Re: [ebxml-dev] RE: OASIS Members to Develop Universal BusinessLanguage

[bhaugen <linkage@interaccess.com>]

From: Mike Rawlins  
> I observe that have been and will be considerable costs in moving the
> current B2B problems up a layer or two (or more).  I also observe that
> the marketplace may readily understand solving problems up a layer or
> two, but beyond that there may be less perceived benefit because there
> is less general understanding of the nature of the problems being
> addressed.  For example, an SME readily sees the value of being able to
> easily process purchase orders and send invoices.  But do they even
> understand the problem of the persistence of a business process encoded
> in a BPSS (that Jaime mentions above)?

Mike, let's think concretely.

1. BPSS business processes will be encapsulated in software.
SMEs should be able to just run them.

2. What does it mean to "process purchase orders"?  Just a single
isolated document, or is there a business process involved?  What
if the purchase order request is not accepted?  What if it's a PO
from a customer and the company cannot fulfill as requested but
can fill it in two shipments?  What if it's a PO from a big customer
with penalties for late shipment and the shipment transactions also
must be done electronically and refer back to the same PO?
What if the SME sends an ASN and gets back a Receiving
Discrepancy?  What are the limits of this single-document with
no business process view of the world?

3. What are the business processes already in use?  
In traditional EDI, acceptance and exception responses.
In Web marketplaces: auctions, contract negotiations, 
the configured-product processes I cited in a previous
message, design collaboration, forecast collaboration,
material schedules with provisions for split deliveries,
I could go on.

"The marketplace" wants to do business, not just pass
documents around.  If you look at the Web marketplaces,
they have all moved from simple POs to more complex
business processes.  I suppose we could say, given the
state of their stock, that they were wrong, but I don't
think the business processes were what did it.  They
were responding to customer demands.

-Bob Haugen