ERP%20and%20E-Business-%20An%20Overview

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ERP and E-Business- An Overview
Based on the book Enterprise Resource Planning
Solutions and Management by Flona Fui-Hoon Nah,
Idea Group Publishing 2001
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Contents

• What is ERP?
• The Evolution of ERP SystemsA Historical
  Perspective
• ERP System Architecture
• Extended ERP
• Towards an ERP Life-Cycle Costs Model
• Advantages and Disadvantages of ERP Systems
• ERP From E-BUSINESS Perspective
• Are You Ready for ERP?
• E-BUSINESS Pushes ERP To The Network Edge
• Common ERP? E-Business Platform (Oracle SAP)
• Web Services and XML

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Topic 1 What Is ERP?

• ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
• A software solution that addresses
  enterprise needs taking the process view
  of an organization to meet the
  organization goals.
• -- It integrates all the departments and
  functions across
• a company into a single computer system
  that can serve all those different
  departments particular needs.

4
What Is ERP?

• An ERP system is analogous to the internal
  technological hub of a company. When fully
  implemented as an integrated suite, it can be
  thought of as a company's central repository. The
  five major processes in a typical ERP system are
  finance, logistics, manufacturing, human
  resources and sales/marketing (refer to Figure
  next slide). The focus of ERP systems is on the
  efficiency and effectiveness of the internal
  process. It offers a way to streamline and align
  business processes, increase operational
  efficiencies and bring order out of chaos.

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ERP Systems Concept
6
What Is ERP?

• ERP Combines various department systems into a
  single, integrated software program that runs off
  a single database so that the various departments
  can more easily share information and communicate
  with each other.
• The best part of ERP is the way in which it
  improves the order fulfillment process that is
  taking the customer order and process it into an
  invoice and revenue.
• It doesnt handle the front-end that is handled
  by CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

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What Is ERP?

• When a customer service representative enters a
  customer order into an ERP system, he has all the
  information necessary to complete the order such
  as customers credit rating and order history
  from the finance module, the companys inventory
  levels from the warehouse module and the shipping
  docks trucking schedule from the logistics
  module.
• How its being done It integrates the financial
  information and customer order information . It
  does so by integrating the following
• Database
• Application
• Interfaces
• Tools
• BPR

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What Is ERP?

• It standardizes and speeds up the manufacturing
  process. This saves time, increases productivity
  and reduces head count.
• It reduces the inventory. Due to the information
  available about all the orders it helps to
  maintain the right level of stock and smoothes
  the manufacturing process.

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Topic 2 The Evolution of ERP SystemsA
Historical Perspective

• The phenomenal growth of computing power and the
  Internet is bringing ever more challenges for the
  ERP vendors and the customers to redesign ERP
  products breaking the barrier of proprietorship
  and customization, and embracing the
  collaborative business over the Intranet,
  Extranet and the Internet in a seamless manner.
  The vendors already promise many "add-on"
  modules, some of which are already in the market
  as a sign of acceptance of these challenges by
  the ERP vendors. It is a never-ending process of
  reengineering and development bringing new
  products and solutions to the ERP market. ERP
  vendors and customers have recognized the need
  for packages that follow open architecture,
  provide interchangeable modules and allow easy
  customization and user interfacing.

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ERP Applications Take Hold

• The 1990s saw, for the first time, many companies
  embrace product offerings from companies such as
  SAP AG, Peoplesoft, and Oracle that provided (or
  at least intended to provide) a single integrated
  package framework upon which most or all of a
  company's core business processes could be
  implemented, deployed, and used throughout the
  enterprise.

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ERP Applications Take Hold

• For example, supply chain automation applications
  began appearing, and business-to-business (B2B)
• e-commerce applications such as electronic
  procurement (e-procurement) and buyer-to-seller
  electronic marketplaces are directly descended
  from these first-generation cross-enterprise
  supply chain applications, which in turn owe a
  large portion of their growth to the tenacity of
  ERP proponents who persevered throughout the
  decade and made successful large-scale, complex
  distributed computing systems a reality.

