Organizations setting out to create a Web service first need a thorough understanding of the related costs and performance issues in developing such services. Especially in smaller organizations, developing an appropriate business plan often presents problems. Organizations that want to understand their business choices need a good understanding of the expected costs and benefits of developing their Web services. The article describes a set of support tools to help assess these important factors and discuss the experience of using them in a number of public-sector organizations. Even though the Web, and even the Internet, are relatively new technologies, that organizations planning to deliver Web services proceed along the same lines as their other technology projects. They define the service they want, describe its expected effects, estimate the costs to develop and maintain it and make a decision. Using this method and its tools, organizations should be able to perform an analysis sufficient for making sound investments that will achieve desired results.