ebXML for the SME

[Rachel Foerster <rachelf@ix.netcom.com>]

In the June 11th issue of Fortune managzine is an interesting article about
Microsoft: "The Beast Is Back." A few paragraphs (quoted below) seem to me
to be quite pertinent to recent discussions on this list about simple
standard processes and documents for the SME. I'm making reference to this
article and Microsoft's stated direction without placing any value judgment
at all on MS. However, food for thought.

The full article can be found at
http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=202708&page=
1&_DARGS=%2Fartcol.jhtml.2_A&_DAV=artcol.jhtml

"Perhaps the most far-reaching project in Raikes' group could be thought of
as the business equivalent of the human genome project. Norm Judah, a vice
president who once managed Microsoft's computer infrastructure, leads a team
that is trying to develop a schematic of every conceivable activity and
interaction that any business might require, both internally and with
customers and suppliers. Many of these activities already have been
automated in piecemeal fashion by older data-processing systems at
individual companies, but no one has ever tried to map out and standardize
them all.

"It turns out that a lot of these thousands of business processes coalesce
around very similar documents and records," says Judah. He has created a 70-
square-foot "module map" to illustrate the flow of transactions and
interactions. "The general ledger for one business isn't all that different
from another. SKUs and UPC numbers are standardized. Even a
power-of-attorney document can be reduced to a standard form."

The goal is twofold. Streamlining and standardizing electronic
record-keeping and routine business activities would be a boon for companies
large and small, and would make it easier for Microsoft to adapt OfficeXP to
be the front end for even more business processes. It also would open the
way for other "business intelligence" programs and services to help track,
as Gates puts it, "what really works and what doesn't."

Though Judah's project is still a long way from completion, his boss, David
Vaskevitch, sees it as the linchpin in Microsoft's strategy to lead the next
transformation of IT. Says he: "When you really think about it, productivity
programs like Office fundamentally changed the way people write and
communicate in documents. If we're successful at this, we'll fundamentally
change the way people interact with the economy."

Rachel Foerster
Principal
Rachel Foerster & Associates, Ltd.
Strategies for Electronic Commerce
39432 North Avenue
Beach Park, IL 60099
Phone: 847-872-8070
Fax: 847-872-6860
http://www.rfa-edi.com