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Topic 3 ERP Systems Architecture

• An ERP system is required to have the following
  characteristics
• Modular design comprising many distinct business
  modules such as financial, manufacturing,
  accounting, distribution etc.
• Use centralized common database management system
  (DBMS)
• The modules are integrated and provide seamless
  dataflow among the modules increasing operational
  transparency through standard interfaces.
• They are generally complex systems involving high
  cost
• They are flexible and offer best business
  practices
• They require time-consuming tailoring and
  configuration setups for integrating with the
  company's business functions
• The modules work in real-time with on-line and
  batch processing capabilities
• They are or soon they will be Internet-enabled

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ERP Systems Architecture

• The modules of an ERP system can either work as
  stand-alone units or several modules can be
  combined together to form an integrated system.
  The systems are usually designed to operate under
  several operating platforms such as UNIX, MS
  Windows NT, Windows 2000, IBM AIX, HP UX systems.
  SAP AG, the largest ERP vendor provides a number
  of modules shown in the next slide with its
  famous R/3 ERP system. New modules are introduced
  by SAP and other vendors in response to the
  market and technological demand such as the
  Internet technology.

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SAP's Platform for ERP/e-Business
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Three-Tier ERP Systems Architecture
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Topic 4 Extended ERP

• The proliferation of the Internet has shown
  tremendous impact on every aspect of the IT
  sector including the ERP systems becoming more
  and more Internet-enabled (Lawton, 2000). This
  environment of accessing systems resources from
  anywhere anytime has helped ERP vendors extend
  their legacy ERP systems to integrate with newer
  external business modules such as supply-chain
  management, customer-relationship management,
  sales force automation (SFA), advanced planning
  and scheduling (APS), business intelligence (BI),
  and e-business capabilities. In fact ERP is
  becoming E-business backbone for organizations
  doing on-line business transactions over the
  Internet. Internet-based solutions are destined
  to improve customer satisfaction, increase
  marketing and sales opportunities, expand
  distribution channels, provide more
  cost-effective billing and payment methods. The
  extension to SCM and CRM enables effective
  tri-party business relationships between the
  organization, suppliers and the customers. A
  supply chain management has sub-modules for
  procurement of materials, transformation of the
  materials into products and distribution of
  products to customers.

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Extended ERP

• E-commerce is the conduct of business
  transactions among organizations with the support
  of networked information and communication
  technologies, especially utilizing Internet
  applications such as the Web and e-mail
  effectively reaching the global customers.
  Adoption of e-commerce and e-business solutions,
  especially business-to-business (B2B) solutions,
  are seen by many as the wave of current and
  future extensions of traditional ERP systems of
  most small, medium and large vendors. The
  front-end web-based Internet-business
  applications are integrated with the back-office
  ERP-based applications enabling business
  transactions such as order placement, purchasing,
  inventory updates, employee benefits etc. to take
  place between the customers, suppliers and the
  enterprise based on reliable, relevant data and
  applications instantly in a border-less domain.

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Extended ERP

• The legacy ERP systems designed to integrate
  enterprise functions within the four walls of the
  enterprise have introduced software solutions
  with Web-interface essentially extending to
  Internet enabled CRM, SCM and other
  Internet-business models. Examples of such
  extended ERPs are available from most of the ERP
  vendors. Thus SAP's Internet-enabled integrated
  ERP system called http//mySAP.COM (SAP, 2001) is
  a suite of ERP, CRM and other products that can
  be linked together using Internet portals. The
  concept of the Internet-enabled extended ERP
  system is shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2(next two
  slides).

