An Integration White Paper

Enabling Business to Business

Commerce (B2B)
An Integration White Paper

Today, business can be conducted in new ways that are eminently more affordable. The
Internet and extensible markup language (XML) have lowered the entry barriers to e-
commerce, in both cost and complexity. This white paper by enrich IT, Inc., enunciates at a
very high-level, the semantics and methodologies of e-commerce Integration and can help you
to embrace and implement the most suitable and successful e-commerce strategy at your
Enterprise.

By: Seshu Raman

Solutions Architect, enrich IT, Inc.

www.enrichit.com
© Copyright 2009 - enrich IT, Inc.

www.enrichit.com | 2009
An Integration White Paper

Table of Contents

TRADITIONAL COMMERCE .............................................................................................................. 3

E2E E- COMMERCE .......................................................................................................................... 4

THE EDI WAY ................................................................................................................................... 5

ORACLE E-COMMERCE GATEWAY (EDI GATEWAY) ........................................................................ 6

THE XML WAY ................................................................................................................................. 7

ORACLE XML GATEWAY .................................................................................................................. 8

EDI AND XML COMPARED ............................................................................................................... 9

A CO-EXISTENT EDI-XML SOLUTION ............................................................................................. 10

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An Integration White Paper

Traditional Commerce

The objective of e-commerce is to eliminate the manual trading processes by allowing internal
applications of different Enterprises to directly exchange information. In traditional commerce,
both customers and suppliers may be automated internally, but their systems are usually
isolated from an ability to communicate with each other. Therefore, trading partners had to
adopt and traverse the gulf between the systems by manual processes such as mail, e-mail, fax,
meetings and phone calls.

Figure 1: A widening chasm between the trading partners

Major pain-points of traditional commerce:

1. Labor hours dedicated to data entry, duplication of effort

2. Errors, poor data accuracy
3. Delayed communication of key information to and from trading partners resulting in
increased business cycle times and poor planning
4. No commonality, disparate business processes between Enterprises

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An Integration White Paper

E2E E- Commerce

The challenge and objective of e-commerce is to narrow down the widening chasm of manual
commerce and further provide a complete end-to-end integration between the trading partner
systems.

Figure 2: Trading Partner Integration with E2E E-Commerce

Oracle E-Business Suite – Available E2E Commerce Capabilities

Oracle E-Business Suite has recognized the importance of e-commerce integration and has
opened up several key integration points in its applications at a business process level, the
event level and at the application level. IT organizations can utilize these efficient and flexible
platform-neutral integration points to seamlessly enable the e-commerce integration between
trading partner applications.

The following are the out-of-box integration capabilities available in Oracle Applications:

 Oracle E-Commerce Gateway (formerly EDI Gateway)

 Oracle XML Gateway

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The EDI way

EDI or Electronic Data Interchange was the first integrated approach aimed at providing the
business-to-business e-commerce integration. However, EDI has proven itself to be complicated
and expensive for small and many mid-size enterprises. As a result, EDI was never adopted
widely enough to transform the way business is conducted electronically. Nevertheless, the
basic premise of EDI was right - eliminating manual processes by allowing the internal
applications of trading partners to exchange information directly.

The following are the requirements to adopt the

EDI way:

 Engagement with trading partner-specific

VANs
o Message exchange is usually done
through VANs – Value Added
Networks

o VANs are proprietary solutions

requiring specific hardware and
software platforms

 Identifying and adopting the right EDI

standard – UN/EDIFACT or EDI X12

 An EAI translator to read the transaction

and convert to application specific format
and vice-versa

 Implementation of Oracle EDI Gateway in

Oracle E-Business Suite

Figure 3: A typical EDI Integration

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An Integration White Paper

Oracle E-Commerce Gateway (EDI Gateway)

Oracle Applications provides users with the ability to conduct business electronically between
trading partners based on Electronic Commerce standards and methodology. One form of
Electronic Commerce is Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI is an electronic exchange of data
between trading partners. Interface data files are exchanged in a standard format to minimize
manual effort, speed data processing, and ensure accuracy.

The Oracle e-Commerce Gateway (formerly known as Oracle EDI Gateway) performs the
following functions:

 Define trading partner groups and trading partner locations

 Enable transactions for trading partners

 Provide general code conversion between trading partner codes or standard codes and
the codes defined in Oracle Applications

 Define interface data files so that application data can integrate with your trading
partner’s application or an EDI translator

 For inbound transactions, import data into application open interface tables so that
application program interfaces (API) can validate and update Oracle application tables

 For outbound transactions, extract, format, and write application data to interface data
files

Oracle e-Commerce Gateway augments the existing standard paper document capabilities of
Oracle Applications, or adds functionality where no corresponding paper documents exist.

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An Integration White Paper

The XML way

XML or extensible markup language (XML), and Internet have lowered the entry barriers to e-
commerce, in both cost and complexity. The speed of the Internet has created the emergence
of new business models that can be accommodated by XML messages. XML components are
just the syntax and rules for the construction of the XML message. Universally accepted XML
message definitions for the business data and documents are still being defined. The Internet is
just the medium that expedites the delivery. The efficient and accurate integration of the data
with applications is often the goal.

With XML, message documents are like chameleons, capable of being processed by different
components, delivered by different mechanisms, and displayed to the user in different ways.

