B2B integration a practical guide to collaborative e comerce

Gunjan Samtani
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Shyam Samtani

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B2B Integration
A Practical Guide to
Collaborative E-commerce
Imperial College Press

B2B Integration
A Practical Guide to
Collaborative E-commerce


This page is intentionally left blank


B2B Integration
A Practical Guide to
Collaborative E-commerce

Gunjan Samtani
Divisional Vice President
Information Technology Group UBS PaineWebber

editors

Marcus Healey & Shyam Samtani

Imperial College Press


Published by
Imperial College Press
57 Shelton Street
Covent Garden
London WC2H 9HE
Distributed by

World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
P O Box 128, Farrer Road, Singapore 912805
USA office: Suite 202, 1060 Main Street, River Edge, NJ 07661
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

B2B INTEGRATON: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO COLLABORATIVE E-COMMERCE
Copyright © 2002 by Imperial College Press
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher.

For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright
Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to
photocopy is not required from the publisher.

ISBN 1-86094-323-3
ISBN 1-86094-326-8 (pbk)

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in Singapore by U t o P r i n t


Dedications

I would like to dedicate my work to my parents — Dr. Shyam Samtani
and Kaushlya Samtani, my parents-in-law — the late Ashok Sadhwani

and Neeta Sadhwani and my loving wife Dimple. Thank you for your
prayers, encouragement, love and care, I could not have made it without
you all. It is great to know I am where I belong.

V


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Acknowledgements

The journey from mental conception to ultimate execution in black and
white is arduous, hurdled with various set backs. At such moments,
one's kith and kin inspire and encourage; colleagues cooperate and
sometimes collaborate; friends motivate and lend helping hands. I am
indeed fortunate enough to have such a galaxy of well wishers to whom
I owe my gratitude.
I express my sincere thanks to Mrs. Dimple Samtani, my spouse,
who ran errands for me, gathering material, formatting the chapters,
designing the graphics and showing remarkable patience while I was
busy authoring the book.
I owe my gratitude to my parents Dr. Shyam Samtani and Mrs. Kaushi
Samtani, who came all the way from India to help and inspire me when
I worked both ends of the clock. My dad, who is himself a professor of
English Literature and has worked as an editor and author of several
publications, was of immense help in language editing of the book.
I thank Dr. Marcus Healey for his seasoned suggestions, experienced
contribution and guidance that have gone into the shaping of this book.
I thank Mr. Evan Schwartzman and Mr. Kenneth Tamburello, my

dear colleagues, with whom I frequently discussed the lay out, contents
of and approach to the book. They were ready with ideas and insightful
comments when I was sometimes low.
I can hardly overemphasize the role of Mr. Aran Sharma, Mr. Abhay
Singh and Mr. Soumya Mawane whose invaluable graphics and images
substantiate the points made by me in the book. I owe my thanks to all
of them for their time and efforts.
I am indebted to Ms. Geetha Nair of Imperial College Press and
Mr. Loo King Boon of World Scientific for publishing this book. Without
their cooperation the book could not have gone to print and thereby to
the readers.
vu


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About the Author

Gunjan Samtani is Divisional Vice President, Information Technology
at UBS PaineWebber, one of the world's leading financial services
firms. Prior to joining UBS PaineWebber, Gunjan was Associate Director,
Global Information Technology, Bear Stearns and Company, the 4th
largest U.S. brokerage and financial firm with more than $30 billion in
assets. In this capacity, he was responsible in pioneering, managing and
directing several critical, multi-million dollar business applications. Prior
to Bear Stearns, Gunjan worked as a Senior Business Analyst with
Amdahl (a Fujitsu Company), one of the largest companies of the world
specializing in integrated computing solutions. At Amdahl, Gunjan was
responsible for managing the design and delivery of multiple projects for

financial industry. Before joining Amdahl, Gunjan was working as Senior
Systems Analyst and Webmaster at New Jersey Technical Assistance
Program. Gunjan has also worked as an interim CIO of India's first online
investment portal EquityMaster.com and Personalfn.com.
Gunjan brings together a very strong technical and business experience
in various industries. He has several years of experience in the management, design, architecture, and implementation of large-scale EAI and
B2B integration projects. Gunjan has an M.S. in Computer Science, M.S.
in Management Information Systems and M.S. in Computational Finance
from Carnegie Melon University (on-going). He has been involved in
business and technical writing for several years and is the author of
more than 100 articles and research publications in the field of finance
and technology. He has also presented papers and given guest lectures
at several national and international conferences. His email address is


IX


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Preface

Changing Business Landscape
In the present day digital economy, business values and competitive
advantages lie beyond the boundaries of the enterprise, focusing on the
relationships with business partners. The changing business landscape
not only affects how enterprises conduct business with their suppliers,
customers, distributors and other trading partners, but also how they
must manage their businesses internally.