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Extended ERP
                                               
Figure 1 Web-enabled extended ERP system
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Extended ERP
Customer
ERP
Supplier
CRM
SCM
Data Warehouse
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Figure 2 Developments in e-ERP and Business
Practice for Doing e-Business
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Topic 5 Towards an ERP Life-Cycle Costs Model

• To define the life-cycle model we use a
  simplified version of the model proposed by
  Esteves and Pastor (1999a, 1999b). This model is
  structured in phases and dimensions. Here, we
  only make reference to the phases as the
  different stages of the life-cycle of an ERP
  system in an organization. Next, we describe each
  phase, i.e., adoption, acquisition,
  implementation, usage and maintenance, evolution
  and retirement.
• Adoption decision phase
• Acquisition phase
• Implementation phase
• Use and maintenance phase
• Evolution phase
• Retirement phase

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Adoption Decision Phase

• During this phase managers examine the need for a
  new ERP system while selecting the general
  information system approach that will best
  address the critical business challenges and
  improve the organizational strategy. This
  decision phase includes the definition of system
  requirements, its goals and benefits, and an
  analysis of the impact of adoption at a business
  and organizational level.

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Acquisition Phase

• This phase consists on the selection of a ERP
  product that best fits the requirements of the
  organization, thus minimizing the need for
  customization. A consulting company is also
  selected to help in the next phases of the ERP
  life-cycle especially in the implementation
  phase. Factors such as price, training and
  maintenance services are analyzed and, the
  contractual agreement is defined. In this phase,
  it is also important to make an analysis of the
  return on investment of the selected product.

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Implementation Phase

• This phase include the customization or
  parameterization and adaptation of the ERP
  package to the needs of the organization. Usually
  this task is made with the help of consultants
  who provide implementation methodologies,
  know-how and training.

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Use and Maintenance Phase

• This phase covers the personal of time where the
  ERP product is selected in a way that returns
  benefits and minimizes disruption. During this
  phase, one must be aware of the aspects related
  to functionality, usability and adequacy to the
  organizational and business processes. Once a
  system is implemented, it must be maintained,
  because malfunctions have to be corrected,
  special optimization requests have to be met, and
  general systems improvements have to be made.

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Evolution Phase

• This phase corresponds to the integration of more
  capabilities into the ERP system, providing new
  benefits, such as advanced planning and
  scheduling, supply-chain management, customer
  relationship management, workflow, and expanding
  the frontiers to external collaboration with
  other partners.

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Retirement Phase

• This phase corresponds to the stage when, with
  the appearance of new technologies or the
  inadequacy of the ERP system or approach to the
  business needs, managers decide if they will
  substitute the ERP software with other
  information system approach more adequate to the
  organizational needs of the moment.

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Topic 6 Advantage of ERP Systems

• What benefit
• Reliable information access
• Avoid data and operations redundancy
• Delivery and Cycle time reduction
• Cost reduction
• Easy adaptability

• How
• Common DBMS, Consistent and accurate data,
  improved reports.
• Modules access same data from the central
  database, avoids multiple data input and update
  operations.
• Minimizes retrieving and reporting delays
• Time savings, improved control by enterprise-wide
  analysis of organizational decisions.
• Changes in business processes easy to adapt and
  restructure.

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Advantage of ERP Systems

• Improved scalability
• Improved maintenance
• Global Outreach
• E-Commerce, E-Business

• Structured and modular design with "add-ons"
• Vendor supported long term contract as part of
  the system procurement.
• Extended modules such as CRM and SCM
• Internet Commerce, Collaborative culture.

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Disadvantages of ERP Systems
How to overcome
Disadvantages

• Time consuming
• Expensive
• Conformity of the modules
• Vendor dependence

• Minimize sensitive issues, internal politics and
  raise general consensus.
• Cost may vary from thousands of dollars to
  millions. Business process re-engineering cost
  may be extremely high.
• The architecture and components of the selected
  system should conform to the business processes,
  culture and strategic goals of the organization.
• Single vendor vs multi-vendor consideration,
  options for "best of breeds", long term committed
  support.

