Supply Chain Standards Moving Forward

As we move toward a more real-time enterprise and a real-time economy, the use of supply chain standards will become more pervasive. Indeed, we can foresee a day when all information systems within a trading community exchange information and leverage common processes, thus automating all aspects of the supply chain, including ordering, billing, shipping, production, and logistics.

As we move forward with supply chain integration, the challenge is to get everyone on the same set of standards. Standards bodies are competing for hearts and minds, and movement toward standards is slow. It's clear that most enterprise architects understand that some standards can be risky, but to not move toward standards is to not move the organization forward.

To this end, we will see a slow adoption of standards over the years, but it's going to be steady. Moreover, you have to remember that application integration, the focus of this book, and supply chain integration go hand in hand. You have no hope of getting your supply chain under control if your current information systems are not integrated, and thus able to expose and consume information.

We must also consider the notion of synergy with horizontal standards, such as Web services and ebXML. Most supply chain integration standards, including the two we discussed in this chapter, will continue to leverage these standards; thus, you need to factor that in to your architecture and technology choices. Remember, everything is inter-related.



Next Generation Application Integration(c) From Simple Information to Web Services
Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services
ISBN: 0201844567
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 220

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