Collaborative e-commerce, which is the wave of the future, requires
dynamic creation of trading relationships with new partners, public and
private business process automation and increased adaptability and
flexibility delivered by open architecture based integration middleware.
In order to truly automate external trading partner interactions, the
back-end internal business systems of the enterprises need to be
seamlessly integrated into the same process.
Transforming an organization to compete in this environment mandates enterprise application integration (EAI) and business-to-business
integration (B2Bi). They are the pervasive enablers of most current
business strategies, such as collaborative e-commerce, collaborative
networks, supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship
management (CRM) across multiple channels of delivery, including
wireless devices and the Internet.
B2Bi strategy should be laid out and executed in such a way so as
to: have an integrated, real-time application-to-application, system-tosystem interaction with all the existing and new trading partners;
eliminate all manual steps in business processes; conduct secure and
real-time commerce transactions over the Internet; have the flexibility
to accommodate the different mode of interactions of each partner; and,
finally, have the ability to adapt to change — quickly and easily in this
XI


xii B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

dynamic age of B2B collaborative e-commerce. This is what B2Bi is all
about — the end-to-end automation and integration of cross-organization
business processes, data, applications and systems.

Description of the Book
B2B Integration (B2Bi) provides a comprehensive guide to the key

elements of successful B2B integration and collaborative e-commerce
by highlighting business needs, technologies and development strategies.
It clarifies and demystifies the intricate dependencies among all the
components of B2Bi, including integration patterns, enterprise application
integration (EAI), business process management (BPM), internet security,
extensible markup language (XML), XML standards, Web services,
middleware technologies and integration brokers. The book includes
future technologies that will have a significant impact on B2Bi architectures, such as intelligent software agents, wireless technologies and
peer-to-peer (P2P) computing. Furthermore, it includes in-depth discussion of B2Bi-enabled applications such as supply chain management,
e-procurement, e-marketplaces and collaborative networks. Finally, the
book provides a suitable framework for the design, development and
implementation of B2B integration, along with several real world case
studies. This framework is based on the latest XML standards defined
in the B2B domain, such as RosettaNet, ebXML and Web services, to
support cross-organization business processes, data, applications and
systems.
In crux, the book provides practical guidelines to companies so as to
rapidly implement a successful B2Bi strategy and prepare them for the
next wave of B2B integration and collaborative e-commerce.

Why This Book?
There are several books on the shelves, which cover just one or the
other aspect of B2Bi. But I dare say there are none that discuss all the
technical and business components, tools and frameworks of B2Bi
and illustrate how to conceptualize and implement a successful B2B
integration solution, all in one single binding.


Preface

xiii

In this book, I ventured to take a unique and systematic approach of
combining the technical and business aspects of all the components of
B2B integration. I have endeavored to show where and how the individual
components link with one another and in the whole chain of B2Bi.
The book covers a mix of business management and technology
trend issues, presented with examples, general conclusions and recommendations. The book discusses how companies can speak the same
language when doing business with companies spread around the globe.
It presents business integration models, which would enable companies
to integrate their enterprise systems with digital markets and strategic
business partners. It also prompts one to "imagine the future" through
an in-depth analysis of possible scenarios for future business-to-business
integration models.

Who Should Read This Book?
This book will be useful for business executives, MBA students, IT
managers and programmers looking for a clear, detailed explanation of
the whole landscape of B2B integration, insightful review of the current
technologies being used in B2Bi and knowledge of the future trends in
B2Bi domain. It will be equally appealing to the senior management in
the industrial-age companies, Internet services companies and entrepreneurs who are heading for B2Bi, which is still largely undefined and
cryptic. This book will be useful to CIOs and decision-makers keen to
improve productivity using B2Bi, while building upon prior investments,
and prepare them for the next wave of collaborative e-commerce.
In short, this book is useful to everyone who is seeking a clear
understanding of how to leverage the convergence of IT with business
processes to attain the much sought-after strategic advantage, greater
revenue, greater profit and more-competitive market positioning.

How is This Book Organized?
This book is modeled on an architectural design, laying the foundation
first and then building the structure with distinct elevation features.


xiv

B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

The organization of chapters is as follows:

Chapter 1 — Introduction
This chapter introduces the subject of B2Bi and collaborative e-commerce,
providing a roadmap for a successful B2Bi implementation. It covers
the key features required in a B2Bi solution and its return on investment
(ROI).

