XML for Business to Business Data Exchange

This paper examines to use of XML for business to business data exchange. Starting with creating an XML document from an existing data source and transmitting that document, we explain some of the supporting standards for XML which facilitate automated processing and transformation of an XML document. Finally we look at the advantages of using XML, and why it is expected to revolutionise electronic data interchange

XML and Its Potential for Ecommerce

This paper reviews the origin and development of standards for Electronic Data Interchange, considering exceptions and variations that standards need to accommodate It examines cost factors that affect implementation and discusses conducting EDI over the Internet and the importance of metatags and data type definitions for interpreting data structures and improving functionality of business transactions. It looks at XML (eXtensible Markup Language) as a proposal to broaden the applicability of transacting business over the Internet by bringing EDI to the desktop

A High Performance XML Querying Architecture

Data exchange on the Internet plays an essential role in electronic business (e-business). A recent trend in e-business is to create distributed databases to facilitate data exchange. In most cases, the distributed databases are developed by integrating existing systems, which may be in different database models, and on different hardware and/or software platforms. Heterogeneity may cause many difficulties. A solution to the difficulties is XML (the Extensible Markup Language). XML is becoming the dominant language for exchanging data on the Internet. To develop XML systems for practical applications, developers have to addresses the performance issues. In this paper, we describe a new XML querying architecture that can be used to build high performance systems. Experiments indicate that the architecture performs better than Oracle XML DB, which is one of the most commonly used commercial DBMSs for XML

ebXML: Global Standard for Electronic Business

Business-to-business integration is transforming the market and has already begun to increase the efficiency of those companies involved. EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) became very popular during 1970’s; Today EDI transactions total about $750 billion year. EDI is being used by 90% of Fortune 1000 companies. It has indeed become a dominant technology for the largest companies, on the other hand it has been adopted by less than 5% of small and medium sized companies in general and, of these, many use EDI only because their larger customers require it. The reason behind is that EDI is a difficult, complex technology to implement usually comes with high transactional cost. Hence it is suitable for large companies with large volume of transactions. EDI uses fixed, rigid and compressed data format that is difficult to decipher and debug. The data exchange in EDI happens in proprietary VAN (value added network) which is an expensive solution. EbXML (Electronic Business XML) envisioned creating a single global electronic marketplace where enterprises of any size and in any geographic location can meet and conduct business with each other through exchange of xml based messages. The XML (the Extensible Markup Language) has rapidly imposed itself as a popular format for exchange of information on the web. The very nature of XML is that it is a structured document format, in that it represents not only the information to be exchanged, but the metadata encapsulating its meaning. XML technology has potential to solve the existing problems in current EDI systems. Using ebXML, companies have a standard method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. EbXML is designed to provide a simple way for companies to find one another and conduct business over the Web, allowing those with different platforms to speak a common language. EbXML targets to provide low cost solutions for small and medium enterprises as well as complex solution for large enterprises. This project attempts to implement a prototype of ebXML messaging service as per ebXML specification to obtain the insight look of feasibility and suitability of XML solution for EDI

Automatic Extraction and Generation of XML Documents from Financial Reports

Web services require XML formatted data. Human translation of business information from the rapidly expanding volume of documents to XML is labor-intensive and impractical. Computer programs can be built to extract domain-specific facts from web documents and convert them into an XML format. With a continual feed of web articles, such a system could be used to maintain an up-to-date XML knowledge base that could power web services for businesses. In this research, we build a system to automatically extract information from electronic international corporate financial reports, and translate this information into XML or XBRL (a well-known XML extension for accounting and financial data)

A Framework for XML-Based Workflow Interoperability - The AFRICA Project

With the advance of electronic business relationships over the internet, the linking of cross-organizational business processes in virtual supply chains and other scenarios is rapidly increasing. Existing standards for the interoperability of information systems on the business process level are being adapted to suit the needs of the Internet economy. Especially the use of XML as a domain-independent encoding standard for business documents has led to the development of business frameworks such as BizTalk or open/EDI, and interoperability mechanisms that support these standards are being developed. In this paper we describe an architecture for the support of cross-organizational workflows through XML messages. This architecture has been implemented and tested within the AFRICA project at the University of Muenster, Germany. While our work is based upon the emerging Wf-XML standard of the Workflow Management Coalition, it contains a number of significant enhancements that provide a secure, reliable management of global workflow processes

