=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-30/paper-1
|storemode=property
|title=eServices to Integrate eBusiness with ERP Systems -- The Case of HiServ's Business Port
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-30/paper1.pdf
|volume=Vol-30
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/isdo/KlueberK00
}}
==eServices to Integrate eBusiness with ERP Systems -- The Case of HiServ's Business Port==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-30/paper1.pdf
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
eServices to integrate eBusiness with ERP Systems
–
The Case of HiServ’s Business Port
Roland Klueber, Norbert Kaltenmorgen
Roland Klueber
University of St. Gallen -
University for Business Administration, Economics, Law and Social Sciences (HSG)
Institute for Information Management
Müller-Friedberg-Strasse 8
CH-9000 St. Gallen
Tel.: ++41 / 71 / 224 3248
Fax: ++41 / 71 / 224 2777
roland.klueber@unisg.ch
Norbert Kaltenmorgen
HiServ GmbH
Building K703/3014
D-65926 Frankfurt am Main (Hoechst)
Tel.: ++49 69 305 5703
Fax: ++49 69 305
norbert.kaltenmorgen@hiserv.com
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
1 eBusiness and ERP Integration
With eBusiness being on the agenda of many companies (see (Ploenzke 2000)) the term
dubbed by IBM has reached wide awareness in practice and research. eBusiness is defined in
practice as “any Internet initiative – tactical or strategic – that transforms business
relationships (...). [It] is really a new way to drive efficiencies, speed, innovation and new
value creation in an organization“ (Hartman et al. 2000, xvii) or from an institutional
perspective as “an organization that connects critical business systems directly to key
customers, employees, suppliers and distributors using the Web” (IBM 2000).
Due to its fast spread, ERP system suppliers have not yet managed to fully integrate outward
reaching eBusiness activities like electronic markets or electronic procurement although they
have started their own initiatives (e.g. mySAP.com of SAP). The Gartner Group forecasts
that the market for these integration services will hit $100 billion by 2004, with a yearly
growth rate of more than 50% (GartnerGroup, 2000). The integration of services via
electronic media has just started and initiatives like Hewlett-Packard’s E-Services are
boasting it. So electronic Services (eServices) are seen as the next revolution (Plummer and
Smith 2000).
However, integrating eServices into an existing organization proposes new challenges since
process, data, protocol and interface standards for dynamic eService access are still under
development or became available only recently. Since the knowledge and competencies to
solve that problem is currently rare, the attractiveness of outsourcing these activities to third
parties gains importance. It is strengthened due to the fact that one-to-one solutions between
business partners should be avoided, if companies want to avoid lock-in situations previously
established with relationship-specific interfaces and applications used for EDI or CAD
systems.
This paper will focus on the integration of electronic services (eServices) into the application
landscape of companies by presenting a conceptual model (see chapter 2) and providing a
case study (see chapter 3) where an eService for such an integration is being established.
2 Business Networking Model for ERP and eBusiness Integration
To address the challenges described above, we have developed a conceptual model which
helps to focus on relevant elements towards providing a solution. It focuses on
standardization, and outsourcing or partnering required for Business Networking. Business
Networking is defined as the design and management of IT-enabled relationships between
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
internal and external business partners. The model is based on the “Business Model of the
Information Age” (Österle et al. 2000).
2.1 Elements of a Business Networking Model
The elements and guiding principles of the Business Networking Model are listed below:
• A Business Bus is a set of standards that supports the exchange of information, products
and services among business partners. It is a logical space where (complex) services and
products are flexibly and efficiently exchanged on previously agreed upon standards. Its
purpose is to define a set of standards that enable “plug&play” connections. Examples are
1
standards for catalogs (e.g. RosettaNet, cXML) or processes (e.g. CPFR). The
standardized infrastructure of the internet is extended to exchanging business
information, services and knowledge on a semantic level. The concept builds upon the
increasing availability of modular eServices and standards for processes, data, and
interfaces.
• Business Port: Applications and services, which denote a company’s ability to interface
with a large number of partners based on standards. First solutions for Business Ports are
already on the market (e.g. SAP Business Connector) and are expected to develop with
the diffusion of XML-related standards. These applications or external services build the
layer that manages different syntax and semantics based on the standards defined by the
Business Bus. It can be seen as customized layer to connect the internal with the external
IT world with high requirements on security, performance and service levels.
