Maintenance operations ceased to be a "necessary evil" and are currently considered as a part of a global EAO (Enterprise Asset Optimisation) policy implemented by a growing number of industrial organisations. One of the possible maintenance strategies is predictive maintenance, which requires online data acquisition as a basis for prediction arising problems. The paper presents a possible solution for integrating online status information into maintenance management systems by applying web enabling lechnologies. Since the multitude of web technologies offers a broad variety of suitable solutions, heterogeneous and incompatible implementations have to be expected. Using a concept based on context-depending XML (Extensible Markup Language) descriptions, linked together in a framework, this problem can be solved. The paper shows concepts, description methods, software tools, and migration paths in XML-based frameworks. Special focus is put on Web Services. In addition to the approach an practical example is presented.