Many companies are eager to embrace the Internet as a platform for business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, but remain wary of the security risks and complexity inherent in linking their systems to those of their partners over the public network.
Dries van der Walt, Technical Director at , says that the answer to these concerns is an Internet Information Broker Service, which he defines as a service that enables all parties in a business community to conduct business electronically. The broker, built on Internet standards, acts as a bridge between the multitude of systems and technologies in use by various members of the business community.
"In many vertical industries, companies need a B2B solution that provides them with a platform for many-to-many interaction between a multitude of manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and other trading partners," Van der Walt points out. "However, not every organisation in a particular business community will necessarily be running on Internet Protocol (IP) and Windows NT. Many companies have large investments in technologies which they are not yet ready to dispose of."
There are a bewildering number of different protocols, formats and technologies in general use today. These include:
- Different platforms such as Unix, Windows NT, and OS/390:
- Different systems, including various ERP and homegrown systems;
- Different protocols such as SNA, FTP, X.400, and SMTP; and
- Different data formats such as EDI, XML, and idoc.
"For companies with limited resources, supporting all of these technologies and formats is next to impossible. That is where an Internet Information Broker Service such as Commerce Centre has a critical role to play," says Van der Walt.
Commerce Centre of Southern Africa, a subsidiary of JSE-listed , forms one of 17 nodes around the world on the Sterling Commerce network, designed to form a regional and global backbone for secure and seamless trading.
Sterling Commerce`s proven integration solution, which has existed in various forms for more than 20 years, lies at the heart of the e-business network. This translates data and protocols on the fly to allow different systems to communicate seamlessly with one another.
Use of this system - which supports private and public EDI standards, XML standards, and any flat file format - can eliminate the need for a company to own and maintain EDI translation or other third party software.
The Sterling Commerce solution is rounded off with functionality for accounts and mailboxing, mailbox restores, connectivity, extended data retention and Web-based administration tools. This provides customers with a solid platform on which to build e-business applications.
Commerce Centre also supplies a range of e-business applications and solutions that are layered on top of the translation engine, including catalogues and supply chain management solutions. Commerce Centre customers get a fast-track into e-business, giving them both the foundation and applications they need to interact with other members of their business communities over the Internet.
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