extending ebXML scope to app-to-app integration within enterprises

["A.J. (Tony) Blazej" <blazej@ibm.net>]

Some comments an the relevance of A2A to ebXML

It has been our experience in the OAG that one cannot separate B2B issues
from fundamental A2A interoperability problems.  When a "B2B context"
message hits an enterprise boundary "MAGIC" doesn't happen. A handler
has to hand off the message to an "internal" application.  If this is not
actually some piece of an ERP suite - it most certainly will engage such
a suite [or an analogous Legacy app] before the transaction is completed.
The solution methodology invoked by the "handler" can and should be the
same as is used for traditional EAI within the enterprise.  This is an area in
which the OAG has pioneered and developed a proven solution in the course
of the last 5 years.

In our view, for web based interactions involving large to medium
organizations: E2E = B2B + A2A + A2F [where A2F is the link to factory
floor applications].   As Khwaja pointed out, there is "...tremendous
value in having a single foundation for EAI+IAI+B2B".

Bob Miller so eloquently commented: "ebXML is not about providing
specific solutions, it is about providing an XML-based foundation upon
which such solutions can be built. That foundation is as applicable to
the internal app-to-app problem as it is to the external app-to-app
problem we call B2B"

As long as "...[ebXML] does not duplicate what the OAG is doing, but
develops a specification for business process definition (BPDS) within
which the OAG business process definition will fit" remains the focus
of ebXML - then we are working together to define a pervasive solution.

We in the OAG would love to exploit such a "solution" to do what we do
best - design the CONTENT OF MESSAGES which will ride within an
ebXML "envelope" traversing ebXML compliant frameworks.

I do share Bob's concern that we resist scope creep. As someone else
observed "...ebXML will be complicated enough".

Cheers,
     Tony

A.J. (Tony) Blazej
Director of Industry Programs
Open Applications Group, Inc.
203-966-7388
ablazej@openapplications.org