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Disadvantages of ERP Systems
How to overcome
Disadvantages

• Feature and complexity
• Scalability and global outreach
• Extended ERP capability

• ERP system may have too many features and modules
  that the user needs to consider carefully and
  implement the needful only.
• Look for vendor investment in RD, long term
  commitment to product and services, consider
  Internet-enabled systems.
• Consider middle-ware "add-on" facilities and
  extended modules such as CRM and SCM.

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ERP Benefits

• IBM has used ERP to reduce the processing time
  for updating pricing data from 80 days to five
  minutes.
• Chevron has used ERP to decrease its annual
  purchasing cost by 15.

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Topic 7 ERP From E-BUSINESS Perspective

• E-business stands for "electronic business,"
  which involves communications and doing business
  electronically through the Internet. E-business
  is defined as "the use of electronically enabled
  communication networks that allow business
  enterprises to transmit and receive information"
  (Fellenstein and Wood, 2000).

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ERP and E-BUSINESS

• It can significantly improve business performance
  by strengthening the linkages in the value chain
  between businesses (B2B) and consumers (B2C).
  Besides increasing efficiency in selling,
  marketing and purchasing, e-business achieves
  effectiveness through improved customer service,
  reduced costs and streamlined business processes.
  Furthermore, e-business creates a strategic,
  customer-focused business environment for shared
  business improvements, mutual benefits and joint
  rewards.

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Complete E-Business Suite
Marketing
Sales
Financials
One Database
Order Mgt
Procurement
Human Resources
SUPPLY Chain
Web Services
MFG
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ERP And E-BUSINESS

• Nantucket Nectars, a juice manufacturer with
  40 growth and 70 million in annual sales
  revenue, sells its organic juices through 150
  distributors nationwide as well as general stores
  and juice bars in Nantucket. By using Oracle's
  ERP system and e-business platform, the
  salespersons can track sales and promotions
  through the Internet, and are provided assistance
  and suggestions to enhance their performance. The
  salespersons and distributors have access to
  commission reports, and they can track and adjust
  sales orders. Through consolidating its
  financial, compensation, sales and depletion data
  into a single report, Nantucket prevents
  out-of-stock and partial shipments. The
  forecasted need for 50 more labor force to
  handle customer service issues in the past was
  eradicated by integrating ERP system with
  e-business (Oracle, 2000).

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ERP And E-BUSINESS

• By definitions and by their respective functions,
  traditional ERP systems take care of internal
  value chain (i.e., within a company) whereas
  e-businesses establish the value chain across the
  market and the industries. More and more
  companies construct their systems' architectures
  by integrating ERP systems with e-business. They
  use Web-based interface (corporate portals) with
  outside entities plus add-on modules such as CRM,
  SCM, etc. in the integration.

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Topic 8 Are You Ready For ERP?

• A good management
• Enough financial funds
• Core project team members from all functional
  areas in place
• Get the approval from the management
• Get feedback from employees for the plan

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Metrics You Can Use to Gauge your ERP Readiness

• Check the hardware configuration details
• Analyze the existing process
• Fine turn the process to be inline with those of
  ERD defined
• Prototype it and present it
• Refine the prototype and freeze the
  specifications

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ERP Selection

• Check whether all functional aspects of the
  business are duly covered.
• Check whether all the business functions and
  procedures are fully integrated.
• Check whether all latest IT tends are covered.
• Check whether the vendor has customizing and
  implementing capabilities.
• Calculate ROI.

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Topic 9 E-BUSINESS Pushes ERP To The Network Edge

• In a traditional business process, after a
  customer order is received, the order information
  flows from department to department through order
  entry, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution
  and finance until the product is delivered to the
  customer and the payment is received. The key
  elements of the value chain have been controlled
  by separate and disparate information systems
  that could not communicate with one another. Not
  only did the companies not take an integrated
  view of their own business processes, but they
  also had an equally vague understanding of how
  their systems relate to the systems of their
  suppliers, competitors, business partners,
  distributors and customers. Hence, these
  transactions are typically carried out with
  minimal or no shared business processes.

