Re: Party XML Schema Defintions

[Martin Bryan <mtbryan@sgml.u-net.com>]

>If an SME simply has a small application using FoxPro or Access, it has an
application (legacy) that is currently used. I do not think that it will be
viable to avoid to link such application with the possibility of running
ebXML Conversations. SME would not enter twice the same PO !

Exactly. If an SML already has a small application using Access why the hell
should he be forced to create ebXML BP, BOV, FSV, CPP, TPa, UTCAA,....
formal definitions of his processes.

>Also, there is the "problem" of the Business Process (and of the CPA). In a
first approximation, the ebXML software could simply deal with the
sending/receving of XML documents; but, I think, it will be also required to
have some software which manages the conversation, i.e. helps the SME to
executing the Business Process that has been agreed with the other party.

That software should not be specific to just this process. It should be an
application of a general-purpose tool which is likely to already be in the
possession of the SME, e.g. a web browser with XSLT capabilities.

>Leaving the process management completely to human activity would not be of
great help. (Here I am not saying that the process MUST ALWAYS be automated
and no human intervention is required. But that a support for ensuring that
the Business Process is run accordingly to the CPA is something that users
will need).

Automating processes that occur only one or two times a week is not
cost-effective.

>In this context, even if I do not have an already existing application to
interface with ebXML, I think that a solution composed by XML/XSLT would be
viable only if the BP is very trivial (I do not think that XSLT could be
used also for that).

Most SMEs have very trivial BPs. Most of them do not even have formal
procedures but work on an ad-hoc basis. My point is that if we want to
attract more than a few percent of the larger SMEs we have to be able to
work using extremely simple, probably manually controlled, procedures that
do not need more than a few seconds to set up.

Martin Bryan