enabling e-business communication

White Paper

Enabling E-BusinessCommunication

Question: What Will Be Your Organizations

Biggest E-Business Challenge?

Enabling E-Business Communication White Paper2

The Promise and Peril of E-Business

Along with the wheel, fire, andelectricity, the Internet is one of themost innovative human inventions.The Internet offers an unrivaledvehicle for information exchange.Despite its promise of collaboration,lowered transaction costs, increasedrevenues, and mass customization, e-business also raises a completely newset of business and technology issues.

The business challenges include new.com entrants into traditionalmarkets, misguided e-businessstrategies, channel conflict, andnumerous others. Companies arenow in the midst of developing andredefining their e-business strategies.They realize e-business strategy doesnot mean abandoning all of thetraditional business processes; e-business is a vehicle to improveexisting processes. However, it is not business issues, which will derail most e-business projects; it isthe technology issues. In the nexteighteen months, companies willstruggle with e-businesscommunication and integration.

E-Business ExponentiallyIntensify A Company’sCommunication Needs

The primary technology hurdle will behow companies exchange businessdocuments and information over theweb. Figure One illustrates the e-communication challenges a companyfaces in the Net economy.

The hypothetical Metal company in the above graphic likely doesbusiness with hundreds of customers and suppliers. How do these companies exchangeinformation? Each of these trading partners possesses its owninternal information systems andbusiness processes.

The metal company supplies rolled steel for auto body panels to automotive manufacturers. Thetwo companies likely share standardEDI documents to exchange shippingschedules, purchase orders, invoices,and logistics information. GeneralMotors or Ford will require AcmeMetal to support their existing EDI infrastructure.

Acme Metals also supplies cold rolledsteel to the Aerospace and Defenseindustry, companies like Boeing andRaytheon. Raytheon, an SAP shop,needs support for SAP’s IDOCs,proprietary EDI documents orBusiness Application ProgrammingInterfaces (BAPIs). Boeing, whichstandardized on BAAN and Corba,needs support for Business ObjectInterfaces (BOIs) and Object RequestBrokers (ORBs).

The situation is intensified as we look at other potential customers’needs. Delmonte and Dole, twoconsumer packaged goods vendors,procure metal for canned goods. Thecompanies may have settled on anXML standard, such as cXML or xCBLto distribute request for proposals.

Answer: Managing E-business communications

Figure One: An Organizations E-Business Challenge

Enabling E-Business Communication White Paper 3

Acme Metal must also addresscommunication issues with itssuppliers. Many mills procure rawmaterials from scrap consolidators foruse in converting into new, shinysteel rolls and bars. The requiredmode of communication might be aflat file transfer. Acme will also needto submit shipping documents to itslogistics providers using the old-fashioned, fax machine or email;hardly a high level of businessprocess integration.

E-Business Communication:One Size Won’t Fit All

Acme’s situation exemplifies whatmany organizations will be strugglingwith in the coming years: How tosupport the communication andintegration needs of a diverse e-business community? XML and the Internet will only comprise asmall percentage of businesscommunications. In addition, manyindustries are not abandoningtraditional processes, such as EDI.What communication format andchannel will dominate?

In the near future, no one datachannel or format will encompass allof a business’ communication needs.Businesses will need support fortraditional and new means ofcommunication. Successful e-businesses will need flexible supportconcerning document formats andchannels. EDI, email, paper, HTML,XML, fax, wireless and print will allplay a significant role.

The automotive industry is oftencalled out as the example of an early adopter of industry widestandardized document exchange via EDI. Contrary to perception, EDI was only utilized between theautomotive manufacturers and theirTier One or largest suppliers. EDI was too costly and complex for small and medium size suppliers.Despite its shortcomings, EDI willremain a business communicationvehicle many companies will need to support. The important point isthat companies have significantinvestments in EDI and will needindependent software vendors tosupport that investment. It is naive to believe organizations or valuechain partners are going to rip outEDI systems. These systems representmulti-million dollar investments intime, resources, and effort, but moreimportantly, they work. For manyorganizations EDI still represents thelowest cost, secure transaction.

Now, business process integration is the promised land. Manyindependent software vendors claimthe ability to integrate organizations’business processes. It is an elusivedream for the simple reason thatmany companies are unwilling orunable to support business processintegration. With the exception oforganizations like WalMart andGeneral Motors, both industry giants, companies will not be able to force data standards onto itstrading partners.

One of the primary touted benefits of the Internet has been inclusion.Small and medium size companies,who could not afford the majorservices work of EDI or applicationintegration, would be able toparticipate in the new economy by simply opening Netscape orMicrosoft Explorer. While the Internet does provide a low costcommunication channel, thedocument standards that need to be supported are complex anddaunting. EDI/XML, XML, HTML, PDF, and email are the most commondocuments transmitted over theInternet. Companies must supporteach of these document types, especially email.