• EService: Internet-based applications and services offered as individual products to solve
a specific business need that seamlessly integrate with the (business or private)
customer‘s processes. They derive their value from digital value creation and may
include physical elements and/or other eServices (recursiveness). From an inside
perspective of an eService provider this includes the selection of standards of the
Business Port and the offering of the eService (Klueber et al. 1999).
One underlying design element is componentization which can be highlighted by specialized
components for supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management
(CRM), electronic commerce (eC) and supplemented by knowledge management (KM) and
data warehouse (DW) tools. Componentization can be also applied to eServices offered or
1
CXML stands for Commerce Extended Markup Language and CPFR for Collaboration, Planning,
Forecasting and Replenishment (www.cpfr.org).
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
contracted (e.g. payment services or logistic services offered via the Internet). These can
represent alternatives to inhouse applications and have subsitutional effects.
The implication for Business Networking is that it helps to stress the need for standardization
in eBusiness (Buxmann 1996; Hartman et al. 2000); (Berners-Lee 1999), encompasses the
integration of eServices and new application components as well as facilitates new
intermediaries (Hagel and Armstrong 1997). These should be reflected in a future Business
Networking oriented strategic application architecture. Figure 2.1-1 depicts an example of an
intermediary who is contracting an eService that offers an electronic market to extend his
offering to his customers. All Participants use the same set of standards and have to
implement Business Ports in order to map their internal process and data standards.
Producer Intermediary Customer
Business Partner
ERP CRM ERP CRM ERP CRM
Business Port EDI Converter EAI EAI
Business Bus Business Bus
Business Port Business Port
eService
eMarket
Legend: CRM Customer Relationship Management ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
EAI Enterprise Application Integration
Figure 2.1-1: Elements of the Business Networking Model
2.2 Research background
This paper is based on research done in the Competence Center for inter-Business
Networking initiated by the Institute for Information Management at the University of St.
Gallen (www.ccibn.unisg.ch). The research is conducted with action research (Checkland
and Holwell 1998) methods that help to understand which goals, business rules and logic the
case companies pursue and which networks they form. The choice of companies are those
who are involved with the Competence Center for Business Networking, which facilitates
access to information and people as well as lowers the barriers of trust. Close collaboration
with practice enables the researcher to study socio-technical phenomena in which “the
researcher enters a real-world situation and aims both to improve it and to acquire
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
knowledge.” (Checkland and Holwell 1998, 9). Preliminary results were obtained by starting
with a problem definition from practice. It was followed by an understanding gained from
desk research, which was then employed to the real life situations in semi-structured
interviews and workshops - a cyclical process, which led to result documents such as
working papers to document the process and the results.
The area of concern (Checkland and Holwell 1998) of this research is to better understand
the rules, motivations and business logic that work in the environment of the cases. It
provides the basis to present them in a better structured inter-personal, understandable, and
sharable form. This applies when addressing internal business units, partners and customers
as prerequisite for actions towards winning them to become an active part of the proposed
business model. At this early stage an explorative attempt is has been made (Yin 1994)
supported by action research methods.
3 Offering an eService to Outsource the ERP and eBusiness Integration
3.1 Outsourcing in eBusiness
Along with the strive for focusing on core competencies (Hamel and Prahalad 1994) and the
lack of time to build internal competencies in eBusiness (Klueber 2000), it is neccessary to
obtain the required competencies via Business Networking (Österle et al. 2000). The range of
partnering arrangements extends from flexible ad-hoc outsourcing via virtual organizing
(Venkatraman and Henderson 1998) towards more long-term insourcing via mergers and
acquisitions (Alt et al. 2000). Furthermore there is a trend towards outsourcing of IT services
and even business processes, which increasingly rely on partnership relations (Fröschel 1999,
459).
