Web services are an open standards-based, platform and language neutral technology supporting the development of software services that communicate across the Internet and can be composed to form business solutions. According to leading research firm, IDC, 80 percent of all U.S. enterprises will have developed and deployed Web services by the end of 2005. However, despite the cooperation of Web services vendors and the progress of standards development organizations like OASIS and the W3C to create open industry standards to underlie Web services, interoperability has been a key challenge for vendors and customers implementing Web services. In this Webinar, the first in a series of Webinars sponsored by the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I), Tom Glover, WS-I President and Chairman, will discuss the evolution of the Web services standards "stack", the challenge of Web services interoperability and the role played by WS-I, the premier industry organization formed to address it. In particular, this Webinar will cover the importance of WS-I profiles to an organization's Web services initiatives, and discuss how companies can use WS-I to their advantage as they move to embrace Web services and service-oriented architectures.