To solve these problems, Hewitt and the jStart team worked together to build Web services to address the needs of Hewitt's customers. Web services are a new kind of application that uses XML in a number of interesting ways:

• First of all, Web services typically use SOAP, an XML standard for moving XML data from one place to another.
• Secondly, the interfaces provided by a Web service (method names, parameters, data types, etc.) are described with XML.
• Next, a Web service's description can be stored in or retrieved from a UDDI registry; all of the information that goes into or comes out of the registry is formatted as XML.
• Finally, the data that is provided by the Web service is itself XML.

Hewitt has delivered two applications that illustrate their ability to deliver data in more flexible ways:

• With the Secure Participant Mailbox, authorized users can request reports containing personalized information on retirement and other employee benefits.
• With the Retirement Access B2B Connection, authorized users can get details of a client's 401(k) financial information.

Both of these applications retrieve data from existing legacy systems, use XML to format the data, and deliver the formatted information across the Web. Because these applications are built on open standards, Hewitt can deliver them quickly. Best of all, the flexibility of these applications helps Hewitt distinguish itself from its competitors.

"We see Web services as the vehicle to provide open, non-proprietary access to our participant business services and data through a ubiquitous data network," said Tim Hilgenberg, Chief Technology Strategist at Hewitt. The end result: Hewitt develops more flexible applications faster and cheaper, clients get better access to their data, and Hewitt's existing legacy applications don't have to change.