Partnering with Microsoft to Create Value in the Web Services Ecosystem, was released in July at Fusion 2001. It explains how the extensible markup language (XML) revolution is changing the information technology (IT) services ecosystem, describes the emerging ecosystem, analyzes the value of a partnership with Microsoft, and describes the advantages of partnering with Microsoft in the new ecosystem.

The XML revolution is initiating a new virtuous cycle of innovation that offers new opportunities for Microsoft, its partners, and, most important, customers.

The key findings of the study are

• Worldwide spending on IT services for horizontal solutions based on Microsoft products will grow 30 percent per year to reach $495 billion in 2004.
• Companies that partner with Microsoft and either IBM, Oracle, or Sun rate Microsoft higher in every dimension of the business value of the relationship and in every driver of value.
• Partners of Microsoft that move early into new markets for XML Web services can expect internal rates of return as high as 30 percent.