Hi.
a) Yes, you can.
b) What about these?

How to Send SOAP call using MSXML (replace STK)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jpsanders/ar...place-stk.aspx

or
How To Use an XML Web Service by Using ASP.NET from an Office VBA
Macro in Word or Excel
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307033/en-us