B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Components, Benefits, Challenges and Applications of B2B Integration 29
complex EDI-based messages. This completely changes the dynamics of
communication in B2B applications.
For a successful B2Bi implementation, the companies will have to
reengineer their business processes to be XML-centric. Their new
infrastructure must support critical XML standards, enable transformations
and provide links to legacy applications.
2.2.5. XML standards for e-business
Just as the explosive growth in the usage of Internet was made possible
by the standardization of the Web browser, the adoption, growth and
success in B2B e-commerce will be controlled by the standardization of
XML communication representing business processes among trading
partners. There has to be a common set of business processes and a
common grammar for B2Bi to work.
In B2Bi, interoperability issues exist at almost every level — catalog
management, order management, collaboration tools, EDI protocols,
shipping services, etc. Standards for data exchange for all the business
processes involved in B2Bi help in overcoming the interoperability
issues.
Several industry organizations, such as RosettaNet, are defining their
market-segment-specific definitions.
2.2.6. Web services
Web services are Internet-based, self-describing and self-contained
software resources that form the building blocks of distributed applications
and business processes spanning across multiple organizations.
Web services offer complete interoperability as they are based on
open messaging standards. They work in conjunction with other Web
services to complete part of a complex work-flow or business transaction.
Web services can be invoked by partner applications at run-time,
over the Internet. The client applications may not even have any prior
knowledge of their existence. In essence, Web services enable just-intime
B2B application integration.