ebXML Tests, Demonstrations, and Projections

ebXML Tests, Demonstrations , and Projections

At the time of this writing, ebXML has completed its technical documents, and many vendors announced their plans and schedules for software and systems supporting ebXML. While ebXML has not yet established a user base to provide case studies, the ebXML initiative did conduct several proof-of-concept tests and demonstrations during its development. These tests and demos used business data based on realistic business scenarios.

One of the demonstrations (at the 2001 Data Interchange Standards Association conference in March 2001) used a complex supply-chain scenario involving coordinated manufacturing and deliveries, vendor-managed inventories, orders with quick production schedules and tight deadlines, and replacement of an ordered product with a substitute item. Using e-business for these issues is not unknown for larger enterprises , but this demonstration involved smaller companies, such as local paper wholesalers and printing companies. The test, using realistic business data, showed that the kinds of advanced business practices made possible in big companies by EDI are now quite possible for smaller companies using ebXML.[10]

In this book, we take the kind of business scenarios in ebXML's proof-of-concept tests and develop more comprehensive scenarios to show how ebXML can apply to different kinds of realistic business cases:

• A travel agency that moves from its traditional role as a booking service to consolidator of tour packages, using XML data in customer profiles and booking messages to conduct reverse auctions over the web to make arrangements for "instant" tour groups.

• A local runners' store that institutes vendor-managed inventories, using ebXML messages to update sales forecasts, report on inventory levels, order replacement stock, and track deliveries.

• An importer of crafts from developing countries that sells by direct-mail catalogs, using ebXML messages to manage complex print orders to generate specialized copies of the catalog for identifiable market segments, and providing detailed delivery instructions for the postal service.

In all of these projected cases, the messages and systems are used by smaller companies ”not the big manufacturers, retailers, and financial services using EDI today. The technology outlined in the following sections and discussed in this book makes these kinds of improvements in business processes and practices feasible for smaller businesses.