  <WebMethod()> Public Function GetEmployeeName(ByVal EmployeeNumber As String) As String

        'Create and set the Connection and SQL Statement strings
        Dim ConnectionString As String
        Dim SelectStatement As String

        ConnectionString = "Provider=IBMDA400.DataSource.1;" & _
            "User ID=UserID;Password=Password;Data Source=HostAddress;"
        SelectStatement = "Select EmpNam from Midrange.Employees where EmpNum = '" & _
            EmployeeNumber.ToString() & "'"

        'Establish a connection with the database
        Dim Connection As New Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(ConnectionString)

        'Establish the pipeline to the actual data
        Dim da As New Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter(SelectStatement, Connection)

        'Create a Dataset to hold the returned set of data
        Dim ds As New Data.DataSet()

        'Fill the Dataset with data
        da.Fill(ds, "Employees")

'Extract the Employee Name from the result set and return to calling Web Service 'Client
        GetEmployeeName = ds.Tables("Employees").Rows(0).Item("EmpNam")

    End Function