Web-services

The solution to every problem?

29 okt 2002 © Per Flensburg 2

What is web-services?

A way of moving information from one business system to another

Thus it becomes the foundation of an e-business concept

And of course it is a lucrative market for the vendors

29 okt 2002 © Per Flensburg 3

An example

Suppose we have two companiesBoth have their own processes for

buying and sellingThe first company then buys the

other and their systems are to be integrated.

But you want to keep the business processes as untouched as possible

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Customer register

Customer number First name Second name Street Street number Zip code Postal address Sum to pay

Customer name Invoice address Delivery address Customer

category Bought this year Contact person

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Problems to solve

How do we get hold of the delivery address?

How is the customer placed in the right category?

How do we count “bought this year”All of this depends on the

business process

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The business process

Find customer number

If invoices to pay > 2500€ no order

Receive the order Send the gods to

the desired address Send invoice to

address in register

Find customer name Receive the order Compute price

reduction (depending on category and accumulated buying )

Send gods to delivery address

Send invoice to invoice address

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Problems we face

Price reduction which is done only in one of the companies

Delivery address that must be supplied manually in one case

In one of the companies the customer must be registered in advance, in the other the registration can take place during the order process.

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Another example

A company A sells stuff to companies B and C which both are very big.

B and C has totally different business processes

All three will now do e-business

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Company A’s part register

Part nameSelling pricePrice for original stuffManufacturing costsParts in storeAvailable for sellingManufacturing time

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Company B’s part register

Part numberCategoryOrdering quantitySaldoOrder level 1Order level 2

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Company C’s part register

Article numberNameBuying pricePhysical number in storeDelivery timeVendor number

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Mapping problems

Part nameSelling pricePrice for original stuffManufacturing costsParts in storeAvailable for sellingManufacturing time

Part numberCategoryOrdering quantitySaldoOrder level 1Order level 2

Article numberNameBuying pricePhysical number in storeDelivery timeVendor number

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B order from A

If saldo is below order quantity 1, then you order the ordering quantity.

If you can save more than 250€ in transport costs by delivering from the same company, then order if the saldo is below order quantity 2

But only up to full transport.

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C order from A

Every third week the store is filledThen you by from the vendor

having the lowest price and offering the best conditions concerning price, delivery and credit time.

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Different ways of making e-commerce

Establish unique routines for every customer– The customer have full control over

the business process.Company A offers certain solutions

– The customer have to adopt– But the price is getting lower

You establish a standardised solution, f.ex. EDI

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56 converting routines

Ftg A

Ftg B

Ftg C

Ftg D

Ftg F

Ftg H

Ftg E

Ftg G

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16 converting routines

Ftg A

Ftg B

Ftg C

Ftg D

Ftg F

Ftg H

Ftg E

Ftg G

Alla konverterar till och från ett gemensamt format: Middleware

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Customer - Meaning?

A person who has something sometimeA person who has asked for product

informationOne who has not yet paidA body who has bought for at least

1000€ last yearA body registered as customer in the

customer database at the headquarter.

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Sam meaning but different names

KundidKundnoKundrefCustomerCST

Technical perspective

XML as a common denominator

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Invoice

Invoice

QuickTime och enTIFF (LZW)-dekomprimerarekrävs för att kunna se bilden.

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Struktur

Structureof invoice

QuickTime och enTIFF (LZW)-dekomprimerarekrävs för att kunna se bilden.

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Större struktur

Invoice, bigger structure QuickTime och enTIFF (LZW)-dekomprimerarekrävs för att kunna se bilden.

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Filformat: XML

Exemplet hämtat från Stig Berild

<order>

<summa> 35003500 </summa>

<namn> StinaStina </namn><kund>

</kund> <orderrad> <produkt> VilstolVilstol </produkt> <antal> 44 </antal> <apris> 500500 </apris> </orderrad>

<orderrad> <produkt> LampaLampa </produkt> <antal> 66 </antal> <apris> 250250 </apris> </orderrad>

</order>

<ordernr> 123123 </ordernr>

<adress> StorgatanStorgatan </adress>

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The meaning of the tags

How do you know which tags are allowed?– You have a vocabulary

How do you know what the tags mean?– You have a template (DTD)

How are the connected?– By XSL

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Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)

XSLXSLstyle-style-sheetsheet

XSL-XSL-ProcessorProcessor

(XSLT)(XSLT)

Transfor-Transfor-meringmering

Adds, subtractsChange theorder

XSL-XSL-ProcessorProcessor

(XSL)(XSL)

formatting

XML/HTML

XSL-XSL-ProcessorProcessor

(XSL)(XSL)

XML/HTML

XML-XML-ParserParser

Controls syntax, content, file formatTranslate to internal format

Exemplet hämtat från Stig Berild

Semantic perspective

What do they mean – actually?