Chapter 2 — Components, Benefits, Challenges and
Applications of B2B Integration
This chapter provides an overview of all the major components of
B2Bi. It discusses the benefits enterprises would reap and the obstacles
they may be confronted with during the process of implementation of
B2Bi. Furthermore, it introduces some of the most important B2Bienabled applications to the readers.

Chapter 3 — Integration Patterns
This chapter explains the different types of B2B integration patterns:
data oriented integration (data replication; extract, load and transform
solution; data warehousing; and data federations), portal oriented
integration, direct application integration (API, RPC processes) and
business process oriented integration (closed and open processes). It

discusses the right B2Bi implementation pattern for individual companies.

Chapter 4 — Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
This chapter describes the integration of internal systems, such as
legacy applications, CRM, SCM and ERP, which constitute the backbone
of B2Bi implementation. It also provides an introduction of the leading
commercial EAI brokers and convergence and divergence of EAI and
B2BL


Preface

xv

Chapter 5 — Business Process Management (BPM)
This chapter discusses the fundamentals of business process management
(BPM) as they relate to B2Bi. It provides an in-depth discussion on
process modeling, workflows, workflow management and leading BPM
software solutions.

Chapter 6 — Extensible Markup Language (XML)
This chapter provides an introduction to extensible markup language
(XML) and its components. It also discusses the traditional mode of
communication electronic data interchange (EDI), its coexistence with
XML and features of XML/EDI servers.

Chapter 7 — XML Standards For E-business
This chapter is devoted to the description of different XML standards
that enable XML-based, cross-organization business process integration.
It covers RosettaNet, ebXML, cXML, SOAP and BizTalk with elaborate

examples.

Chapter 8 — Middleware Technologies
This chapter reveals all the major middleware technologies, using which
B2Bi solutions are implemented. It specifically discusses TP monitors,
message oriented middleware (JMS, MQSeries) and distributed objects
and components (J2EE, COM+, CORBA).

Chapter 9 — Integration Brokers
This chapter explains all the components, architectures and services of
integration brokers. It also introduces all the major commercial integration
brokers enabling B2Bi from BEA Systems, IBM, Vitria and webMethods.


xvi B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Chapter 10 — Internet Security
This chapter dwells upon the security aspects of B2Bi. It explains the
different types of security solutions for B2B transactions over the
Internet, along with real world case studies.

Chapter 11 — Web Services
This chapter brings in the latest concept in the B2B world — Web
services. It explains the subject with supporting technologies — UDDI,
WSDL, WSFL and SOA with adequate examples.

Chapter 12 — Wireless Technologies
This chapter focuses on the explosive growth of wireless technologies
for B2B e-commerce and its impact on B2Bi architectures. It also
details technologies such as WAP, WML and WMLScript, along with

explanations of security aspects involved in mobile systems.

Chapter 13 — Software Agents
This chapter describes the fundamentals of software agents and how
they automate the manual processes that are involved today in B2B
e-commerce.

Chapter 14 — Supply Chain Management (SCM)
This chapter deals with the fundamentals of supply chain management
(SCM), e-procurement, e-logistics, SCM systems and how SCM enables
collaborative e-commerce.

Chapter 15 — E-marketplaces and
Collaborative Networks
This chapter brings under focal analysis the different types of B2B
e-marketplaces along with services offered by them. It discusses the
integration challenges that crop up while participating in e-marketplaces.


Preface

xvii

It also introduces the need, concepts and examples of collaborative
networks.

Chapter 16 — B2B to P2P Evolution
This chapter deals with the evolution of peer-to-peer-based applications
and architectures that would play a prominent role for B2Bi in the future.

Features of the Book
Some of the key features of the book include:

Key concepts
Each chapter begins with a discussion of the key concepts related to the
subject under study. Readers will find this very useful as it introduces
the ensuing chapters.

Discussion of leading software solutions
The book provides in-depth coverage of the latest commercial softwares
available in the market. This will acquaint readers with the developments
in the software industry as far as B2B integration solutions are concerned.
It will also be extremely helpful to the decision-makers to have a
review of various solutions for B2Bi out there.

Case studies
There are several real world case studies cited in each chapter. They
have been chosen very carefully to illustrate practical usage of the
concepts under focus.

Graphics/Images
The book contains a lot of relevant images, which provide a pictorial
view of the text concerned. Readers will find the images very illustrative
and useful in grasping the theory presented therein.


xviii

B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Acronyms
The book contains acronyms of technical and business terms that are
relevant to the subject of B2B integration.

