B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

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Enterprise Buyer
Database/ERP Integration
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E-Marketplaces and Collaborative Networks 459
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Figure 15.11. — Commerce One's XPC solution for integration
System
(xCBL) representing this requisition. The file is securely sent over the
Internet to MarketSite (4) — Commerce One's e-marketplace.
Step 2 — MarketSite sends the newly arrived POs via HTTPS and
the MarketSite messaging layer, or via a standards-based gateway,
to the supplier's XPC or a gateway receiver (8). The receiver submits
the PO to the supplier's back office system (9), gets a PO response,
builds a response document, then returns it to MarketSite (4), which
optionally reformats the results (e.g., transforming OBI 855s to xCBL
OrderResponse documents) and sends them to Enterprise buyer (2).
Enterprise buyer stores the results for display to the end user (3).
15.3.3. Data transformation
In each industry there has been a proliferation of XML standards,
which are not compatible with each other. Thus, employing a solution
that integrates a legacy system with one e-marketplace may fail drastically
in linking to another e-marketplace. For example, Ariba uses cXML
while Commerce One uses ebXML. These flavors of XML are not
compatible with each other.
Companies have to deploy a data translation server, which may be a
part of a B2B application server that accepts any file format from
buyers and sellers such as flat files, EDI, XML (all leading standards)
and transports them to their clients. Data transformation vendors include