3.2 Case of HiServ’s eService to integrate customers of Newtron’s trading service
HiServ GmbH (www.hiserv.com) is a partner of the Competence Center inter-Business
Networking. One of its competencies lies in providing solutions for integrating application
systems between companies with middleware and enterprise application integration tools. It
is partnering with Newtron to offer that competence as an eService for Newtron and its
customers (see Figure 3.2-1). Newtron AG currently offers eMarkets for
• technical components (including mechanical and electronic engineering, electronics and
plant building, measurement and control technology (www.newtroncomponet.com)),
• maintenance, replenishment and operations market (www.newtronMRO.com), and
• telecom and multimedia market (www.telbiz.com).
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
The supported business processes are request for bids (RFB), auctions and multi-supplier
catalog sales. Newtron started its web presence 1999 based on the CompoNet catalog, which
was extended to a marketplace. It offers buyers and sellers a platform providing information
on products, producers, status as well as the exchange of product specifications and CAD
files is included.
Product Catalog: Integration Know-how:
• 45.000 product categories • ERP
• 1.3 mio. page impressions per month • Middleware
• more than 8.000 companies listed • EAI
Figure 3.2-1: Overview of the participating partners
The HiServ and Newtron example shows that partners leverage their competencies through
virtual organizing (Venkatraman and Henderson 1998). Newtron used its IT competencies
combined with the content of Catalogic and Konradin to set-up a functioning market. This
eService offering is now enhanced with the help of HiServ to offer ERP integration to
Newtron’s customers. This helps to increase the customer retention and to improve the
offering in order to realize efficiency gains on the buyer side. Figure 3.2-2 shows the
interaction of the business actors and their roles, the IS Architectures (standards of the
Business Bus and required applications like HiWay) and eServices (e.g. multi-supplier
catalog content by Catalogic).
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
Integrator
netwtron.net
Suppliers trading platform Customer
Offer
Business Port
Bid
Confirmation
Transact. Fee
Suppliers Receipt
HiServ HiServ
HiServ
Business Port Business Port
Business Port
• TCP/IP
• SSL
Newtron Business Bus • MQSeries Messaging
Standards
HiServ HiServ
Business Port Business Port Business Port Business Port Business Port
eService eService eService eService
eService
Auctioning SAP Port Product Catalog Partner Content
VPN
Processes via HiWay® e.g. Catalogix e.g. Konradin
Figure 3.2-2: Business Networking Model of the Newtron and HiServ Partnership
HiServ is offering an eService that contains the definition and maintenance of the Business
Port between Newtron and its customers in compliance with Newtron’s Business Bus.
Newtron's Business Bus defines the standards required to use the eServices of the eMarket
offered by Newtron and its partners. The content of eServices offered is the outsourcing of
the transportation, mapping of documents and information between trading partners as well
as the running of the virtual private network (VPN) service.
3.3 Extension of Business Processes
Based on the Business Ports, Newtron will be able to offer its customers a more complete
solution including a seamless electronic integration of the request for bidding process (RFB)
or auctioning processes as well as contracting. This process support is not yet included into
standard SAP R/3 software. The electronic integration will then include all transaction phases
(Schmid and Lindemann 1998). The information and contracting phase will be implemented
within the electronic commerce solutions of Newtron. The settlement phase will be
implemented within the SAP R/3 system based on the data from the electronic commerce
transactions made available by the eService offered by HiServ.
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
Customersystem newtron Suppliersystem
R/3 MM market-place R/3 SD
Purchase Request
1 for Offer
Request
2 Start
RFB RFB
ERP
Syn. RFB Offer
RFB
Answer 3
4
Determination
of Supplier
5 PO 6 Sales
Order
Figure 3.3-1: Process made possible by HiServ‘s Business Ports
The advantages are for the companies using the eService are the reduction of search costs
and no need to build and allocate know-how and other resources for this task. Additionally
the time saved can be used to concentrate on strategic procurement activities. The high
quality of the electronic catalog enables a high market transparency and better information
access than before.
To reap these benefits for Newtron’s customers HiServ applies its own enterprise application
integration tool called HiWay® in order to manage the many-to-many relationships
efficiently and to achieve potentially increasing returns based on the network effect.
3.4 HiWay as a tool to offer an eService for Business Ports
HiServ’s internal solution will be applied. It consists of two software components to build a
Business Port: the A2A HiWay Navigator for the configuration and the A2A Backbone for
the execution of interorganizational processes which includes the virtual private network.
