Session Number: 10

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Internet Supply Chain Management ECT 581
Winter 2003
Session Number 10

• Session Date March 11, 2003
• Session Outline
• Administrative Items
• Session Topics
• Trends Anticipated Developments
• B2B Application Integration
• Web Services, et al
• Project Demonstrations

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Administrative Items

• Final Exam Preview
• Project Demos

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B2B Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
Issues

• The Problem
• The customization involved in developing
  solutions for each customer is complicated and
  expensive...
• The Solution
• A set of technologies that will let you write and
  distribute heterogeneous application services.

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B2B EAI Solution Goals

• Leverage existing systems and processes.
• Document flow with process control.
• Protect investment in traditional EDI.
• Minimize impact on existing business
  applications.
• Provide migration path to next generation B2B
  solution.
• Move beyond door- to- door towards end to end.

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What is a Web Service?

• Exposes business functions and business processes
  over the web
• Combines component-based development and the web
• New breed of web application
• All of the above!

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What is a Web Service?
When considering Web Services.. think
Distributed Application Services!
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Evolving Trends Web Services

• A Web Service is programmable application logic
  accessible via the Web.
• - Microsoft
• Web Services are a new breed of Web application.
  They are self-contained, self-describing, modular
  applications that can be published, located, and
  invoked across the Web. Web services perform
  functions, which can be anything from simple
  requests to complicated business processes. Once
  a Web service is deployed, other applications (
  other Web services) can discover and invoke the
  deployed service.
• IBM
• Web services is nothing more than a moniker
  for big honking API.. Web services provide a
  standard way to discretely package anything (a
  DB, a specific query, some business logic), and
  make it accessible to anything else (another DB,
  a WAP-enabled phone, or an external business
  partners business logic).
• - Gartner

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Evolution From Application Services to Web
Services
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Web Services The Next Phase of the Internet
1995
2001
Concept
Communicating Web Services
Hyperlinked Web Pages
Requester Application
Provider Application
Requesting Page
Requested Page
Model
Standards
Flow of Information
Flow of Transactions
Enables
Result
World Wide Web
Worldwide Digital Economy
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Basic Standards

• XML format for data exchange and description
• SOAP protocol for calling web services
• WSDL format for describing web services
• UDDI repository for registering and finding web
  services

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Web Services Key Technologies Basic Requirements

• Key specifications and technologies when
  building or consuming Web Services addressing
  four basic requirements
• A standard way to represent data XML.
• A common, extensible, message format SOAP.
• A common, extensible, service description
  language WSDL.
• A way to discover service providers UDDI.

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Web Services Key Technologies - Expanded

• XML (Extensible Markup Language) - mechanism for
  creating distributed processing web services.
• SOAP (Simple Open Access Protocol) - protocols
  for document interchange.
• UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery,
  Integration) phonebook for discovering
  available Web Services. Variants include the
  following
• DISCO (Discovery of Web services) MS current
  thinking about discovery of SOAP/web services
  proposes a way that information about web
  services might be embedded in documents and
  recovered by a user agent.
• ADS (Advertisement and Discovery of Services) -
  IBM current thinking to allow web service
  providers to advertise the availability of their
  services.
• WSDL (Web Services Description Language) -
  provides the contract or the definition of Web
  Service objects schema.

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The Promise of Web Services

• Allow pieces of software written in different
  languages, or running on different operating
  systems, to talk to one another cheaply and
  easily.
• Allow applications running in different parts of
  an organization, or in different organizations,
  to talk to one another and/or exchange data
  easily and cheaply.
• Use universal and non-proprietary data standards
  so that integration between new pieces of
  software and legacy systems will be simple.

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Consuming Registering a Web Service
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Instead of Web Services, Why Not Traditional
Middleware?

• No middleware product is the clear winner.
• Requires compatible architectures.
• Requires object-model specific protocols .
• Difficulty in getting through firewalls.
• All major vendors support web services, whereas
  with middleware it is hit or miss.

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Web Services Benefits

• Relies on ubiquitous web infrastructure
• Everyone is connected to the Net
• Uses commodity software
• Broad industry support
• High levels of abstraction
• Maps to any existing technology or platform
• Service-oriented architecture
• Integrate supply chains
• Eliminate duplicate data entry
• Direct connection to trading partner IT systems

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Caveats Regarding Web Services

• Web Services is not a panacea.
• Web Services will be valuable, but implementing
  them won't be easy.
• No magic bullet here.
• Web Services require clear goals, careful
  planning detailed execution.
• Standards are still in flux.
• Interoperability isn't automatic.
• Besides universally adopted XML, higher-level
  standards are required to make Web Services work.
  
• For example, two banks that want to communicate
  need more than XML.
• Might agree on a higher-level standard such as
  OFX (Open Financial Exchange).
• Achieving coordination agreement on high-level
  data standards is the single biggest difficulty
  Web Services faces over the near term.
• Expect Web Services to be adopted within
  enterprises first
• Coordination issues can be simpler in-house than
  those between organizations.

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Web Services Impact on SCM

• Enables capability to efficiently expose same
  services to suppliers and customers.
• Can fine tune order fulfillment through
  ubiquitous heterogeneous alerting capability.
• Improves prospect for cost-effective and timely
  implementation of SCM eBusiness initiatives.

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B2B System Architecture Evolution Future Stage
UDDI ebXML
Beyond Web Services
Process to Process Integration Customization
Architecture Model Peer to Peer
Pushing the complexity out to the endpoints
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Next Session Highlights

• Final Exam