References/Bibliography
The book acknowledges various sources used by giving references and
a bibliography. This will help readers to plumb the originals if they so
desire.

Editors and Contributors
I consider myself extremely fortunate in having got the invaluable
support and able guidance of several persons from different walks of
life. They are distinguished professionals who have carved a niche for
themselves in their respective fields. Undoubtedly, their contribution
has embellished this book. It is my privilege to give hereunder a pen
portrait of these contributors.

Dr. Marcus Healey
Dr. Marcus J. Healey is the Strategy Consultant for InfoFirst Inc., USA.
Before joining InfoFirst, Dr. Healey was the Director of Engineering
Implementation at Mobilocity, Inc., U.S., a thought leader in wireless
services. Prior to Mobilocity, Dr. Healey was a Project Engineer at
Organic, Inc., a prominent web integrator in New York City. While at
Organic, Marcus managed client projects from an implementation
perspective and acted as a technical liaison to the Strategic Services and
Business Development groups. Prior to Organic, Dr. Healey was a
Program Director and Adjunct Professor at the New lersey Institute
of Technology where he pioneered the Envirolnformatics program as
the Director of the New Jersey Program for Information Ecology and
Sustainability.

Dr. Healey has six years of direct IT experience, possesses multiple
MS degrees in science and engineering, an MBA and a Ph.D. He brings
a diverse technical and business background, broad public and private


Preface

xix

sector experience and extensive editing skills. He is the primary author
of one book in Environmental Science (Pollution Prevention Opportunity
Assessments, John Wiley & Sons © 1998) and one of four co-authors
on a soon to be published book (Information Mining on the World Wide
Web, Kluwer Publishers © 2001). Dr. Healey is the author of over fifty
publications and presentations in the fields of Environmental Science
and Information Technology.

Dr. Shyam Samtani
Dr. Shyam Samtani is presently Head of the Department, P.G. Department
of English, Indore Christian College, Indore (India). He is also on the
visiting faculty of Devi Ahilaya University, Indore. He has been in the
teaching profession for the last 35 years. During this period he has
supervised scores of dissertations both at M.A. and M.Phil levels. He
has presented papers at various national seminars and also published
many research papers and supervised Ph.D candidates. He has coauthored books for use by university students. He has also been a
Resource Person for the Refreshers/Orientation courses conducted by
different universities. Dr. Shyam Samtani has done the language editing
of this book.

Pawan Samtani

Pawan Samtani has over eleven years of IT, MIS and Finance experience.
He has extensive experience in different industries like E-commerce
Consulting, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing and Finance. He is currently
working as Country Operations Manager, India, with Oracle Corporation,
overlooking the implementation of various multi-million dollar projects.
Prior to joining Oracle, Pawan was the Senior Vice President with
Petrogas LLC where he was overseeing the implementations of Ariba
e-Marketplace and Oracle Financials in several offices of the company
all around the world. His responsibilities include project management,
strategic planning and supervising finance operations.
Prior to Petrogas, he was working as a Senior Consultant with
Whittman Hart, U.S., supervising several SAP implementations world
over. He has worked with Premira Fashions Limited, Onida Finance


xx B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Limited, Analysis Finance Limited and M. Mehta & Company, Chartered
Accountants, in various capacities.
He has extensive experience with the re-engineering of business
practices for various departments. He also specializes in implementing
and customizing ERP packages to integrate with the business process,
workflow and existing IT applications of the company. He possesses indepth knowledge of data modeling and database schema designing,
supply chain management, logistics systems and their integration with
e-commerce. He has worked with reputed concerns in different parts of
the world (United States of America, India and The Middle East) with
different business practices and cultures.
He is an Associate Member of Chartered Accountants of India. He
also has an MBA from Baruch College, New York, U.S.

Kenneth Tamburello
Ken Tamburello is a Senior Consultant Specialist at Bluesphere (an
EDS company), U.S., the industry's largest interactive integrator and
e-business consulting firm. Ken is the e.Design and e.Marketing delivery
manager for the New York Metro region, responsible for delivering
solutions in the areas of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI),
workflow automation, security and enterprise portals.
Prior to Bluesphere, Ken was an Associate Director at Bear Stearns
& Co., NY, where he was responsible for the delivery, support and
enhancement of a mission-critical, multi-million dollar Web-based account
portfolio database system. Prior to Bear Stearns, Ken was a freelance
consultant designing and developing client-server solutions.
Ken has over 6 years IT experience, having worked in the past with
PowerBuilder, Sybase, Oracle, UNIX, Java, UML and database design and
modeling. He received his MS in Engineering from Stevens Institute of
Technology, U.S., and his BS in Engineering from Rutgers University, U.S.

