RE: VOTE REQUESTED - Suggest vote NO to Section 7 of theTechnicalArchitecture Specification

[Bob Haugen <linkage@interaccess.com>]

David Lyon and all,

Integration with internal business systems has been another feature
that has been declared out-of-scope for ebXML from the beginning.

I agree with David that this is vitally important and like him wish it
had been in-scope, but ebXML had 18 months to get finished and
I understand why the scope decision was made.  There are a lot
of internal business systems out there, and a lot of ways to 
approach integration.  There have been proposals and ideas
put forward on the ebXML lists.  Personally I like some and
hate others.  It would have been yet another circular argument,
and required yet another work group, probably composed of
already-overworked people from this and other groups.

I don't think it does any good to become indignant at this late date
about scope decisions made a year and a half ago.

-Bob Haugen

-----Original Message-----
From:	David Lyon [SMTP:djlyon@one.net.au]
Sent:	Friday, April 27, 2001 1:57 AM
To:	ebxml-core@lists.ebxml.org
Subject:	VOTE REQUESTED - Suggest vote NO to Section 7 of the TechnicalArchitecture Specification

All members,

I have been examining my copy of the technical Architecture specification. I
would suggest that a vote of NO should apply to this section.

For the SME, this section is fundimentally flawed and will not work in any
Small Business that I know of.

Line 434 says "The implementation phase deals specifically with the
procedures for creating an application of the ebXML infastructure"

There is extensive descriptions following of registries, scenarios, runtime
phases etc... but there is nothing that I can find even showing how an SME
connects it to their packaged accounting system.

This is in my opinion, an extremely major flaw!

I kindof understand the benefit of using a top down methodology, but in this
case it has led to a very grave design flaw.

>From the ebXML homepage, I got the impression that what was being designed
was sortof like a volkswagon. A car for the masses that businesses all over
the world could use.

The problem is that the designers so far have been concentrating so much on
a top down view of what they are designing, that they haven't bothered to
have a look at the car from the side or underneeth.

What has therefore been designed, from an implemention perspective, is much
like a car without wheels!

It just won't go!

Without connecting ebXML to the packaged accounting system so central to the
movement of every SME, what hat has been described so far, won't actually
work.

So it doesn't matter how much you rev the ebXML engine, it will never
translate into forward motion for business. It will just sit there forever
looking like a car, sounding like a car but incapable of leaving the
driveway.

I know that it's just a minor detail - but connecting the ebXML to the
Accounting system is a fairly important one I would think.

The TA document described thus far, if implemented the way it is read, would
not enable an SME to conduct business using ebXML. I just thought I'd point
that out, just a comment from somebody looking from the side.

David Lyon