A2A HiWay Navigator is a graphical user interface-based tool HiServ developed to
implement a seamless integration between multiple business systems and IT platforms. It
manages and controls all interface requirements and allows transformation and translation of
data in a truly vendor independent fashion. Figure 3.4-1 shows the linking of the SAP R/3
MM (Source) with the Newtron portal (destination) done via a graphical link. The next step
is to define the connectors, which is performed via a choice of the possible connectors shown
in the pop-up window. HiWay needs a transport and a filter adapter in order to be able to
generate runtime coding for that connection.
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
Figure 3.4-1: Screen Shot of the A2A HiWay Navigator
This step specifies the network protocols, security requirements and messaging middleware
used in order to establish the link to the NewtronCompoNET market place. This Business
Port is the prerequisite to make efficient use of the RFB processes and the content offered by
Newtron without individual programming.
Figure 3.4-2: Business Port Elements to be implemented by HiWay
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
The next stage represented in Figure 3.4-2 is to generate code that implements the specified
Business Port. The more implementations are done with HiServ the faster the future
implementations will be as more and more data can be automatically mapped.
Due to limited support of synchronous information exchange and XML standards compliance
1
like cXML, common business library (CBL) or RosettaNet standards it might be required to
use other tools that focus on this functionality. One important provider is WebMethods
(www.webmethods.com) and the SAP Business Connector, which is also licensed form
WebMethods. HiServ is considering to partner with WebMethods to achieve that integration.
The intermediate state is depicted in Figure 3.4-3.
Newtron
Port
marketplace
VPN
Port Port
R/3
Internet
Customer A
SAP SSL, X.509
Business mySAP.com
Connector
HiWay
(EAI Tool)
R/3 Legacy
application
Firewall
Customer B R/3 Legend: protected
Customer B area
Site X
Site Y
Figure 3.4-3: Technical view on intermediate solutions
For future releases of the HiWay the synchronous connection and enhanced XML
capabilities will be offered either by HiServ or in cooperation with partners. One specific
extension might be the one described below.
3.5 Enhancement potentials of the solution with tpaML
The Business Networking Model recommends that a set of standards is used in order to
obtain the required flexibility for Business Networking. To facilitate the electronic contract
definition and its implementation IBM has developed the Trading Partner Agreement
2
Markup Language (tpaML) .
1
See www.ariba.com for cXML, http://www.commerceone.com/xml/cbl/index.html for CBL and
www.rosettanet.org.
2
It is an open standard available on the Internet and submitted for standardization with OASIS xml.org
initiative. TpaML is complementary to the Electronic Business XML initiative (ebXML) of the
UN/CEFACT and OASIS.
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
TpaML aims to facilitate collaboration by standardizing the interaction of trading partners
ranging from the basic communication via data and document exchange to the business
protocol layer. The XML-based tpa documents capture the relevant information to enable the
communication of applications and processes. Since it covers a high level layer many
standards below have to be agreed upon and defined. The language and its standards are
based on the following assumptions (see Figure 3.5-1):
4 Usually there is no common shared underlying middleware for inter-business processes.
Setting up such a middleware would require a tight coupling of partners’ software
platforms with implications on security, naming and component registration.
4 ACID principles (atomicy, consistency, isolation, durability (Gray and Reuter 1993)) and
one sphere of control are not desirable since hold locks would lead to a loss of autonomy
4 Current inter-business practices do not support rollback or compensation transactions, but
rely on forward moving actions like explicit recourse actions (e.g. cancellation of a
purchase). These can also be implemented in computer supported media.
TpaML relies on a conversation model of interaction that is based on a conversation history
with mutually agreed upon permissible operations. Based on these the external interactions
consist of requests, responses, modifications or cancellations. As in the inter-Business
Networking method (Klueber et al. 2000, 272) the developers of tpaML stress the importance
of control and monitoring as well as trust (Sachs et al. 2000, 3).
Transaction Model (eg. Gray/Reuther) Conversation Model (eg. Sachs et al. 2000)
Contract Contract
Sphere of Control Terms & Terms &
according to ACID-Principle Conditions Conditions
Conv. Conv.
