[ebxml-mktg] Webservices revisited.

[David RR Webber - XMLGlobal <Gnosis_@compuserve.com>]

I wrote on this topic the other week so I was very gratified to
see that my vision of webservices as "Realtime EDI" 
equivalents has been echoed here.

Of course what this gentleman is failing to realize is that
ebXML provides robust interchange management 
already.

But then we can educate him!

Separating the interactive - non-critical information 
exchanges into a separate layer that can 
operate independently - and service a range of users
is a good way to manage both needs - by playing to
the strengths of each technology.

Thanks, DW.
=============================================================
Transaction Processing

Interaction the killer app for Web services?
By Rich Seeley

Web services needs a "killer app" to move beyond internal 
integration, argues Nelson Carbonell.

"Right now," he said, "you have Web services and you have companies 
that are providing Web services. You read about them and technical 
people are excited about them, but the missing element is what do 
you do with these Web services? We think interaction is the killer 
app for Web services."

Carbonell, president and CEO of Cysive Inc., Reston, Va., which 
unveiled its new interactive server technology at Internet World 
in New York this week, said it is time for Internet transaction 
applications to move beyond selling t-shirts.

"I always say that the Internet looks like it was designed for 
the buy-a-t-shirt transaction," he said. "It doesn't do very well 
for the get-a-mortgage transaction. Something that takes longer 
than 30 seconds to do kind of falls apart."

What is needed, in Carbonell's view, are Web services 
interaction applications that can handle transactions that may 
take hours, days, weeks or even a month. An interaction tier 
links Web services into a single application for end users 
working from a variety of interfaces, he explained, on devices 
ranging from a PC or PDA to a home telephone. In addition, he 
said, Cysive provides patented "follow-on" technology so that 
if in the midst of a lengthy banking transaction users move 
from pressing buttons on a telephone to logging in with a PC 
Web browser, they don't have to start over.

"You reach a point where the phone is not going to be a very good 
user interface," Carbonell explained. "What we allow you to do is 
log on through a browser and pick up where they left off. So it 
follows you from one channel to another because as far as the 
interaction tier is concerned, that's just one transaction going 
on. The fact that you started with voice and then went another 
way, that's your choice."

Carbonell, who lists First Union, Fleet and Chase among his 
company's banking customers, said the interaction server allows 
Web services applications to operate the way the 
"real world" works.

"We've taken the interaction tier and we're solving the basic 
problem, which is that I have applications that have to go out 
and be able to talk to 'n' number of user environments, whether 
that be devices or through channels like e-mail," he said. "This 
interaction tier will allow us to do things that are in line with 
how things work in the real world."

For the rest of the story, please 
go to http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=6800
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