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XML wireless Web and the future of e-business
achieving
competitive advantage with content management and XML
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Abstract
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Jeremy will use customer presentations to show how companies are transforming
not only web content, but also all of their corporate information to create
a unique and personalised experience for each customer, employee and business
partner. This produces a dynamic new environment that is transforming traditional
business models forever and providing powerful competitive advantages, efficient
use and re-us and generating new profit models.
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Keywords
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Contents
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E-content for e-business - why this is ideally suited to XML
The e-business market
Figure 1
. E-content is part of the e-business picture
It has only been a few short years since the Internet has revolutionised
business. Yet in that time customers have already come to expect current,
up-to-date information to be available on commercial Web sites. Such expectations
place extraordinary demands on content suppliers who must assure the currency,
accuracy and thoroughness of their information.
Moreover, customers are rapidly becoming accustomed to information designed
specifically for their particular needs. Information systems must be able
to produce customised data in real time for each of potentially millions of
clients and partners. And, as electronic commerce networks grow more interdependent,
the demand for customised information transfer between corporate computing
networks – e.g., parts catalogues – will continue to grow.
All of these demands will pose daunting challenges to IT professionals
who must respond effectively to accelerating requirements for instant information
production.
Here are some examples of new e-business applications and the kind of
content they require:
Example e-business applications
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| Internet Banking | Content on Internet banking
sites is legally required to follow rules and regulations which are ever changing,
it consists of many, many pieces of information and is on view 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week. Some content is repeated in multiple places and needs
to be easily and consistently updated. |
| e-Catalogs | The content of an e-catalog is the
backbone of e-Commerce applications, consisting of millions of chunks of information,
catalogues need to be constantly updated to suit supply and demand. Catalogues
need to be created in formats that allow businesses to design, create, manage
and custom-publish product information “on-the-fly”. |
| e-Supply Chain | Large manufacturing companies
need to share and reuse technical information; product specifications, overhaul
manuals, pricing structures etc, in order to reduce the amount of time it
takes to deliver custom documentation and strengthening the relationships
with their OEM customers. |
| e-Training | These days individuals are under
pressure to constantly improve their performance and to develop their skills.
No one has the time to undertake poorly matched training courses. Training
departments and organisations are under pressure to personalise the content
of training courses so that they can be tailored to suit an individual's ability
and experience, and often need to make them available on the Internet. |
| e-Procurement | Procuring from suppliers over
the web can offer substantial cost and time savings for large organisations
with the power to demand it. Content must be up to date, correct and easily
accessible and linked to supplier histories and commercial detail. This must
also be backed up by faultless fulfillment. |
| e-Publishing | Publishing across the Internet
has opened commercial opportunities that simply could not have existed previously.
These opportunities rely on reuse and repurposing of content that previously
would have been reproduced in only one format – i.e. in bound paper
documents. The electronic content advantage will allow published material
to be personalised and reformatted in an infinite variety of ways. |
In summary, the essence of a content management system is that information
is treated as granular, manageable “chunks”, or components ,
which can be accessed, updated, and combined in real time.
Previous
Table of Contents
Why is XML the standard for managing e-content?
In 1996 the W3C
and some 80 SGML experts joined forces to develop a permanent solution to
the problems of HTML. After much design and debate XML was standardised in
February of 1998.
Figure 2
. Power of XML content management
One key feature of an XML based content management system is that the
content “chunks” as we’ve described them consist only of
data (be it text, graphics, tables etc) – all presentation information
is kept separate. This allows the styling to
occur as the information is being delivered, and this in turn means that
information managed by a content management system can be easily repurposed
to any number of targets. For example, since the information is managed, it
can be easily and automatically reformatted for devices such as handheld computers
and pagers.
When properly structured, information in a content management system
can represent a significant asset to the corporation. Because the data is
kept in a semantically rich database, powerful search engines can rapidly
scan through the data and return useful, relevant information, far more useful
than typical present-day Web searches.
Moreover, because of its structure, the content management data can
be manipulated by data mining and other business intelligence tools in order
to extrapolate key trends and other hidden information – again providing
a distinct competitive advantage.
XML and XSL: a real solution
With XSL,
it is possible to develop style sheets that can transform raw content into
presentations appropriate for the receiving device
Here is how it works: upon receipt of a URL, the Web server passes the
request for content to the content management system, which retrieves the
appropriate content from its database. This content can either be in XML
or HTML. Then the content management system loads an XSL style sheet that
has been created to render this content in a fashion appropriate for the requesting
device. Thus for a PC, the content management system might output a visually
rich HTML page replete with frames, advertisements, graphics, and multimedia;
but for a Web-enabled mobile phone, it would deliver a much more compact version
of the same content. Ultimately, content designers have complete control
over how their information is rendered on all these different devices.
