BOC, Siemens and MSX lead way for standards-based supply chain integration

Using standards- and web-based technologies to link companies and systems and provide better, co-ordinated and automated business processes that build on existing investments in firms’ ERP systems is catching on. Software vendors from ERP to e-business have seen the opportunity and are developing sophisticated integration platforms that ease exactly this kind of interaction. Former e-procurement, turned ‘supplier relationship management’ (SRM) software and services vendor Commerce One is the latest – and in its case, its so-called Conductor system already has some serious pre-release users. Included in their number are names like BOC Gases, Eastman Chemical, MSXi, Siemens and UCCNet, all of which have launched integrated business processes across internal and external systems. All seem impressed by what they’re achieving with the technology. Troy Gazette, for Tier One automotive, design, test and procurement outsourcing services provider MSX International, says: “The better connectivity and co-ordination we can enable between our partners and our hosted services, the greater value we can provide our customers… We expect to see as much as a 50% reduction in cycle times, and a similar reduction in costs associated with developing custom integration interfaces.” For industrial gas supplier BOC Gases, Kathy West says: “In addition to offering vendor-managed inventory directly to customers with internal applications distributing bulk and cylinder gases, BOC plans to develop more advanced processes. [These] will provide customers with deeper visibility into the data and move the transaction from BOC’s billing system right through to the customer’s inventory management system.” Customers, she adds, will get immediate visibility into critical data, such as product details, billing information, cylinder levels and specification sheets. “Ultimately, BOC is aiming for end-to-end automation of its supply network processes.” Commerce One director Bill Harmer says other users are moving forward on supply chain-based ATP (availability to promise) systems that also cross companies and their disparate ERP systems, so that stocks, materials, assemblies and production can be assessed automatically down four or five levels of a supply chain. Conductor, described as a ‘composite application platform’ essentially unlocks what were already seen as desirables, but were expensive and cumbersome to implement in IT terms. It’s comparable to initiatives like SAP’s Netweaver and Cross-Apps, Cincom’s Environ, Fuji’s Interstage and Vitria’s business process integration systems – even Invensys’ ArchestrA integration architecture. Harmer insists that Commerce One is ahead of the market, having spent “$250 million” on system development. However, he accepts that this is going to be fiercely fought over: “It’s a space in the industry for high opportunity and investment,” he says. The key is open industry standards that transform and accelerate the way applications and business processes can be deployed both within and between companies. All slash the time and cost of creating and deploying such applications, compared with older EAI (enterprise application integration) technologies. In Conductor, business analysts get a graphical user interface they can use to “compose” end-to-end business processes and add application features and functions to existing systems. It’s not just about bridging gaps between disparate applications, but transcending their limitations in terms of scope and company boundaries. Eastman Chemical, for example, is using Conductor to improve business processes between its ERP and Commerce One procurement systems. For instance, the firm can now validate cost allocation before a purchase is approved, allowing it to improve the accuracy of the information provided to its financial systems. From a technology standpoint, all that’s enabled by an interoperability engine, a registry system and a web portal providing the human interface. Commerce One Conductor Accessible though a single, graphical design interface, and supported by a services-oriented architecture, the Conductor platform leverages software-based configuration engines that pull from a deep and modular registry of services and defined relationships. This approach enables businesses to define disparate applications or services in a common fashion and dynamically bring them together to create new standards-based composite capabilities. Registry The key to the Conductor platform’s unique flexibility and adaptability is its central and shared Registry. Any and all user and system interfaces are defined as services in the Registry. To dynamically execute these services in their correct context, the Registry also maintains full definitions of user roles and access, systems, business processes, data schemas, transformation maps, choreographies, rules and security requirements. All relationships, interactions, and attributes of every item defined in the platform can be maintained, modified, mixed and matched from the services and definitions held and shared in the Registry. This unique abstraction of key attributes of composite processes, users and services allow for significantly lower total cost of ownership. Through the Registry, the time consuming and difficult work of creating and maintaining adapter connections and business relationships is fully automated across the entire network of internal and external participants. Business Manager The Business Manager provides document-level interoperability across applications participating in the business process. Working with the Registry, it dynamically determines the document formats, locations, security requirements, and various other required characteristics to connect to the applications. The Business Manager performs transformation and versioning, message and document security, signatures, routing and transport needed for secure, reliable interoperation. In situations where a customer already has an EAI or B2Bi infrastructure deployed, the Business Manager can effectively leverage these investments. Via gateways, the Manager can also connect into existing EDI infrastructures that a customer may have deployed Interoperability Engine The Interoperability Engine is the run-time engine where the business process is executed from the services accessed by the Messenger. When processes change, versions are upgraded, or new applications are added, the Interoperability Engine leverages the Registry to dynamically make the changes. Also included are reporting and analysis tools and the ability to present services for manual user input through a graphical user interface. Graphical Process Builder (GPB) The GPB allows a business analyst to visually construct business processes from the resources listed and defined in the Registry. Processes can be reused or combined to create new functionality or to leverage differing registry resources inside the same process structure. Design Suite The Design Suite provides best-of-breed tools required to create business processes and composite applications. These include the Graphical Process Builder, UI Framework, Common Object Framework, and XML tools. Systems Management The Systems Management component handles end-to-end message tracking, component monitoring, topology management, installation, configuration, and initial data loading for participating services. Commerce One Process Accelerators and SRM applications As an extension to the Conductor platform, Commerce One plans to release Process Accelerators that will provide ready-to-run business processes that can be implemented easily within the Conductor platform. These accelerators will address common business processes, such as supply and demand planning and management, invoice handling and commonly accepted best practices. The accelerators will be developed both internally by Commerce One and externally by our business and integrations partners to help customers running on Conductor to deploy more quickly and execute with greater certainty. Similar to the process accelerators, the Conductor platform will leverage the deep library of existing Commerce One Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) applications to provide specific business process functionality to complement the platform. To support the SRM applications, Conductor offers a valuable resource to enhance, extend and expand their functionality. “From our work in pioneering marketplaces and managing complex supply chain relationships, we learned the challenges of executing business processes across the differing technologies of numerous trading partners. Conductor is the first unified, technology- neutral platform that enables businesses to execute and share processes easily across disparate applications and systems,” said Mark Hoffman, chairman and CEO of Commerce One. “For each of our early adopter customers, Conductor has proven its capability to solve collaboration and process issues beyond what is possible with current EAI and ERP technologies. Conductor significantly expands the capabilities of not only Commerce One’s installed base, but also expands the technologies and features from other software vendors and allows them to interoperate effectively.”