Getting Started with ebXML

The overall process for getting started with ebXML was portrayed in Figure 2.4 earlier in this chapter. Since this book doesn't give all of the precise technical details about ebXML, you first need to acquire the ebXML specifications and technical reports , downloadable free of charge from the www.ebxml.org web site.

Your company will first need to build or acquire the technical capability to reflect the business practices in your industry. Industries or individual companies may decide to implement ebXML in stages, which the modular nature of the specifications supports. Many industries and companies will find the messaging specifications, based largely on existing Internet standard protocols, the easiest way to get started. The messaging specifications provide the ability to send and receive business messages in a common and secure package, and offer best practices for the management, processing, and control of message traffic.

The next step, if not yet accomplished, is to align your company's systems with your industry's business processes. Many industries, through their industry associations, have identified the major business processes and defined standard messages, either in EDI or in XML vocabularies. If your industry association hasn't yet reached that stage, the ebXML business process specifications provide a useful method for taking this step.

If your industry group has reached the stage of establishing an ebXML-compliant registry and repository, you can download the processes, standard messages, and other objects such as standard product or location codes needed to conduct e-business in your industry. The registry will also be the place where you register your company's collaboration protocol profile (CPP), which lists the processes you support and the technical details of your e-business systems. Once your profile is in a registry, you can start seeking other companies with which you can conduct e-business.

Most companies, particularly smaller companies, need to acquire new software to generate, send, receive, and process ebXML messages. Your insistence on software compliant with ebXML and other open standards will send a powerful message to the vendor community. Systems based on open standards benefit from a full airing of user requirements and solutions based on consensus, rather than dictated by a few large players or vendors . The result often is better representation of end-user needs and lower costs.

As of the time of this writing, packaged software supporting the full ebXML specifications is only just appearing as early prerelease systems, but many vendors have announced their intent to add support for ebXML to existing products. Building working libraries of core components specifications will take time; such libraries are very detailed and require working with a wide range of business scenarios and applications.

ebXML doesn't provide standard messages for specific business documents such as purchase orders, invoices, or ship notices.These items are left to the individual industries, as they can vary widely from one industry to another.These too will be evolved and documented in ebXML registries as the basis for broad adoption of ebXML methods .