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E-BUSINESS Pushes ERP To The Network Edge

• In recent years, there has been a revolution in
  systems planning and design. Management takes an
  integrated company-wide view of its IT
  investments and choices, and implements an ERP
  system that integrates the core business
  processes of an entire company into a single
  software and hardware system. Customers,
  suppliers and business partners are consciously
  included in the business process, systems
  operation and systems development.

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E-BUSINESS Pushes ERP To The Network Edge

• An ERP system is analogous to the internal
  technological hub of a company. When fully
  implemented as an integrated suite, it can be
  thought of as a company's central repository. The
  five major processes in a typical ERP system are
  finance, logistics, manufacturing, human
  resources and sales/marketing (refer to Figure 1
  next slide). The focus of ERP systems is on the
  efficiency and effectiveness of the internal
  process. It offers a way to streamline and align
  business processes, increase operational
  efficiencies and bring order out of chaos.

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E-BUSINESS Pushes ERP To The Network Edge Figure
1
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E-BUSINESS Pushes ERP To The Network Edge

• You can't improve what you don't measure.
  Performance measurement is
• vital for the long-term success of any endeavor.
  In our complex world,
• everyone has multiple goals and mechanisms for
  reaching them. For
• example, in addition to financial performance
  goals, many firms place
• great importance on employee satisfaction and
  community contribution.
• Good performance measures are
• Relevant-- Related to the strategic and tactical
  goals of the company
• Balanced-- Balanced between short-term and
  long-term goals
• Understandable-- Easily comprehended by those it
  affects
• Objective-- Measurable without significant bias
• Consistent-- Used on a regular basis
• Actionable-- Affected by actions of employees

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E-BUSINESS Pushes ERP To The Network Edge

• E-business is focused on efficiency and
  effectiveness of external, cross-enterprise
  processes. While ERP technology supports business
  strategy, e-business opens the door to new
  strategic opportunities, which forces ERP to take
  one step furtherto move from the single ERP
  system model to the extended ERP system model
  (refer to Figure 2). The Web technology provides
  the bridge between companies and their business
  partners to make e-business possible, while
  e-business makes the ERP system more transparent
  and outward. Instead of thinking about ERP within
  a company, we may view the ERP system along the
  value chain of companies in the same industry, or
  across industries.

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E-BUSINESS Pushes ERP To The Network Edge Figure 2
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E-BUSINESS Pushes ERP To The Network Edge

• When e-business is integrated with ERP, the whole
  extended system provides a vision of business
  processes that span multiple businesses and
  enterprises. In the most ideal case, companies
  should be able to connect disparate platforms,
  applications and data formats across the value
  chain, including not only suppliers, but also
  customers as well. Furthermore, companies should
  retain the flexibility to change and add
  functions to applications as business needs
  evolve. Companies need to be able to adapt their
  ERP systems to the emerging world of e-business.

50
Developments in e-ERP and Business Practice for
Doing e-Business
51
Topic 10 Common ERP/E-BUSINESS Platform (ORACLE
SAP)

• Today, customers expect more than ever before. To
  meet these expectations, companies need to reach
  out and bring customers closer to their
  information systems and have them engage in
  product configuration, selection and Internet
  self-service (Economist, 1999, p.32). Also, it is
  essential for the vendors to set up a compatible
  e-business platform for system integration. Some
  major ERP vendors launched their Web-enabled ERP
  in the early part of the year 2000 to create the
  B2B and B2C solutions. Both Oracle and SAP set up
  Internet portal (hub) and use eXtensible Markup
  Language (XML) to manipulate data from internal
  ERP and push information flow across the value
  chain (refer to Figure 3).