Email will play a dominant role in e-business communications. AMRResearch, a noted analyst firm inBoston, Massachusetts believes emailwill be the communication vehicle ofchoice in the Net economy. Email isinclusive; it is available on thedesktops of all employees within anorganization. It provides a way todeliver information directly to theappropriate user. In addition, email ismore compatible with wirelesstechnology. Bandwidth issues limitwireless technology. For personaldigital assistants and mobiletelephones, Email provides a user-friendly interface versus a scaleddown browser.


The Acme Metals scenario does noteven take into account the advent ofwireless applications and devices.Wireless is a technology in search ofa business value, but soon it will addanother communication channelcompanies will need to support.Companies will have to deliverbusiness information remotely toemployees, trading partners,customers via short message service (SMS) or wireless applicationprotocol (WAP).

Finally, at least for the near future,traditional communication vehiclessuch as print media and fax willremain a staple of doing business.Everyone is familiar with thepredictions of the paperless officewhen minicomputers and personalcomputers exploded into theworkplace. Analysts predicted papermills worldwide would ceaseoperations. It never occurred,contrary to predictions the computersgenerated record paper usage. Again,the same analysts are predicting theInternet will be the harbinger of thepaperless workplace. They fail torealize it takes time for companies to reengineer old habits and business processes.

The e-business challenge is clear.How does a company support the various document formats and channels?

XML – The Solution to E-Business Communication?

Extensible markup language (XML) isa technology that enables businessesto exchange information. It has beenhighly touted as the e-businesscommunication and integrationpanacea. It does not propose adefinition for business documents,

but a blue print for building businessdocuments. However, XML whilehighly touted, is still very much in its infancy.

A common saying is “The wonderfulthing about standards is that thereare so many to choose from.” XMLprovides a wonderful anecdote forthis saying. XML is fragmentingacross four groups:

• Standard Bodies: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the OpenApplication Group (OAG), andXML/EDI organization are three of the open standards bodies eachdefining XML document typedefinitions and schemas.

• Application Vendors: Microsoft’s majorinitiative is BizTalk, SAP is developingXSF, an XML document exchangestandard, Commerce One and Aribahave developed their own XMLschemas, xCBL and cXML, respectively.

• Industry consortiums: RosettaNet isthe defacto XML standard in theinformation technology and electroniccomponent sector. EbXML is gainingacceptance in the global retail sector.It is only the beginning.

• Large Companies: Major companies,like WalMart and General Motors, whocan force XML standards up and downtheir value chains, will build their ownXML standards.

Very simply XML does not provideone standard for building andexchanging documents; it onlyprovides a blueprint. If twentycompanies used XML to build apurchase order, very rapidly twentydifferent XML based purchase orderswould evolve reflecting the individualneeds of the respective businesses.

What are the repercussions for yourbusiness? If your company is asupplier to more than one industry, itmay need to support more than oneXML standard. If your company is asupplier to a larger organization,expect a mandated XML standard forexchanging business documents. Itwill be important to have localrepositories of appropriate schemasand documents type definitions(DTDs), XML mapping tools,transformation tools, and a vehiclefor ensuring guaranteed delivery ofXML documents.

XML is not a passing fad. XMLadoption will be rapid in someindustries, like hi-technology, slowerin others, like the pharmaceuticalindustry, but XML will become acomponent of document exchange inmost supply chains. Nevertheless, it isimportant to note, that XML whilepromising, will only encompass asmall percentage of businesscommunication and transactions.Organizations will still need tosupport other document channelsand formats.

The Importance ofDocument Based E-Business

Early this year AMR Researchidentified the five components,which an organization must address in building a successfule-business. The five components are identified on the following page:


• Actors – Well defined roles of internal and external users betweentrading partners

• Activities – The business process E-commerce automates, such as procurement

• Accounts - Integration of the accountswithin the Enterprise Resource Planningand Supply Chain Management, suchas accounts payable, inventorymanagement, etc.

• Associations – An organized flow ofinformation between constituents

• Articles – The ability to emulate theexchange of business documents, suchas purchase orders, engineeringdocuments, etc.

Of the five components, articles sit at the center of the 5A Framework.How organizations exchange articlesor documents is at the heart of anye-commerce project. The importanceof strong document support for e-business communications cannotbe understated. However, thedocument support cannot be tied to one standard such as XML or EDI.Effective e-business supportsinformation exchange through amyriad of document vehicles, paper,XML, EDI, XML/EDI, email, fax, printor wireless. A purchase order relayedin any of the preceding formats is stilla purchase order; the only differenceis the level of integration enabled byeach document.