The following are the requirements to adopt the

XML way:

 Internet connection (can use the same

existing connection)

 A web server software for doing the

message exchange (can use the OTA-HTTP
service in Oracle Applications)

 Implementation of Oracle XML Gateway in

Oracle E-Business Suite and WF/BES
(Business Event System)

 A simple XSL transformer to transform

OAG to trading partner specific message
standard and vice-versa

 Oracle B2B middleware component

(optional) for extended security of Digital
Signing, encryption etc.

 Digital and SSL certificates for secured

transmission
Figure 4: A typical XML Integration

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Oracle XML Gateway

Oracle XML Gateway is a set of services that allows easy integration with the Oracle E-Business
Suite to support XML messaging. Oracle XML Gateway consumes events raised by the Oracle E-
Business Suite and subscribes to inbound events for processing. Oracle XML Gateway uses the
message propagation feature of Oracle Advanced Queuing to integrate with the Oracle
Transport Agent to deliver messages to and receive messages from business partners.

Oracle XML Gateway supports both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Application-to-Application

(A2A) initiatives. B2B initiatives include communicating business documents and participating in
industry exchanges. An example of an A2A initiative is data integration with legacy and
disparate systems. With Oracle XML Gateway services, you are assured consistent XML
message implementation when integrating with the Oracle E-Business Suite, thereby lowering
integration costs and expediting message implementation while supporting corporate e-
business initiatives.

The Oracle XML Gateway performs the following functions:

 Define trading partner and trading partner locations

 Enable transactions for trading partners

 Provide general code conversion between trading partner codes or standard codes and
the codes defined in Oracle Applications

 Define mapping files for data conversion from XML to relational table formats and vice
versa

 For inbound transactions, receive XML files (typically in OAG format), parse them and
import data into application open interface tables so that application program interfaces
(API) can validate and update Oracle application tables

 For outbound transactions, extract data from Oracle application tables generate XML
messages and dispatch them to trading partner applications (using OTA)

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An Integration White Paper

EDI and XML Compared

Initially, XML was considered by some as a means to eliminate the need for traditional EDI
solutions. However, this is proving not to be the case. Traditional EDI and XML are not
competing but coexisting technologies and processes. Traditional EDI transactions are batch
oriented often processing multiple transactions into one file, however, time critical transactions
have been designed with event driven processes.

XML messages complement EDI transactions. Both are needed, depending upon the business
model being implemented. EDI may always be the preferred syntax and method for high
volume transactions between trading partners in the supply chain who send large volumes of
purchase orders, forecasts and invoices. One must ask if there are efficiencies gained in
processing hundreds of invoices nightly in one batch or from sending a hundred single
transactions throughout the day. Will invoices be paid sooner because they were received
within minutes of the shipment versus receiving the invoice the next day? It is doubtful that
they will be paid any quicker.

The table below can show some key differences in adopting each of the solutions:

Table 1: Comparing EDI and XML e-Commerce Solutions

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An Integration White Paper

A Co-existent EDI-XML Solution

Understanding the strengths of each of these approaches, if customers just want the benefit of
moving data through the internet to eliminate network charges using their EDI processes, they
can have the best of both worlds. EDI standard X12 and EDIFACT transactions may be
communicated through the internet by attaching an XML formatted electronic envelope with
the routing data. Currently this requires the Oracle e-Commerce Gateway to extract the data,
and then pass the data file to an EDI Translator to format the business data to the EDI Standard,
and add the XML electronic routing data.

The illustration below can give a high-level understanding of a co-existent EDI-XML solution:

Figure 5: An XML/EDI co-existent solution

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An Integration White Paper
Getting started
Contact Us:
Phone: +1- 770-667-0510
Fax: +1- 678-868-1019
Email: info@enrichit.com
www.enrichit.com
© Copyright 2009 - enrich IT, Inc.
100 North Point Center E
Suite 320, Alpharetta GA 30022
USA
Summary
Many smaller companies using EDI today do so only because
their bigger customers demand it, a business model called hub-
and spoke. If your company is the hub, the system works fine.
But if you are the spoke it presents an enormous cost of doing
business. As a result, XML is having an opportunity to fill the gap
for such companies. "Traditional" EDI is based on dated
principles that are being replaced by the "New" EDI. Traditional
EDI refers to the use of rigid transaction sets with business rules
embedded in them. This model is slowly being replaced since it
does not work in today's rapidly changing business
environment. This problem is compounded by the fact that
companies have chosen to interpret these transaction set
standards in ways that suit their unique business requirements.
As a result, vendors who engage in EDI with multiple customers
typically must create a unique solution to handle the
transaction sets for each company. This makes the
implementation of EDI far too expensive, especially for [Small
and Medium size Enterprises] SMEs.
While EDI may deserve these criticisms, the XML world is being
built on the 30 years of EDI experience rather than tearing it all
down; XML is growing on the EDI experience, if companies want
to exchange business data to help reduce inventories, get
products faster to market, create closer coordination between
manufacturing and distribution, and provide more choices for
consumers, XML with the leanings from EDI can help you to get
there!
About enrich IT
enrich IT is an IT services firm specialized in extending Oracle
solutions by turning technology into effective business
solutions. The company manages the full software deployment
lifecycle and provides assistance from selection and
implementation, to configuration, process optimization and
managed services for both applications and business
operations. enrich IT is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia
and has development centers in Chennai and Hyderabad, India.
enrich IT has been named an Inc. 500 Company (Overall #67,
Top 5 in IT, Top 10 Minority owned business), Ranked #13 in
Deloitte Technology Fast 500, as well as received the Pacesetter
Award for Fastest Growing 50 Private Companies in Georgia by
the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
www.enrichit.com | 2009