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Vocabulary

Ftg A

Ftg B

Ftg C

Ftg D

Ftg F

Ftg H

Ftg E

Ftg G

Kontrakt

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More about vocabularies

A strong actor (e.g. IKEA) can dictate the conditions

There are lots of vocabularies– General– Market specific– Business process specific– Subject specific

Se t.ex.: www.biztalk.org www.xml.orgwww.xmlinfo.comwww.openapplications.org

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Repository

Vocabular repositories

Internal definitions

Standardised definitions

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Example of repositories

Biztalk– Defined by Microsoft– Used by bigger organisations

ebXML– Defined by OASIS– Belongs to open source

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Determinedby standardsoftware

Business parteragreements

Industry-standard-defined

Used internally

Dictated fromgoverment

EU-declared

Edifact-adopted

Exemplet hämtat från Stig Berild

Vocabulary chaos?

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Business process

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Example

AB Scravator

CitybankenFlying containers inc

Fiffel & Bågh

Web-service

Customer

Order receiving

Credit controlDelivery

Invoicing

Payment

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Dynamics

AB Scravator

ProvinsbankenMopedbud upa

Boka Hb

Web-service

Customer

Order recieving

Delivery

Book keeping

Payment

Packad o allt

Package

Checking all

Credit control

Invoicing

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Hierarchies

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Business process and vocabularies

Repository

Internal definitions

Standardiserade definitioner

Business process repository

UDDIebXML

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Credit control

Business Process repository

ConditionsDescription

ConditionsDescription

ConditionsDescription

ConditionsDescription

WDSLUDDIebXML

Some file format

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File format: EDIFACT

…

LOC+SC+Storskolan’NAD+TE+Evert Ek´COM+TEL+384211’NAD+TE+Asta Dal´COM+TEL+567342’NAD+PU+Emil Svensson´COM+TEL+143423’…

Message

Group

Segment

Composite element

Element

Tag

Separators

Exemplet hämtat från Anders Skog

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File format: Separators

…

S:StorskolanL:Evert Ek:384211L:Asta Dal:567433E:Emil Svensson:143254…

File

Record

Field

Separator/Delimiter

Exemplet hämtat från Anders Skog

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File format: Fixed fields

…

SStorskolan________

LEvert Ek________384211_______

LAsta Dal________453432_______

EEmil Svensson___143254_______ …

File

Record

Field

Padding

Exemplet hämtat från Anders Skog

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Description of EDIFACTSegmentkatalog

LOC e1234 M e2345 C e3456 C

NAD e4321 M e9876 C

Elementkatalog

e1234 an 2 kod: A1,A2,B1…e2345 an 1..35e3456 n 2 e4321 an 3 kod: BU,SE,TE…

Meddelande

GR01 LOC 1 GR02 0..999 NAD 1 COM 0..3

…

LOC+SC+Storskolan’NAD+TE+Evert Ek´COM+TEL+384211’NAD+TE+Asta Dal´COM+TEL+567342’NAD+PU+Emil Svensson´COM+TEL+143423’…

Instans

Exemplet hämtat från Anders Skog

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The size do matters!

Typical business document in EDIFACT-standard:– 150 segments– 50 groups– 3-6 levels

Every segment has 5-10 elements New version twice a year One instance (file) can be several megabytes SAP IDOC is similar XML might end up here too…

Conclusion

Sort of…

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Business system A

Data

Structure

Semantics

Business system B

Data

Structure

Semantics

XML etc,

Metadata

E-business

Marketstandard

Middelware

E-business

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The BIG problem

The intrinsic problem in e-business is to move knowledge from one system to another

Moving knowledge means both moving the information, the meaning with the information.

The actions performed based upon the information must be the intended ones.

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How to achieve intended actions?

The intention must be transferred – it is located in the context

The desired action must be known – as well as its intentions

The easiest way to accomplish this is by standardising.

Standardised customers use standard procedures for buying standard stuff.

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Standardisation – the solution?

In modern business they talk about establish relations, they even talk about value management

If you get a personal treatment, you are more satisfied and thus a better customer

In fact we end up with transactions that are to be treated individually, but cheaper than today!

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Other solutions?

To make it extremely short: Let the customer arrange the procedure herself by collecting standardised components as a sort of Lego.

This requires a quite new way of looking at business software and business software development.

The components must be specific for every market.

Fine