History History
Buyer Seller Buyer Seller
Tightly coupled Loosely coupled
Roll-back Recourse actions (eg. Cancellations)
Stable Roles Changing Roles
Figure 3.5-1 – Different perspectives on inter-business transactions
TPA expresses the IT terms and conditions which participating parties must agree upon. This
also entails configuration information and the interaction rules that must be executable. To
achieve this, tools for authoring and code-generation are required.
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
The standardization of the Business Bus could be supported by tpaML on several levels (see
Figure 3.5-2). The hierarchy of categories defines a layer model of eService categories (c.f.
Klueber 1999). It describes how different tasks are solved by tpaML standards or standards
tpaML uses itself. The values result from the descripton of tpaML (Sachs et al. 2000) in the
subcategories language, content, protocol. However not every layer is yet fully specified.
Content Category Criteria Value
Pragmatics Coordination Language tpaML
Standards Content Trading partner roles, Sequencing Rules
Process Protocol OBI, Rosettanet's Partner Interface Processes
Standards (PIP)
Language tpaML
Content Invoking actions at the partners’site
Semantics Information Language tpaML (contract), cXML (products) etc.
Standards Content Bids, Availability, Contract information like
conditions and service levels etc.
Transaction Protocol document interchange, message brokering
Standards Content Workflow, Audit Logging, Non-repudiation
(MD5, RSA, DSA), Authentication
(X509.V3), message security , recovery
procedures
Syntax Data Standards Content Message formats (eg. BASE64), Exchanges,
address parameters
Basis Protocol TCP/IP, SMTP (HTTP), SSL
Standards Content Maximum allowed network delay
Figure 3.5-2 – TpaML Standardization Areas
TpaML reaches much above typical communication standards like TCP/IP or transaction
standards. It aims to automate former not being conceived as “automatable” services. It
moves towards covering semantic elements like the roles and the business processes applied.
TpaML is a prototypical effort of a set of standards to achieve a higher level of
standardization on the semantic level the Business Networking model focuses on.
These standards can to be implemented via eServices. Due to tpaML the computability rises
to levels where computer supported task fulfillment was previously too complex in
heterogeneous environments. However there is more research needed on the maturity and the
applicability of tpaML. For example it has to proof, if it meets the time and functionality
requirements (e.g. degree of details and adaptations for the bidding and auctioning processes)
of the above described setting. Also, implementation questions like the integration into
IBM’s MQSeries as the first product that implements the standard are to be resolved, before
this option can be explored any further.
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
Furthermore the authors of the tpaML themselves state limitations (Sachs et al. 2000). For
example, there have only been two party scenarios implemented based on static negotiations.
To date no hierarchical TPAs are possible (see p. 15) and monitoring and control procedures
are not yet included. Furthermore it is not yet clear how trusted 3rd parties can be integrated
and who can perform it.
If tpaML was able to be integrated as meta-language for describing the agreement process
and enforcing this agreement, opportunities could be plentiful. One example would be to
directly instantiate the monitoring process of agreed upon service levels, delivery times etc.,
which were part of the contract after the bidding process or auction. This could be done via
importing that information into the SAP system or via an additional service offered by
Newtron or HiServ respectively.
4 Conclusions and Outlook
The integration of services – of electronic or physical nature – presents a great challenge for
eBusiness. The paper proposed a model to depict eServices and highlights preconditions for
their integration like the use of standards (Business Bus), standardized interfaces, software
components and services (Business Port) and their interplay to deliver a complete offering in
eBusiness.
The general model was applied to a specific eService offering of HiServ and Newtron.
HiServ is offering an eService to establish Business Ports to integrate ERP systems with the
eBusiness solution of Newtron. This project will be used to evaluate the usability of the
model as well as its refinement in a real life environment. We have provided an outlook on
the potentials to extend this scenario by using tpaML on the semantic layer.
So far the Business Networking Model has helped to structure the tasks of the partnering
project between HiServ and Newtron. The implementation of the project will show, if the
identified architecture will materialize, customers are able to reap the benefits of the solution
described above, and the cooperating parties will be able to achieve the critical mass.
Session 2: B2B eBusiness Today
5 References
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