B2B Application Integration
COSC643
Sungchul Hong
Goal
• Understand current B2B related
applications
• Understand the relationships among B2B
application
• Integration of B2B applications.
E-Business
• Web-enabled selling
• Middle-ware
• Internet-enabled supply chain integration
– EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
• Flow of information and material
– Information Systems
Introduction
• E-business characteristics
– Instantaneous
– All participating systems are able to
communicate in any direction.
– Systems are bound at both the data and process
levels.
– All relevant information existing in any
participating system is accessible by any other
participating system.
Real Time Business
• Purchase of a new car
– Orders a car at a dealership
– Manufacturer
– Parts, supplier
• Raw materials
– Manufacturing
– Dealer
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
• Many owners of supply chains already use
it.
• Sharing information
– Order or payment data
• Partially automated
– It is not good enough
Different Systems and Different
Standards
• What is the price?
• How can we represent it?
• If you have different systems, how can we
make these systems communicate each
other?
• Which method is the best?
DeliveryRegion
Territory
Customer
Price Type
AgreementID
Agreements
Agreement
StartDate
ValidityTimePeriod
EndDate
StartDate
ValidityTimePeriod
EndDate
Currency
SimpleAmount
ParametrizedAmount
ProductPrice
AmountFormula
PriceRequest
SetPrice
RefProductID
SetProductPrice
BaseType
PercentageFa
SetProductValue
Price
MonetaryAm
AllowOrChargeType
AllowOrChargeDescription
PercentageFactor
AllowOrChargeValue
MonetaryAmount
AdditionalOrderUnits
BaseType
AllowOrCharge
UpperBoundAmount
PriceBracket
UpperBoundQuantity
SequenceNumber
SettlementType
ValidityTimePeriod
StartDate
EndDate
TaxFactor
Tax
TaxType
TaxDescription
SequenceNumber
B2B Application Integration
• After years of creating islands of
automation within each company, users and
business managers are demanding that
seamless bridges now be built to join these
islands together.
• Financial prudence
• Opportunity for profit
B2B Application Integration
• It is the mechanisms and approaches to allow
partner organizations, such as suppliers and
consumers, to share information in support of
common business events.
• If company A has a sales order entry system that
provides a system for recording sales, then
company B, a part supplier, must have a parts
system that is instantly integrated with company
A’s sales system.
Traditional Approach
• Traditional middleware was built to
integrate applications within an enterprise
and does not take into account the special
needs of B2B integration.
• Point-to-Point solution
Middleware
• Middleware is a mechanism to move information
and shared business logic between applications.
• During business transactions, the middleware
hides the complexity of the underlying operating
system and network and allows information
exchange on be half of the application programs.
Categories of Middleware
•
•
•
•
TP Monitors
Message Brokers
Application Server
Distributed Objects
Business Rues Integration
• Binding of application logic between tow or
more e-Business partners.
• The composite applications that exist are
accessible to all interested parties.
• The exchange of both information and
business rules is fully automated
• CORBA
Information Integration
• Lower level than business rules integration
• Message brokers, data replication engines,
and data migration engines. (XML)
• Provide a platform for exchanging relevant
business data in order to support e-Business
initiatives. (order and invoice data)
• Inexpensive
Process Integration
• Provides a set of processes that function
above both business rules and information
integration.
• Provide abstract business layer that exists
over the physical one. (logical flow of
information)
Collaboration
• Providing a geographically dispersed
workgroup with the opportunity to share
messages and other information in real time
to support a business need.
• Customer relationship management, online
customer service, virtual product
development.
• Provide interface to human and systems.
Types of Middleware
  Remote procedure calls (RPC) type
 synchronous
  Message oriented message (MOM) type
 asynchronous
  Message Broker type.
 Asynchronous and many-to-many transactions
  DistributedComputing Environment (DCE) from the
Open Group. (RPC)
  MSMQ from Microsoft (MOM)
  MQSeries from IBM (MOM)
  Tuxedo from BEA systems (TP Monitors)
  MTS from Microsoft (TP Monitors)
  CICS from IBM (TP Monitors)
  Enterprise JavaBeans from SUN (application server)
  SAP R/3 (application server)
– COM+ (with AppCenter) from Microsoft (application server &
distributed objects)
Middleware Vendors
•
•
•
•
•
•
BEA
SAGA Software
IBM
NEON
Tibco
SUN
Point-to-Point Middleware
• Message queuing
• Remote procedure calls
• Traditional middleware requires significant
alterations to both the source and target systems.
• Integration of a custom accounting system running
on Windows 2000 and a custom inventory control
system running on a main frame within another
company.
• According to the Aberdeen Group, dualapplication linking cost is as high as $10 million.
New Middleware Features
• Support for inter-and intra-process
integration
• Support for B2B standards including
RosettaNet, ebXML, and EDI
• Support for Internet-enabled information
exchange
• Support for advanced security models
Types of B2B application
Integration
•
•
•
•
•
Data-oriented
Application interface-oriented
Method-oriented
Portal-oriented
Process integration-oriented
Data Oriented
• It is the process or technology of extracting
information from one database and updating
it in another database within another
organization.
• Large number of databases
• It may also include the transformations and
application of business logic to the data.
• Cost is the advantage.
Application Interface-Oriented
• Developers are able to bundle any number
of application and allowing them to share
business logic and information.
• Need specific features and functions of the
application interface.
• Packaged application
• SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan (Vendors)
Method-Oriented
• Sharing business logic that exists within the
enterprise.
• Distributed objects
• Application server
• Transaction Process (TP) monitors
• frameworks
Portal-Oriented
• Application architects can integrate
applications by presenting information from
several local or partner applications within
the same user interface.
• www.exite.com, www.yahoo.com
Process Integration-Oriented
• It provides those who are supporting B2B
application integration with a businessoriented and and process automation-like
view of how business information flows
between trading partners.
• Collaboration-level B2B application
integration