An excellent example is the marineshipping industry. Information anddocuments drive the maritimeshipping industry. Documents, whichoriginate with the shipper will spanthe entire value chain and touch eachparticipant along the way. The belowfigure outlines the Marine ShippingIndustry Value Chain.

Actors

Articles

AccountsActivitiesSource: AMR Research

Associations

Figure Two: The 5A Framework


Within the industry, during the pastten years a small percentage of thedocuments have been migrated toEDI, but paper, email, fax, and nowthe Internet and wireless also enablebusiness document exchange.

Again, documents drive the Maritimeshipping value chain. The belowdocuments are the result of twodocuments initially prepared by theshipper – the commercial invoice andpacking list.

• Booking request

• Advanced Shipping Notice

• Booking Confirmation

• Shipment Document

• Certificate of Origin

• Bill of Lading

• Customs Documentation

• Materials Safety and Data Sheets

The documents evolve into otherdocuments as they travel down thevalue chain with the physical product.The Maritime Shipping Industrypresents a real world scenario. It is ahighly fragmented and geographicallydispersed industry, which must takeinto consideration each of theplayers’ communication capabilities.Companies across industries must put an effective e-business platformin place to deal with the diversedocument requirements of eachtrading partner.

Building An E-BusinessCommunicationInfrastructure

Based on the early example of Acme Metal and the real life example of the Maritime ShippingIndustry it is evident that businesscommunications is a complexbusiness and technology problem.The following five points detail themajor factors needed to consider in building an e-businesscommunication infrastructure.

It must support existing business processes

The task of e-business is monumentalin its own right without another roundof business process reengineering.The business communicationframework must be able to supportthe existing relationships and workflowintra- and inter-enterprise. At thesame time, the framework shouldallow for innovative processes, suchas wireless communication.

It must provide business process integration

Larger organizations doing businessare actively moving towardsapplication-to-application integration.SAP-to-SAP, I2 to Oracle, andCommerce One to SAP are only afew examples. A strong businesscommunication platform will offersupport for application programminginterfaces (APIs), remote procedurecalls (RPCs) and electronic documents.

It must leverage existing business applications and legacy applications.

“The reports of my death are greatlyexaggerated.” – Mark Twain. Thequote is certainly appropriate in light of analyst and trade publicationsrecent view of the ERP industry.Businesses spent billions of dollars in the past ten years implementingERP systems. These companies arenot going to walk away from multi-million dollar investments. They are now tasked with extending thecapabilities outside the organizationsfour walls. An E-business CommunicationInfrastructure must offer strong backend integration into these systems.

It must be flexible and inclusive

To standardize customer and supplierrelationships on hard codedapplication integration or one datastandard is not fair or a strategicbusiness decision. As usual, theorganizations that will feel thegreatest growing pains will be smallto medium size companies. Inclusionmeans understanding some valuablesuppliers may not be able to rapidlyadopt new standards. Think of theimpact of forcing business partners to standardize on XML tomorrow; it would be counterproductive and unrealistic.

It must support personalization

Business to business personalizationinvolves delivering information in the format needed by the intendedrecipient, at the correct time, whetherit be real time or publish and subscribe,and in through the desired channel.Personalization is built upon strongintegration, transformation, andpublishing capabilities.

Figure Three: Maritime Supply Chain


StreamServe Solution forE-Business Communication The StreamServe solution supportsthree distinct levels of businesscommunication:

• Personalized Document Delivery & Presentation

• eBusiness Enablement

• eBusiness Collaboration.

Each of the three levels encompassthe preceding five points. Figure Fourprovides a roadmap for deployingand supporting a flexiblecommunication framework. Thearrow depicts an evolving level ofbusiness process enables.

At the center of diagram is thebusiness application or e-marketplace.Most organizations have a uniformset of operating information, such as production schedules, materialmasters, customer masters, financialinformation, and distribution. Theinformation is contained in ERPsystems or legacy systems. Streamserveextends this information through ERPconnectivity or application integration;two different enabling capabilities.ERP connectivity allows Streamserveto pull information out of back endsystems for one-way communication.Application integration provides bi-directional information capabilities.Streamserve offers integration andconnectivity for most of the majorbusiness applications, such as SAP,Intentia, Oracle, BAAN, Ariba, QAD,and others.

Personalized DocumentDelivery & PresentationStreamserve’s traditional functionalityutilizes strong ERP connectivity toextract information and deliver theinformation across traditional channels:fax, print, and pdf. Streamserve helpscompanies personalize what were

typically static documents, such asbills and invoices. Our solution canalso archive these documents forfuture reference; an ideal capabilityfor customer service representatives.

