Web-services The solution to every problem?

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg2 What is web-services? A way of moving information from one business system to another Thus it becomes the foundation of an e- business concept And of course it is a lucrative market for the vendors

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg3 An example Suppose we have two companies Both have their own processes for buying and selling The first company then buys the other and their systems are to be integrated. But you want to keep the business processes as untouched as possible

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg4 Customer register Customer number First name Second name Street Street number Zip code Postal address Sum to pay Customer name Invoice address Delivery address Customer category Bought this year Contact person

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg5 Problems to solve How do we get hold of the delivery address? How is the customer placed in the right category? How do we count bought this year All of this depends on the business process

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg6 The business process Find customer number If invoices to pay > 2500 no order Receive the order Send the gods to the desired address Send invoice to address in register Find customer name Receive the order Compute price reduction (depending on category and accumulated buying ) Send gods to delivery address Send invoice to invoice address

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg7 Problems we face Price reduction which is done only in one of the companies Delivery address that must be supplied manually in one case In one of the companies the customer must be registered in advance, in the other the registration can take place during the order process.

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg8 Another example A company A sells stuff to companies B and C which both are very big. B and C has totally different business processes All three will now do e-business

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg9 Company As part register Part name Selling price Price for original stuff Manufacturing costs Parts in store Available for selling Manufacturing time

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg10 Company Bs part register Part number Category Ordering quantity Saldo Order level 1 Order level 2

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg11 Company Cs part register Article number Name Buying price Physical number in store Delivery time Vendor number

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg12 Mapping problems Part name Selling price Price for original stuff Manufacturing costs Parts in store Available for selling Manufacturing time Part number Category Ordering quantity Saldo Order level 1 Order level 2 Article number Name Buying price Physical number in store Delivery time Vendor number

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg13 B order from A If saldo is below order quantity 1, then you order the ordering quantity. If you can save more than 250 in transport costs by delivering from the same company, then order if the saldo is below order quantity 2 But only up to full transport.

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg14 C order from A Every third week the store is filled Then you by from the vendor having the lowest price and offering the best conditions concerning price, delivery and credit time.

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg15 Different ways of making e- commerce Establish unique routines for every customer –The customer have full control over the business process. Company A offers certain solutions –The customer have to adopt –But the price is getting lower You establish a standardised solution, f.ex. EDI

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg16 56 converting routines Ftg A Ftg B Ftg C Ftg D Ftg F Ftg H Ftg E Ftg G

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg17 16 converting routines Ftg A Ftg B Ftg C Ftg D Ftg F Ftg H Ftg E Ftg G Alla konverterar till och från ett gemensamt format: Middleware

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg18 Customer - Meaning? A person who has something sometime A person who has asked for product information One who has not yet paid A body who has bought for at least 1000 last year A body registered as customer in the customer database at the headquarter.

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg19 Sam meaning but different names Kundid Kundno Kundref Customer CST

Technical perspective XML as a common denominator

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg21 Invoice

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg22 Struktur Structure of invoice

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg23 Större struktur Invoice, bigger structure

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg24 Filformat: XML Exemplet hämtat från Stig Berild Stina Stina Vilstol Vilstol Lampa Lampa Storgatan Storgatan

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg25 The meaning of the tags How do you know which tags are allowed? –You have a vocabulary How do you know what the tags mean? –You have a template (DTD) How are the connected? –By XSL

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg26 Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) XSLstyle-sheet XSL-Processor(XSLT)Transfor-mering Adds, subtracts Change the order XSL-Processor(XSL) formatting XML/ HTML XSL-Processor(XSL) XML/ HTML XML-Parser Controls syntax, content, file format Translate to internal format Exemplet hämtat från Stig Berild

Semantic perspective What do they mean – actually?

