Scott Bushey

Implementing industry standards for business processes can do far more than provide a common protocol for operations. Once commodity information or documents are standardized, it makes sense to look at what common actions need to be taken on that data or document - and standardize those as well. From the technology industry's RosettaNet standards for supply chain interaction, to the Automotive Industry Action Group's interoperability initiative for inventory visibility, industries are advancing on standards for implementing business actions and for executing business processes. The advantage of standardized process lies in the types of business automation it makes possible. With document and communications standards that are relatively mature, and a number of tasks - from credit requests to title, mortgages, and flood insurance checks - that are common to every lend... (more)

Building Your First Trading Partner Community

Web services seem like a great way to tackle the challenge of trading partner integration. In theory, participants can continue to use the enterprise applications they prefer, and expose them to their partners' systems. However, as of late spring, Web services were most prevalent among services companies and least common among retailers. The reality is that few companies have experience with integration across organizations. The default seems to be that the largest participant or customer determines the process, but rarely is thought given to the actual process of integrating appl... (more)