Oklahoma Gas and Electricity, (OG&E)provides an excellent case study forour personalized document deliveryand presentation capabilities. OG&Eis a midwestern utility company thatsupplies energy to over 700,000customers. The utility was looking fora way to offer a higher value to itscustomers through personalized billsand invoices. Streamserve offered the solution to OG&E’s businessproblem. The StreamServe applicationseamlessly integrates into OG&E’sSAP R/3 back end system, pulling the information out, thenpersonalizes the customer’s billinginformation based on energy usage,geographic location, and customertype. StreamServe automates andpersonalizes 35,000 billing statementsa week. OG&E customer servicerepresentatives are also able toleverage StreamServe’s archiving

capabilities to quickly and efficientlyhandle customer inquiries based onpast billing statements.

E-Business EnablementThis level of business communicationutilizes Internet technologies tobroaden a company's communicationcapabilities. It supports FTP, HTTP,HTTPS, and SSL. Streamserve leveragesthese innovative technologies toexpand an organization's documentdelivery capabilities. Business documentscan be emailed, displayed in anInternet browser, sent in EDI over the net, or distributed via XML. It also supports the major wirelessstandards, such as SMS, WAP, andWML. Goteborg Energi AB, whichsupplies power to 240,000 customersin Gothenburg, Sweden's secondlargest city, utilizes StreamServe’s e-Business Enablement technologiesto expand its level of communicationcapabilities. Due to sweepingderegulation of the Swedish powerindustry, change has become the

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Document Deliv

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Business Application/eMarketplace

Transactions/MessageQueuing

BusinessProcessManagement

Print

Fax

PDF

Archive

Email

HTML

XML(EDI)

Mobile

DataTransformation

DirectoryServices

Trading PartnersNetworks

StreamServeCommunication Platform

B2B

eCatalog

On-line Services

PervasiveCommunication

B2C

Automated OutputDistribution

OutputCustomization

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Figure Four: StreamServe Communication Platform

rule rather than the exception. WithGoteborg Energi sending out over amillion invoices a year, the energycompany needed to define a moreefficient and user-friendly process forits invoice distribution. StreamServe'sePayment capability enables thedelivery of electronic invoices andpayment information directly toGoteborg Energi customers' individualInternet banks. StreamServe'sePayment options not only custom-tailors billing information, but alsoallows the payee to receive and makepayments through their Internetbanking services.

E-Business CollaborationWith third level of e-businesscommunication, Streamserve deliversstrong e-business collaboration.StreamServe’s recent participation inthe Open Application Group’s (OAG)B2B Vendor Challenge demonstratesour e-business collaboration capabilities.The OAG Vendor Challenge consistedof three different scenarios for B2Btransactions using OAG’s openstandards-based XML Business ObjectDocuments (BODs). Lockheed Martin,Lucent Technologies and Ford MotorCompany presented real life scenarios.The B2B Vendor Challenge’s objective

was to show how customers couldoperate more efficiently usingvendor-implemented BODs for B2Btransactions. StreamServe succeededin supporting the required dataexchange for such transactions.

StreamServe played the role of thecustomer in Lockheed Martin’spurchasing scenario. It successfullydemonstrated its ability to supportinteroperability between internalsystems, Product Data Management(PDM) and Enterprise ResourcePlanning (ERP), as well as with thevendor’s external system.

StreamServe began with thecustomer’s PDM system to pick uppurchase orders, (POs), containing a fixed price for the known productand a not-to-exceed, (NTE), price for the newly modified unit.StreamServe transformed the PDMPOs from the original OAGI BODformat to the ERP system’s requiredSAP IDOC (Intermediate Documents)message format by mapping it toSAP XML. From the customer’s ERPsystem, StreamServe prepared a“complex” purchase order (PO) toinclude both the standard and newitems. It mapped the document backinto OAGI BOD format for the vendorto process. StreamServe then passed

the PO to the vendor and listened for the vendor’s acknowledgementresponse, advance shipment noticeand invoice from the vendor. TheOAG example demonstrates howStreamServe can help companiescollaborate across their value chain.

ConclusionAcme Metal and the Marine Shipping industry demonstrate thecommunication hurdles companiesface in the Net economy. Effective e-business communication needs toencompass a diverse set of channelsand formats. EDI failed to deliver aninclusive data exchange standard but is still the document standard for many companies. XML is too early in development to offer oneencompassing document standard,and wireless looms on the horizon asa new data channel and format tosupport. Application integration willlikely only address the needs of largercorporations. In addition, companieswill still utilize print, fax, and email.Streamserve builds a communicationinfrastructure that helps them meetthe communication challenges of an e-business world and positionthemselves for the changing marketdemands down the road.

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