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg28 Vocabulary Ftg A Ftg B Ftg C Ftg D Ftg F Ftg H Ftg E Ftg G Kontrakt

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg29 More about vocabularies A strong actor (e.g. IKEA) can dictate the conditions There are lots of vocabularies –General –Market specific –Business process specific –Subject specific Se t.ex.:

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg30 Repository Vocabular repositories Internal definitions Standardised definitions

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg31 Example of repositories Biztalk –Defined by Microsoft –Used by bigger organisations ebXML –Defined by OASIS –Belongs to open source

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg32 Determined by standard software Business parter agreements Industry- standard- defined Used internally Dictated from goverment EU- declared Edifact- adopted Exemplet hämtat från Stig Berild Vocabulary chaos?

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg33 Business process

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg34 Example AB ScravatorCitybankenFlying containers incFiffel & Bågh Web-service Customer Order receivingCredit controlDeliveryInvoicingPayment

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg35 Dynamics AB Scravator Provinsbanken Mopedbud upa Boka Hb Web-service Customer Order recievingDeliveryBook keepingPayment Packad o allt Package Checking all Credit control Invoicing

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg36 Hierarchies

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg37 Business process and vocabularies Repository Internal definitions Standardiserade definitioner Business process repository UDDI ebXML

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg38 Credit control Business Process repository Conditions Description Conditions Description Conditions Description Conditions Description WDSL UDDI ebXML

Some file format

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg40 File format: EDIFACT … LOC+SC+Storskolan NAD+TE+Evert Ek´ COM+TEL NAD+TE+Asta Dal´ COM+TEL NAD+PU+Emil Svensson´ COM+TEL … Message Group Segment Composite element Element Tag Separators Exemplet hämtat från Anders Skog

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg41 File format: Separators … S:Storskolan L:Evert Ek: L:Asta Dal: E:Emil Svensson: … File Record Field Separator/Delimiter Exemplet hämtat från Anders Skog

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg42 File format: Fixed fields … SStorskolan________ LEvert Ek________384211_______ LAsta Dal________453432_______ EEmil Svensson___143254_______ … File Record Field Padding Exemplet hämtat från Anders Skog

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg43 Description of EDIFACT Segmentkatalog LOC e1234 M e2345 C e3456 C NAD e4321 M e9876 C Elementkatalog e1234 an 2 kod: A1,A2,B1… e2345 an e3456 n 2 e4321 an 3 kod: BU,SE,TE… Meddelande GR01 LOC 1 GR NAD 1 COM 0..3 … LOC+SC+Storskolan NAD+TE+Evert Ek´ COM+TEL NAD+TE+Asta Dal´ COM+TEL NAD+PU+Emil Svensson´ COM+TEL … Instans Exemplet hämtat från Anders Skog

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg44 The size do matters! Typical business document in EDIFACT-standard: –150 segments –50 groups –3-6 levels Every segment has 5-10 elements New version twice a year One instance (file) can be several megabytes SAP IDOC is similar XML might end up here too…

Conclusion Sort of…

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg46 Business system A Data Structure Semantics Business system B Data Structure Semantics XML etc, Metadata E-business Marketstandard Middelware E-business

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg47 The BIG problem The intrinsic problem in e-business is to move knowledge from one system to another Moving knowledge means both moving the information, the meaning with the information. The actions performed based upon the information must be the intended ones.

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg48 How to achieve intended actions? The intention must be transferred – it is located in the context The desired action must be known – as well as its intentions The easiest way to accomplish this is by standardising. Standardised customers use standard procedures for buying standard stuff.

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg49 Standardisation – the solution? In modern business they talk about establish relations, they even talk about value management If you get a personal treatment, you are more satisfied and thus a better customer In fact we end up with transactions that are to be treated individually, but cheaper than today!

29 okt 2002© Per Flensburg50 Other solutions? To make it extremely short: Let the customer arrange the procedure herself by collecting standardised components as a sort of Lego. This requires a quite new way of looking at business software and business software development. The components must be specific for every market.

Fine