Software choices today will affect future viability of e-commerce collaboration, says Rubico

Even if many South African companies do not start implementing collaborative e-commerce applications until beyond the mid-decade, the software choices they make today will affect the flexibility they will have when that time comes. That is why, according to Mark Pardini, joint CEO of Rubico Products Division, the components-based business solutions company, key managers need to realise the strategic importance of the IT products they select today.

"Tomorrow`s e-commerce solutions applications will have lots of moving parts as companies try to embrace collaboration across the enterprise and beyond to their key business partners and customers. So flexibility and ease of integration are going to be critical," he says.

With this flexibility and integration in mind, Pardini believes that the two key emerging technologies companies need to keep an eye on and ensure they understand XML (Extensible Markup Language) and Web Services.

XML promises to be to the e-commerce world of the 21st century what EDI - Electronic Data Interchange - was at the end of the 20th century - a means of standard communications for automating business processes.

"But where EDI is limited to order fulfilment - electronic order placement through to electronic and secure payment - XML promises to be the `fanigalore` of e-commerce, enabling one application to interact with another seamlessly. In fact, collaborative commerce is not going to work without something like XML," he says.

EDI, while still popular and widely used among the larger corporates, has the limitation of being a relatively expensive, one-to-one trading format based on private network services such as a Value Added Network (VAN) or Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

XML, on the other hand, is being designed as the internet-based e-commerce language that, through its universal data exchange capabilities, can enable the automation of many-to-many business process transactions. It is not confined to order fulfilment, though application integration has to happen as well. "It`s got a lot going for it because IT vendors across the board are committed to it. Most database management systems vendors, applications developers, middleware companies and development tools providers are now adding XML support to their products."

The realisation of integrated systems within and beyond the enterprise is where Web services are seen as playing a key role down the road.

A Web service is a collection of software building blocks made available to people and applications on the Internet. They comprise a package of business logic, processes or functions, such as payroll, credit checking, purchasing, or a just-in-time inventory control application.

"Developers and companies will be able to pick and chose the best of breed component they need to build a full-featured application, and, because these services are standards-based, systems integration is a given and enables data to flow within and across corporate boundaries effortlessly.

"Rubico is already pioneering the development of Web services in South Africa for some of our key financial services customers," says Pardini. In recent research by technology market researchers, JupiterMedia Metrix, 60% of respondents said they would use Web services technology for enterprise application integration (EAI), and 53% said they would use it to integrate their applications with those of their partners and customers.

Jupiter concludes the adoption of Web services will also cut IT training costs and reduce the price for services EAI vendors provide.

"Just as a component-based architecture in conventional business solution development reduces costs and time, costs will also be lower in the Web services application model because it will be possible to use the same technology for internal and external integration.

"More cost reductions are possible because it will be easier for companies to assemble best-of-breed components rather than purchase an applications suite from one vendor," concludes Pardini.