Karen,
I agree with Matthew. I certainly would not try to build a second
integration alongside the existing EDI solution into the large companies
system, but rather leverage the EDI system and build a gateway on top of it.
Main advantage of this approach: the EDI system is already there, designed
for collaboration.
You could use the gateway to do syntax and communication protocol
conversion. This would lead to Matthew's solution of feeding the smaller
TP's with ebXML like data.
However, this still requires some solution on the TP's side to implement the
business process. Whether that is a standalone solution, or an integration
into an existing one depends on the sittuation at hand.
Since the main reason for lack of adoption is the adoption cost itself, you
may have to think along the lines of actually using a Web-EDI solution,
where you would implement the business processes on a server within the hub
space, and allow the smaller TP's to log in and do the process
interactively. This allows you to spread the adoption cost across multiple
partners. You will need a push mechanism to trigger the TP's the log in when
needed, and you'll probably have to send documents (via snailmail or e-mail)
for administrative purposes, or allow the TP's to print them locally
directly from the site.
Of course, a mixture of both is also possible: some BP's implemented on a
central server, and some integrated to the TP's system.
One important thing to keep in mind is that the adoption cost when
integrating is only partially a software problem. The main adoption cost is
in connecting the systems semantically, mapping the internal systems to a
standard (or proprietary) protocol.
Regards, Gait Boxman,
TIE, The Netherlands.
PS, while we're plugging: we do provide integration solutions, both EDI and
XML based, over a variety of VANs and the Internet.
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