Making XML Pay: Revising Existing Electronic Payments Law to Accommodate Innovation

Many businesses today are rushing to embrace e-Business technologies in a mad scramble to remain competitive. Only a few years ago, simply using email instead of faxes or phone calls, converting a purchasing system to EDI technology, or building a corporate Web site might have seemed like important advances in the use of new information technologies. Businesses are now moving beyond such electronic commerce technologies and trying to integrate their disparate information systems and business processes into a comprehensive new e-Business structure. At the heart of this new model for business organization is the idea that information and resources should be able to flow to where they are most needed at a moment\u27s notice. Such fluidity in access and control over information and resources is very difficult to achieve in traditional hierarchical corporate organizations. By adopting new technologies, including XML, businesses can set up a more flexible, decentralized form of organization that can be more nimble in recognizing and responding to changing market conditions. The assimilation of these and other electronic commerce technologies into established businesses permits those businesses to provide goods and services to existing customers more efficiently. For example, General Electric, one of the world\u27s largest diversified manufacturing companies, has used electronic commerce technologies to reduce the amount of time required to process purchase orders and to reduce the cost paid for materials by using a secure Internet site to link customers and suppliers to manufacturing resource planning software. Efficiencies of this type are generally referred to as a function of supply chain reengineering when they take place in traditional manufacturing industries between purchasers and vendors, or value chain reengineering when the same type of efficiencies are sought more generally throughout more diverse types of organization and industries. eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a new standard that governs the way information is organized and exchanged. Use of the XML standard in organizing the information businesses need to conduct business would permit greater use of electronic searching technologies to identify potential trading partners, greater use of automated processes in negotiating the terms of transactions, and greater automation in tracking the execution and fulfillment of transactions after deals are struck. A major stumbling block on the path to realizing the e-Business model is the difficulty most businesses face when trying to integrate electronic payment processes into other business processes. Financial transactions normally need to be controlled with more rigorous security procedures than other transactions. Financial markets were early adopters of electronic communications technologies, and as a result have a huge installed base of older technologies that are very reliable and stable. These legacy computer systems, however, integrate poorly with newer Internet based systems developed for other business processes. As a result, most businesses in the United States still rely heavily on paper checks as their primary payment device, even for transactions entered into electronically. The adoption of XML standards by retail merchants and financial service providers will create new risks and opportunities for consumers using electronic funds transfers. In consumer markets, one challenge posed by the adoption of new technologies such as XML is designing appropriate human-computer interfaces rather than achieving interoperability among existing computer systems. In addition, new technologies will facilitate greater reliance by consumers on new automated contracting processes such as electronic agent software. Unlike the law that governs business-to-business electronic funds transfers, the law and regulations governing consumer electronic funds transfers often reflect anachronistic models of technology and consumer protection. Since the mid-1990s, federal regulations governing consumer electronic funds transfers have been under review and are in the process of being updated. It is possible that even very recent revisions may soon appear anachronistic in light of the rapid pace of innovation in business processes. Regulators should not focus on preserving the form of existing consumer protection regulations, but on advancing their underlying objective of consumer empowerment in new environments. The development of new user interfaces for payments products should include information that helps consumers understand the functional differences between different forms of electronic payments, and the different risks that may be associated with each. Consumers, consumer advocates, and regulators will need to contribute to the standard-setting processes to make sure that the concerns and preferences of consumers are reflected in standards that gain widespread acceptance

Making XML Pay: Revising Existing Electronic Payments Law to Accommodate Innovation