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Extending ERP Along the Value Chain Figure 3
53
SAP (SAP, 2000)

• Established in Germany in 1972, SAP possesses 33
  market share worldwide. With more than 20,000
  employees and an increase in revenue of 60 per
  year, SAP is another major ERP provider in the
  world. SAP uses the front-office market with a
  number of new Web-based applications covering B2B
  procurement, B2C selling and B2B sellingall
  designed to integrate with its market-leading R/3
  suite. SAP believes this will be the key to
  extending its franchise into e-business.
• R/3 is a client/server architecture product that
  uses the "best" enterprise business practices and
  supports immediate response to change throughout
  the organization on a global scale. R/3 currently
  contains modules for more than 1,000 business
  processes that may be selected from the SAP
  library and included within installed SAP
  applications, tailoring the application solution
  to the customer.

54
SAP Contains the Following Functions

• End-to-end Web business processes
• The XML has been used to allow the exchange of
  structured business documents over the Internet
  to provide a common standard for different
  applications and IT systems to communicate and
  exchange business data. XML provides the bridge
  between different systems, companies and users.
  It provides an easy way to put flexible
  end-to-end business processes in place.

55
SAP Contains the Following Functions

• Open business document exchange over the Internet
  
• The SAP Business Connector is based on open
  Internet communication standards. It uses the
  widely available hypertext transfer protocol
  (HTTP) to exchange XML-based business documents
  over the Internet. XML defines common business
  semantics to business documents such as orders,
  invoices, etc. With XML, the lingua franca of the
  Internet, business documents exchange across
  applications and systems are easily available.

56
SAP Contains the Following Functions

• XML-enabled SAP solution
• The SAP Business Connector makes all SAP
  solutions accessible via XML-based business
  documents. It supports all major existing
  interfaces provided by SAP and empowers SAP
  customers to instantly benefit from SAP
  functionality over the Internet. This makes SAP
  solutions an integral part of their e-business
  solution. With the availability of Business
  Applications Programming Interfaces (BAPIs),
  customers can jump-start into the Internet age
  with their individual solutions by using R/3 with
  more than 1,000 BAPIs. The SAP's Application Link
  Enabling (ALE) capabilities are supported. Fully
  cooperative business solutions now require only a
  widely available and cost-effective Internet
  connection.

57
SAP Contains the Following Functions

• Web automation
• The SAP Business Connector makes it easy to
  leverage the information and processes available
  at a company's Web site. For example, companies
  can use the SAP Business Connector to retrieve
  catalog information from a supplier's Web site
  and integrate the information with internal
  applications automatically and in real time.

58
Topic 11 Web Services and XML

• Web services
• are units of application logic that provide data
  and services to other applications
• represent black box functionality that can be
  reused without worrying about how the service is
  implemented
• The online store example
• Authentication
• Personalization
• Credit card processing
• Sales tax calculation
• Package tracking from shipping companies
• In house catalog connected to an internal
  inventory application

59
Web Services Generic Architecture
Web Service
Service Request
Service Response
Listener
Data
Data Access
Business Logic
Business Facade
60
Why Use Web Services?

• Web services are powerful
• Provide a simple, flexible, standards-based model
  that takes advantage of existing infrastructure
  and applications
• Easily assembled components with locally
  developed services and existing services,
  regardless of the platform or the development
  language
• Facilitate communication and integration between
  intra- and inter-company applications

