Brent Sleeper is a principal and co-founder of The Stencil Group. This article originally appeared in the firm's report, "Web Services Rules: Real-World Lessons from Early Adopters." The Stencil Group works with software companies to understand the business drivers and strategic priorties that shape their enterprise IT customers' purchase decisions. The firm focuses on the bottom-line business impact of technology solutions through consulting services that include customer needs analysis, product roadmap and positioning evaluation, and market-facing sales support.