2,142 research outputs found
An open standard for the exchange of information in the Australian timber sector
The purpose of this paper is to describe business-to-business (B2B) communication and the characteristics of an open standard for electronic communication within the Australian timber and wood products industry. Current issues, future goals and strategies for using business-to-business communication will be considered.
From the perspective of the Timber industry sector, this study is important because supply chain efficiency is a key component in an organisation's strategy to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Strong improvement in supply chain performance is possible with improved business-to-business communication which is used both for building trust and providing real time marketing data.
Traditional methods such as electronic data interchange (EDI) used to facilitate B2B communication have a number of disadvantages, such as high implementation and running costs and a rigid and inflexible messaging standard. Information and communications technologies (ICT) have supported the emergence of web-based EDI which maintains the advantages of the traditional paradigm while negating the disadvantages. This has been further extended by the advent of the Semantic web which rests on the fundamental idea that web resources should be annotated with semantic markup that captures information about their meaning and facilitates meaningful machine-to-machine communication.
This paper provides an ontology using OWL (Web Ontology Language) for the Australian Timber sector that can be used in conjunction with semantic web services to provide effective and cheap B2B communications
ECONOMIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS INTEROPERABILITY
In this article we define and describe the economic information interoperability problemand how it affects today’s enterprises in the context of globalization and current ICT development, thecurrently used solutions found in the integration and interoperability of information systems literature(EDI, Web Services, ebXML, RosettaNet, XBRL), the main research activities done so far in the field ofEnterprise Interoperability and the observed trends in the evolution of standard solutions.interoperability problem; economic information system; standard; enterprise interoperability
Issues about the Adoption of Formal Methods for Dependable Composition of Web Services
Web Services provide interoperable mechanisms for describing, locating and
invoking services over the Internet; composition further enables to build
complex services out of simpler ones for complex B2B applications. While
current studies on these topics are mostly focused - from the technical
viewpoint - on standards and protocols, this paper investigates the adoption of
formal methods, especially for composition. We logically classify and analyze
three different (but interconnected) kinds of important issues towards this
goal, namely foundations, verification and extensions. The aim of this work is
to individuate the proper questions on the adoption of formal methods for
dependable composition of Web Services, not necessarily to find the optimal
answers. Nevertheless, we still try to propose some tentative answers based on
our proposal for a composition calculus, which we hope can animate a proper
discussion
From service-oriented architecture to service-oriented enterprise
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) was originally motivated by enterprise demands for better business-technology alignment and higher flexibility and reuse. SOA evolved from an initial set of ideas and principles to Web services (WS) standards now widely accepted by industry. The next phase of SOA development is concerned with a scalable, reliable and secure infrastructure based on these standards, and guidelines, methods and techniques for developing and maintaining service delivery in dynamic enterprise settings. In this paper we discuss the principles and main elements of SOA. We then present an overview of WS standards. And finally we come back to the original motivation for SOA, and how these can be realized
A Configurable Matchmaking Framework for Electronic Marketplaces
E-marketplaces constitute a major enabler of B2B and B2C e-commerce activities. This paper proposes a framework for one of the central activities of e-marketplaces: matchmaking of trading intentions lodged by market participants. The framework identifies a core set of concepts and functions that are common to all types of marketplaces and can serve as the basis for describing the distinct styles of matchmaking employed within various market mechanisms. A prototype implementation of the framework based on Web services technology is presented, illustrating its ability to be dynamically configured to meet specific market needs and its potential to serve as a foundation for more fully fledged e-marketplace frameworks
Improving UccNet-compliant B2B Supply-chain Applications Using a Context Interchange Framework
UccNet is a globally centralized B2B electronic data platform for storing trading product item information and
hosted by the non-profit international standardization institute EAN-UCC. It is an emerging B2B data
communication standard for the retail industry with significant potential impact. Many US retailers are requesting
their international suppliers for compulsory subscription by the year-end of either 2004 or 2005 and many major IT
software providers and consulting firms specialized in supply chain management are preparing packaged
services/solutions for this imminent demand.
In light of the increasing importance of UccNet on both the technology and application sides, this paper attempts to
advance the following argument: Though UccNet establishes an architectural framework to resolve the
many-to-many connectivity issue and data synchronization issue through a centralized product database and a
uniform numbering system (i.e., Global Trade Item Numbering), there are context discrepancy issues remaining to
be addressed. We show with a real case study that context discrepancy is inherent in the international trading
applications where UccNet is intended to be used. Naturally, international trading partners tend to define and
describe product item information differently. That difference, either due to the culture or the geographical location,
is not considered in the original design of UccNet. As an example, the attribute "width" contained in the database
schema of UccNet would be filled by a China-based supplier in 'meter' and yet be interpreted as 'feet' by the US
retail buyer.
We show how the Context Interchange Framework, operating under the rationale of local autonomy and speaking
to the resolution of context mediation issue, can be nicely incorporated into the existing UccNet framework to
constitute theoretically a more complete technical solution and practically a more useful B2B supply chain business
solution
A SOA-Based Framework for E-Procurement in Multi-Organisations
The lack of standard platform for application-to-application
interaction between the procurement systems of subsidiary organisations
of a multi-organisation limits transparency of procurement procedures,
and uniformity in the procurement patterns and practices, even when there are
cross-cutting concerns. In this paper, an SOA-based e-procurement framework
is proposed for effective e-procurement in a multi-organisational context.
The e-procurement framework leverages SOA's inherent capability for
addressing problems of heterogeneity, interoperability and dynamic
requirements. An empirical case study showed that the framework is effective
for achieving the corporate goal of promoting transparency, and enhancing
uniformity of corporate procurement management in a multi-organisational
context
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