61
Example
lt?xml version1.0 encodingUTF-8?gt lt!DOCTYPE
catalog SYSTEM catalog.dtdgt lt?xml-stylesheet
typetext/xsl hrefshow_book.xsl?gt lt!catalog
last updated 2000-11-01--gt
ltcatalog xmlnshttp//www.example.com/catalog/gt lt
book idbk101gt ltauthorgt Martin
Fowlerlt/authorgt lttitlegtRefactoringlt/titlegt ltge
nregtComputerlt/genregt ltpricegt44.95lt/pricegt lt/boo
kgt lt/cataloggt
62
XML-RPC Example - Request
lt?xml version1.0?gt ltmethodCallgt ltmethodNamegtGe
tLastTradePricelt/methodNamegt ltparamsgt ltparamgt
ltvaluegt ltstringgtINTClt/stringgt lt/valuegt
lt/paramgt lt/paramsgt lt/methodCallgt
63
XML-RPC Example - Response
lt?xml version1.0?gt ltmethodResponsegt ltparamsgt
ltparamgt ltvaluegt ltstructgt ltmembergt
ltnamegtcompanylt/namegt ltvaluegtltstringgtIntel
Corp.lt/stringgtlt/valuegt lt/membergt ltmembe
rgt ltnamegtpricelt/namegt ltvaluegtltdoublegt2
7.34lt/doublegtlt/valuegt lt/membergt lt/structgt
lt/valuegt lt/paramgt lt/paramsgt lt/methodRespons
egt
64
Pros/Cons for XML-RPC

• Pro
• Simple
• Loosely coupled components
• Uses standard communications protocols HTTP,
  XML
• Older protocol, well known
• Cons
• Unnatural syntax
• Verbose, especially for structures/objects
• High network bandwidth

65
SOAP Example - Request
lt?xml version1.0?gt ltSOAPEnvelope
xmlnsSOAPurnschemas-xmlsoap-orgsoap.v1gt
ltSOAPBodygt ltmGetLastTradePrice
xmlnsmurnexample-tradesgt
ltmsymbolgtINTClt/msymbolgt
lt/mGetLastTradePricegt lt/SOAPBodygt lt/SOAPEnve
lopegt
66
SOAP Example - Response
lt?xml version1.0?gt ltSOAPEnvelope
xmlnsSOAPurnschemas-xmlsoap-orgsoap.v1gt ltSO
APBodygt ltmGetLastTradePriceResponse
xmlnsmurnexample-tradesgt ltmquotegt ltm
companygtIntel Corp.lt/mcompanygt ltmpricegt27.20
0lt/mpricegt lt/mquotegt lt/mGetLastTradePriceR
esponsegt lt/SOAPBodygt lt/SOAPEnvelopegt
67
Pros/Cons for SOAP

• Pro
• Strong typing with automatic validation
• More natural XML syntax
• Less verbose than XML-RPC
• Con
• Newer protocol, not as widely used
• More complex syntax because of the use of
  namespaces and schemas

68
Summary

• XML can be used for calling remote methods.
• Plain-text format, so it is free of charge.
• Platform and language agnostic.
• XML remoting does not require additional open
  ports beyond those required for HTTP.
• Using SOAP, XML remote procedure calls can be
  strongly-typed and self-describing.

69
EAI

• Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) software
  helps to integrate applications by packaging
  together the commonly used functionalitiescombini
  ng popular enterprise packages and legacy
  applications in a predefined way. Therefore, EAI
  will make ERP/e-business integration and
  componentization simpler and more practical. In
  addition to the above issues, other issues remain
  in implementing ERP, integrating the systems and
  outsourcing ERP/e-business.

70
Why use XSLT?

• XSLT is an incredibly powerful and flexible tool
  for e-commerce.
• Enables business systems to exchange data
• Map one companys XML data structure to another.

71
Order
Books.com lt?xml version1.0?gt ltbookgt
lttitlegtXSLT For Dummieslt/titlegt ltauthorgtIam
Agurult/authorgt ltISBNgt1-861002-41-2lt/ISBNgt
ltcostgt ltregulargt24.95lt/regulargt
ltwholesalegt18.95lt/wholesalegt ltcurrencygtUS
Dollarslt/currencygt lt/costgt lt/bookgt
XSLT Style sheet A
XSLT Style sheet B
Supplier A lt?xml version1.0?gt ltbookgt
ltISBNgt1-861002-41-2lt/ISBNgt ltlanguagegtEnglishlt/l
anguagegt ltpricegt18.95lt/pricegt lt/bookgt
Supplier B lt?xml version1.0?gt ltbookgt
ltnamegtXSLT For Dummieslt/namegt
ltISBNgt1-861002-41-2lt/ISBNgt ltlanguagegtEnglishlt/l
anguagegt ltpricegt24.95lt/pricegt lt/bookgt
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Why use XSLT?, cont.

