Jim,

One of the uses I see for Web Services is as a very scalable way to get at data. IOW, you could deploy an app that could be used by a single PC, by several workstations on a LAN or by any number of devices (hand-helds, etc.) across the Internet, all utilizing the same Web Service to access the data.

We write shrink-wrapped software for Fire Departments ... this scenario would scale nicely for small volunteer fire departments all the way up to huge city departments (in fact, FDNY is one of our customers). We've not done anything with Web Services in this regard, but it sure would be nice to start moving in that direction.

~~Bonnie