In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, protecting the public is the foremost challenge facing all Law Enforcement Agencies. Meeting this challenge --and effectively and efficiently carrying out their responsibilities to the American people --demands that departments successfully exploit the transformative power of information technology to further the accomplishment of their mission.

Information Technology will no longer be simply a support service, but rather an active catalyst for change and a direct contributor to mission accomplishment. Information Technology will no longer be largely decentralized, but rather an integrated, cohesive endeavor that builds on shared mission requirements and fosters a collaborative management environment. Information Technology will no longer be only reactive, matching technology to an identified business need, but also proactive, looking to how new and emerging technologies may be applied.

Traditionally, many Jail Management applications deliver some of the same "centralized computing" benefits as server-based computing. The problem is that these types of machines were not designed for the thousands of GUI-based Windows applications that are available today. Also, many of today's new devices-like Windows-based terminals, PDAs, wireless tablets, and information appliances-are not compatible with the Windows-based, businesscritical applications being used in the enterprise unless rewrites are performed.

Many law enforcement agencies understand the critical nature of sharing mission critical data. To this end, CyberBest Technology in conjunction with the law enforcement community has developed a web-based Jail Management application to exploit the benefits of emerging web serves technologies.

Just about anybody working on government applications is familiar with Extensible Markup Language, which is fast becoming a popular solution for exchanging information across the Internet. XML, however, is just one component of an emerging concept known as Web services.

Still something of a mystery to many information technology professionals, Web services nonetheless are expected to be pervasive in the not-too-distant future, an essential part of every agency's toolkit for quickly fielding useful and cost-efficient government applications.

Web services, software written to link systems over the Internet, are intended to simplify the development of Web-based applications by automating the underlying processes needed for systems to interact online. Whereas XML tags information enabling it to be recognized by systems, the other three standards work more behind the scenes, automating processes so that applications know how to handle that information.