• Enables presentation of customer targeted
  information.
• Determine what to display based on the status of
  your user.
• Enables data to be rendered in many different
  formats.
• Take one set of data and dynamically transform it
  into many different formats.

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Database
Books.com lt?xml version1.0?gt ltbookgt
lttitlegtXSLT For Dummieslt/titlegt ltauthorgtIam
Agurult/authorgt ltISBNgt1-861002-41-2lt/ISBNgt
ltcostgt ltregulargt24.95lt/regulargt
ltwholesalegt18.95lt/wholesalegt ltcurrencygtUS
Dollarslt/currencygt lt/costgt lt/bookgt
XSLT Style sheet A
XSLT Style sheet B
HTML Format lthtmlgt ltbodygt ltpgt Book Title
1-861002-41-2 Cost 18.95 lt/pgt lt/bodygt lt/htmlgt
WML Format ltwmlgt ltcard idbook1"gt ltpgt Book
Title 1-861002-41-2 Cost 24.95 lt/pgt
lt/cardgt lt/wmlgt
74
What would I need to do this?
XSLT Style sheet
XML Document
XSL Processor
Output
75
How do XSLT style sheets work?

• A style sheet is composed of one or more
  templates.

XSLT Style sheet
Template 1
Template 2
76
Tell me more about templates!

• A template defines where to start looking in the
  source XML
• ltxsltemplate match"/"gt start looking
  at the root element
• A template specifies a mixture of the following
  for output
• Text
• Patterns to look for in the source XML tree,
  their values will be determined at runtime

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Template example...
lt?xml version1.0?gt ltxslstylesheet
version1.0gt ltxsloutput methodxml
indentyesgt ltxsltemplate match/gt lthtmlgt ltbod
ygt ltpgt Book Titleltxslvalue-of
select/book/titlegt ISBN ltxslvalue-of
select/book/ISBNgt lt/pgt lt/bodygt lt/htmlgt lt/xslte
mplategt lt/xslstylesheetgt

• Specified text will be sent to the output file as
  is
• Anything beginning with "xsl" will be evaluated
  at run time, the resulting value inserted into
  the output file

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lt?xmlstylesheet type"text/xsl"
href"Transform.xsl"?gt ltbookstoregt ltbookgt
lttitlegtXSLT For Dummieslt/titlegt ltauthorgtIam
Agurult/authorgt ltISBNgt1-861002-41-2lt/ISBNgt
ltcostgt ltregulargt24.95lt/regulargt
ltwholesalegt18.95lt/wholesalegt ltcurrencygtUS
Dollarslt/currencygt lt/costgt lt/bookgt
ltbookgt lttitlegtYour Friend, XSLTlt/titlegt
ltauthorgtYuccan Beagurutoolt/authorgt
ltISBNgt1-344002-41-2lt/ISBNgt ltcostgt
ltregulargt45.55lt/regulargt ltwholesalegt39.95lt/w
holesalegt ltcurrencygtUS Dollarslt/currencygt
lt/costgt lt/bookgt lt/bookstoregt
Transform.xsl
79
Conclusion

• Web Services allow different applications to
  communicate across the web
• XML makes this communication possible
• XML is simple, self-describing, and
  self-validating
• XML remote procedure calls enable cross-platform,
  cross-language communications
• XSLT can map disparate XML data schemas and
  dynamically format them for presentation

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Where can I find more information?

• Web Services
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/default.asp
• XML
• http//www.w3.org/Style/XSL/
• XSLT
• http//www.w3.org/Style/XSL/