THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT EBXML

Electronic business, or e-business, is a popular
buzzword in today's tech world, but what does it
really mean? Essentially, e-business is a way to
automate and integrate common business
transactions using the Internet. A new protocol, called
ebXML, aims to provide a global standard for describing
common business transactions based on XML and the Web
services model.

ANOTHER STANDARD?

It may seem like ebXML is just another technology standard; however,
that's not the case. Two groups, the United Nations Center for Trade
Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and the Organization for the
Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS ), sponsor the ebXML
initiative. Both organizations have an international presence and the
ability to create standards that truly meet the needs of global businesses.
The goal of ebXML is to create a unified system for global trading.
Because of this, ebXML can, in many ways, be viewed as the next evolution of
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).

OVERVIEW

Many components comprise an operational ebXML infrastructure. First,
ebXML is based on modeling business processes and, because it is
business-process oriented, it can more easily integrate into a business' operations.
In addition, by modeling common business processes and describing them
with ebXML, organizations can adopt a more service-based architecture and
use registry services to share business messages in a transactional
manner.

BUSINESS PROCESS-ORIENTED

"Business process-oriented" means performing analysis and establishing
an understanding of the underlying business transactions that ebXML
describes. Like its nearly antiquated predecessor, EDI, ebXML addresses many
common business processes using a consistent and standardized approach.
Because this is a global initiative that describes transactions between
trading partners, the analysis must reflect the multiorganizational aspects
of the business processes.

MODELING

Modeling is the process of examining the analysis of business processes
and creating logical models that represent the data and flow of the
transactions. It involves understanding what each piece of data represents and
how it can be transformed. It also incorporates workflow and
integration. Modeling in ebXML is based on the UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology (UMM).
This approach uses the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to describe
various process and data models while applying a methodology that is described
by the Business Operational View (BOV) and Functional Specification View
(FSV). The BOV provides a vehicle for describing business data and
business rules while the FSV describes the service interfaces, messages, and
protocols.

SERVICE-BASED ARCHITECTURE

A service-based architecture is an approach to creating integrated
applications that allows the application interface to become more robust and
flexible than traditional integration approaches (based on data stores and
APIs). Instead of function-oriented proprietary APIs, services offer
loosely coupled operations that are tied to business processes. The
service-based architecture allows the enterprise to more closely model their true
business services and processes using technology interfaces.

REGISTRY

The registry is a key component of any service-based architecture,
especially an ebXML infrastructure. It is a repository that stores information
about businesses and the services they provide. Registries take many
forms, including Universal Definition, Description, and Integration (UDDI ).
UDDI provides methods for querying and retrieving information about
businesses and their services and includes support for describing services
using ebXML. A registry doesn't have to be UDDI, however. It can also be
based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), which uses
an Object Request Broker (ORB) to locate and broker access to services
using binary objects based on the CORBA standard.

MESSAGES

One of the keys to unlocking ebXML is to understand that business
processes are comprised of transactions and transactions are comprised of
messages. A single transaction is an atomic (i.e., a single unit) record of
multiple messages. Many types of messages can be created and described
using ebXML, such as purchase orders, invoices, payments, catalogs, etc. The
ebXML core component dictionary provides a rich set of data types used to
define the individual pieces of data that make up a message.

SUMMARY

While it may not change the world overnight, ebXML is the next big thing
for companies that are trading in the global market. It combines the
standardization of EDI, the flexibility of XML, and the availability of Web
services. You can find out more by visiting the ebXML Web site.
http://www.ebxml.org/

Brian Schaffner is a senior consultant for DMR Consulting, a Fujitsu
company. He provides architecture, design, and development support for DMR's
Telcom360 group.

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