Many businesses today are rushing to embrace e-Business technologies in a mad scramble to remain competitive. Only a few years ago, simply using email instead of faxes or phone calls, converting a purchasing system to EDI technology, or building a corporate Web site might have seemed like important advances in the use of new information technologies. Businesses are now moving beyond such electronic commerce technologies and trying to integrate their disparate information systems and business processes into a comprehensive new e-Business structure. At the heart of this new model for business organization is the idea that information and resources should be able to flow to where they are most needed at a moment\u27s notice. Such fluidity in access and control over information and resources is very difficult to achieve in traditional hierarchical corporate organizations. By adopting new technologies, including XML, businesses can set up a more flexible, decentralized form of organization that can be more nimble in recognizing and responding to changing market conditions. The assimilation of these and other electronic commerce technologies into established businesses permits those businesses to provide goods and services to existing customers more efficiently. For example, General Electric, one of the world\u27s largest diversified manufacturing companies, has used electronic commerce technologies to reduce the amount of time required to process purchase orders and to reduce the cost paid for materials by using a secure Internet site to link customers and suppliers to manufacturing resource planning software. Efficiencies of this type are generally referred to as a function of supply chain reengineering when they take place in traditional manufacturing industries between purchasers and vendors, or value chain reengineering when the same type of efficiencies are sought more generally throughout more diverse types of organization and industries. eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a new standard that governs the way information is organized and exchanged. Use of the XML standard in organizing the information businesses need to conduct business would permit greater use of electronic searching technologies to identify potential trading partners, greater use of automated processes in negotiating the terms of transactions, and greater automation in tracking the execution and fulfillment of transactions after deals are struck. A major stumbling block on the path to realizing the e-Business model is the difficulty most businesses face when trying to integrate electronic payment processes into other business processes. Financial transactions normally need to be controlled with more rigorous security procedures than other transactions. Financial markets were early adopters of electronic communications technologies, and as a result have a huge installed base of older technologies that are very reliable and stable. These legacy computer systems, however, integrate poorly with newer Internet based systems developed for other business processes. As a result, most businesses in the United States still rely heavily on paper checks as their primary payment device, even for transactions entered into electronically. The adoption of XML standards by retail merchants and financial service providers will create new risks and opportunities for consumers using electronic funds transfers. In consumer markets, one challenge posed by the adoption of new technologies such as XML is designing appropriate human-computer interfaces rather than achieving interoperability among existing computer systems. In addition, new technologies will facilitate greater reliance by consumers on new automated contracting processes such as electronic agent software. Unlike the law that governs business-to-business electronic funds transfers, the law and regulations governing consumer electronic funds transfers often reflect anachronistic models of technology and consumer protection. Since the mid-1990s, federal regulations governing consumer electronic funds transfers have been under review and are in the process of being updated. It is possible that even very recent revisions may soon appear anachronistic in light of the rapid pace of innovation in business processes. Regulators should not focus on preserving the form of existing consumer protection regulations, but on advancing their underlying objective of consumer empowerment in new environments. The development of new user interfaces for payments products should include information that helps consumers understand the functional differences between different forms of electronic payments, and the different risks that may be associated with each. Consumers, consumer advocates, and regulators will need to contribute to the standard-setting processes to make sure that the concerns and preferences of consumers are reflected in standards that gain widespread acceptance

E-Transcript Web Services System Supporting Dynamic Conversion Between XML and EDI

As XML becomes a standard for communications between distributed heterogeneous machines, many schools plan to implement Web Services systems using the XML e-transcript (electronic transcript) standard. We propose a framework that supports both XML e-transcript Web Services and existing EDI e-transcript systems. The framework uses the workflow engine to exploit the benefits of workflow management mechanisms. The workflow engine manages the e-transcript business process by enacting and completing the tasks and sub-processes within the main business process. We implemented the proposed framework by using various open source projects including Java, Eclipse, and Apache Software Foundation’s Web Services projects. Compared with traditional EDI systems, our proposed system was evaluated to have higher reusability and scalability and save developers time and cost. It also provides users with rich look and feel user interfaces

E-Transcript Web Services System Supporting Dynamic Conversion Between XML and EDI

As XML becomes a standard for communications between distributed heterogeneous machines, many schools plan to implement Web Services systems using the XML e-transcript (electronic transcript) standard. We propose a framework that supports both XML e-transcript Web Services and existing EDI e-transcript systems. The framework uses the workflow engine to exploit the benefits of workflow management mechanisms. The workflow engine manages the e-transcript business process by enacting and completing the tasks and sub-processes within the main business process. We implemented the proposed framework by using various open source projects including Java, Eclipse, and Apache Software Foundation’s Web Services projects. Compared with traditional EDI systems, our proposed system was evaluated to have higher reusability and scalability and save developers time and cost. It also provides users with rich look and feel user interfaces