RE: The initial ebXML business vocabulary - A call for a listofcandidates

[Bob Haugen <linkage@interaccess.com>]

Robert Miller:
>IMO, the solution to the SME problem lies not in EDI, nor in XML.  Both of
>these 'solutions' are not 'solutions' at all - they are simply middleware
>interfaces.  The SME problem will be resolved only when key end user
>applications seamlessly interface across businesses large, medium and small
>(employing applications from a variety of vendors and users) to effect
>business transactions. 

Wow!  Well said!  I'm with you!

>efforts underway to model business practices and the information exchanges
>needed to support those practices IMO offers the greatest potential for
>achieving the seamless application goal.  For it is through such efforts
>that application designers will reach a more complete understanding of the
>problems their applications need to address.  These models should present a
>clear template both for the overall scope of the business problems they seek
>to address (in whole, or in some business marketplace subset), and for the
>transactions scenarios that effect the desired conduct of business.

I fully agree.  There are some problems, though, in that the traditional design
of the popular business application packages is inwardly focused and
cannot manage external B2B collaboration processes.  Some new
software applications are emerging, but they are proprietary.  ebXML
and follow-on activities place more emphasis on message transport 
and document format than business collaboration processes.  And
the business process people have not made their ideas easy
enough to understand and use so everybody is afraid to touch them.

I don't mean to sound pessimistic, I think it's clear what to do.

Regards,
Bob Haugen