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Implementing the ebXML registry/ repository: role of the ebXML RegRep in an e-business framework. (Enterprise Solutions).

Article Excerpt
Conducting business in an electronic manner requires the exchange of a wide range of parameters--company profiles, catalogs, business processes, schemas, et al.--for describing appropriate business documents. How can these parameters be stored and managed? How can companies locate and use trading partner information?

The ebXML initiative has defined a RegRep (Registry/Repository) as providing a shared space for one or more B2B communities. With an ebXML RegRep, companies can submit, update, deprecate, or otherwise manage the parameters required to conduct electronic business. The RegRep also defines standardized APIs to access or otherwise share these parameters across trading communities.

You may have heard about the benefits of a B2B business model, a concept that grew out of the electronic trading communities that were defined using EDI (via the X12 and EDIFACT standards). While B2B grew out of the traditional EDI space, many implementation requirements are missing or poorly understood.

"What are these missing elements? The traditional B2B business model (again, based on the EDI model) assumes that trading partners have advance knowledge of each other's e-business environments, trading protocols, and procedures. The "discovery" phase is traditionally done offline via a manual process (phone calls, legal contracts, etc.). This approach limits companies to conducting business with a relatively small community of well-known trading partners. A well-defined discovery process would enable most companies to significantly expand the size of their trading communities. The current B2B model, however, doesn't support such a process, forcing trading partner configuration to be accomplished offline.

The ebXML RegRep is designed to close some of the gaps in traditional B2B business models, as B2B alone isn't enough to establish true collaborative commerce. B2B with an ebXML RegRep provides a more advanced B2B model that we call Business-RegRep-Business, or BRB. ebXML RegRep enables trade parameters to be shared among business peers, and helps to build more dynamic B2B environments based on the discovery and execution of trade agreements with ebXML-enabled trading partners.

Understanding ebXML's BRB Model

ebXML's BRB model can be clarified using a simple formula:

BRB = B2R + B2B

Trading partners perform a Business-to-RegRep, or B2R, transaction before conducting B2B transactions, ebXML provides a more dynamic mechanism for finding and conducting business with new trading partners.

The U.S. General Accounting Office recently filed a report, "Electronic Government--Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language," with the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs (view it at www.gao.gov/new.items/do2327.pdf). In the report the GAO describes the current status of the standards for XML registries and raises some concerns regarding the maturity of XML-related technologies as well as the...

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