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B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

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Buyer<br />

Purchasing<br />

Accounts<br />

Payable<br />

a<br />

t<br />

1<br />

0<br />

ft<br />

S<br />

u<br />

i<br />

t<br />

e<br />

Purchase Order<br />

VAN or Direct<br />

Connection<br />

Invoice<br />

Extensible Markup Language (XML) 155<br />

Remittance Advice<br />

Supplier<br />

Ordering<br />

Billing<br />

Accounts<br />

Receivable<br />

Figure 6.1. EDI-based communication between trading partners<br />

they use the services of VAN whereby each trading partner connects <strong>to</strong><br />

the VAN (see Figure 6.1). The service provider of VAN manages the<br />

connections <strong>to</strong> all trading partners.<br />

6.2.2. Limitations of traditional EDI<br />

The setup procedure for traditional EDI is expensive, complex and<br />

time consuming. The inherent nature of EDI communication requires<br />

the trading partners <strong>to</strong> synchronize their internal systems and business<br />

processes with those of their partners. The different applications<br />

used by the trading partners use different schemas and data exchange<br />

pro<strong>to</strong>cols. The format and data content of the files generated by these<br />

systems also vary widely. The transfer of files containing data between<br />

trading partners, from one computer system <strong>to</strong> another using EDI,<br />

is also a potentially complex process. The EDI-based file exchange<br />

mechanism will work correctly only if programs running at both ends<br />

(sender and receiver of file) are part of the same package written at the

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