IBM Means Business With Plans For Applications On Net Web Services Fast Expanding But Big Blue pressing for more standards to help advance B2B on Internet.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: J. BONASIA

The software catch phrase of the day is "Web services." But few executives and programmers can agree on a definition of the term.

Bob Sutor, director of e-business standards strategy for IBM Corp., describes Web services as business applications that connect easily on the Internet. Such software does away with the custom code needed to integrate systems, he says.

Web services are key to the growth of online business-to-business commerce. B2B Net sales are expected to grow more than tenfold by 2006, says Jupiter Media Metrix.

But with so many companies offering Web services, there could be plenty of confusion.

That's why the industry needs common standards, Sutor says. Standards would allow the computer systems of business partners, …