Deepak Bajaj
Dr. Deepak Bajaj is the Course Coordinator of Project Management at
the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Dr. Bajaj served as Director
of the Project Management Program prior to his present role.


Preface

xxi

Dr. Bajaj has fifteen years of combined experience in contracting,
consulting and academia. Dr. Bajaj has a PhD in the area of strategic
risk management and the topic of 'The Development of a Risk Averse

Business Strategy in the Procurement of Constructed Facilities' and a
Masters in Construction Management. He brings a diverse technical,
research and business background. He has published extensively in the
area of project risk management and has been author and co-author of
book chapters in the past. He has been editor of the AIQS Refereed
Journal and referee to a number of journals in the area of project
management and economics. Dr. Bajaj is the author of over forty
publications and presentations in the field of project management, risk
management and information technology in the construction industry.

Dimple Sadhwani
Dimple Sadhwani is Senior Software Engineer at Island ECN based in
New Work, USA. Prior to joining Island, Dimple worked as a Senior
E-commerce Consultant with BusinessEdge Solutions, a next-generation
consulting firm providing industry-specific e-business solutions. She was
a project manager for several eCRM, B2B integration and EAI projects.
Prior to that she worked with Citicorp Information Technology Industries
Ltd. (CITIL), based in New Jersey, USA, and Bombay, India. She has a
Bachelors in Computer Science from VJTI, Bombay. She has worked
on and evaluated the latest tools and solutions in the B2B, EAI and
Internet security fields.

Not the Final Word
Justice can hardly be done to such an elaborate subject with all its
dimensions and ramifications, on an intensive or extensive scale, in a
book of this length. It would require more than one volume to cover the
subject exhaustively. The endeavor is to acquaint the readers with the
concepts in a nutshell in one place without having to wander about to
different sources for various topics related to B2Bi.
I wish I could promise you a book perfect in every way. There are

bound to be some errors, omissions and typographical errors. I am open


xxii B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

to corrections and modifications. I shall appreciate critical opinions and
objective suggestions from the esteemed knowledgeable readers, which
would shed light my future undertakings. The suggestions can be sent
to me via e-mail at:
or
I will respond immediately. Well, that's it for now. I would like to
welcome you to the exciting world of B2B integration. Good luck!

Gunjan Samtani

New Jersey, USA
April 2002


Contents

Dedications

v

Acknowledgements

vii

About the Author

ix

Preface

xi

Part I The Big Picture

1

Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1. Evolution of Next Generation Enterprises
1.2. New Rules of Engagement
1.3. B2B E-Commerce
1.3.1. What is B2B e-commerce?
1.3.2. B2B vs. B2C: Differing strategies
1.3.3. Explosive growth in B2B
e-commerce
1.3.4. What is collaborative e-commerce?
1.4. B2B Integration (B2Bi)
1.4.1. Integration: The top priority
1.4.2. A daunting effort
1.4.3. Getting beyond the starting line
1.4.4. Selecting the right B2Bi solution
1.5. What is the Return on Investment (ROI) on
B2Bi?
1.6. Conclusion

3

4
4
5
5
6

Chapter 2

Components, Benefits, Challenges and
Applications of B2B Integration
2.1. The Word is Out
2.2. B2Bi Components

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B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

2.2.1. Integration patterns
2.2.2. Enterprise Application Integration
(EAI)
2.2.3. Business Process Management
(BPM)
2.2.4. Extensible Markup Language
(XML)
XML
standards for e-business
2.2.5.
2.2.6. Web services
2.2.7. Middleware technologies
2.2.8. Integration brokers
2.2.9. Internet security
2.2.10. Wireless technologies
2.2.11. Software agents
2.3. Benefits of B2B Integration
2.3.1. Dynamic business relationships
2.3.2. Real-time information
2.3.3. Lower transaction costs
2.3.4. Participation in online
marketplaces
2.3.5. Streamline business operations
2.3.6. XML-based integration
2.3.7. Increased customer service and
retention
2.3.8. Opportunity to re-architect
internal systems
2.4. B2Bi Challenges

2.4.1. Internal application integration
2.4.2. Disparate internal corporate data
2.4.3. System heterogeneity
2.4.4. Data security
2.4.5. Transaction integrity
2.4.6. Internal business process
management
2.4.7. Inter-enterprise business process
integration
2.4.8. Internal resistance

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