk to each other, making decisions and transactions based solely on machine communication, humans must be smarter than the machines. In short, we must know when to interfere.
Basically, said Whit Andrews, a research director at Gartner, Web services offer "increased operability in machine interfaces." And they are already paying off. Andrews cited UK retailer Marks & Spencer's use of Microsoft's MapPoint [Web Services].
When a cash register at one of Marks & Spencer's 500-plus stores records two or more credit card sales in a single day on the same account, the system checks the locations, calculates travel time between them, compares that with the actual time between sales and sends the information back to the store's point-of-sale system. This makes it fast and easy to stop multiple shoppers from trying to max out a stolen credit card account.
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