Requirements of an enterprise content management system
The enterprise content management system can be seen as the foundation of a company’s information infrastructure.
Indeed, the more complete its implementation, the more value it provides its
users. Let us examine in detail the feature set a content management system
should optimally provide:
End to end content control. Ideally,
the content management system should be able to control and manage content
from its creation, that is, its authoring, through the document assembly process
and ultimately to publishing.
Management of document components. As
we have seen, modern documents are composed of components, which are assembled
dynamically. Each of these components should be securely managed; that is,
the content management system should require editors to “check out”
components (much as they would a library book) in order to prevent concurrency
issues. Moreover, the content management should maintain multiple versions
of a component so that prior versions can be accessed if desired.
Offline operation. In today’s
mobile world knowledge workers are frequently disconnected from the corporate
network. This limitation, however, should not impede their ability to work
on content management-managed documents or components.
Popular document creation tools. The
content management should not require an entirely new investment in knowledge
worker training; rather, it should support popular tools, such as Microsoft®
Word or PowerPoint® in addition to others.
Powerful, content-centric database. Traditional
table-oriented relational databases do not map well to content stores. Why?
Because documents tend not to have the formal, strict structure required;
mapping them to rows and columns can be cumbersome and slow. Rather, the store
should easily accommodate the flexible, semi-structured nature of documents.
Dynamic assembly. Just-in-time
documents are created in response to a consumer’s query, which might
be as simple as a Web request. This means that the document, which might never
have existed before as a single, consolidated unit, might be built for the
first time for that customer.
Separate style from content. Style
(fonts, colors, margins, and so forth) should be kept separately from the
actual content. So the content can be directed to as wide a variety of targets
as possible.
Powerful publishing engine. No content
management system is complete without a means of publishing its documents.
The publishing engine should permit documents of any size, ranging from a
page or two to thousands of pages, to be rendered quickly and efficiently.
Moreover, the engine should be flexible enough to support a wide variety of
formats, from the Web’s HTML
to PostScript, PCL, and many others for print. In each case the publishing
engine should style the document appropriately for the output medium.
Open standards. A content management
system should support open, published standards. From a technical point of
view open standards allow easy interoperability between machines and formats;
from a business point of view open standards supply investment protection.
Figure 3
. Power of content management
Wireless e-commerce – write once, output everywhere
By 2002, half of all devices connected to the Web will
be devices other than PCs. (IDC).
With an expected 600 million cell phones by 2002 and
high growth in PDA’s the “gold rush” is on (Gartner Group).
In Europe WAP phones
are being offered by all the major manufacturers, and service providers are
spending marketing funds on advertising the advantages of accessing the internet
via a remote device such as a phone or PDA.
But what’s a webmaster to do? If the first generation Website
is in HTML then there will be problems outputting to these remote WAP devices.
XML/XSL architecture makes it possible for the site to dynamically recognise
client devices and style content according to the display requirements of
each receiving device. While other wireless Web sites arbitrarily delete
content to fit the specific display requirements of wireless devices, or dedicate
multiple repositories for a specific device type, an XML enabled web site
features a single repository to store all content. This eliminates the need
to duplicate content in order to meet the specific display requirements of
each device. Through the power of XSL, enterprises can now significantly
extend the reach of their web applications by seamlessly transforming XML
business content into any presentation format.
The following demonstration shows how XML based content on a web site
can be repurposed to suit the needs of customers, employees, suppliers and
remote workers.
Demonstrations
Semiconductor manufacturing company
This is a demonstration from an American Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company. One of the world’s top manufacturers of embedded processors
to electronic manufacturers specialising in the development of integrated
semiconductor solutions and components for the consumer, networking, computing,
transportation and wireless markets.
Prior to implementing their content management solution, the board of
this company identified supply chain efficiency as a primary means of improving
time to market.
The company’s BladeRunner™ solution is being used to integrate
the exchange of technical information among the many vendors along the manufacturing
supply chain during the product development cycle and ultimately to deliver
the technical documentation for the manufactured products tailored for each
OEM customer.
By standardising on XML and BladeRunner, the company is easing the
process of sharing and reusing the technical information that makes up a product’s
specifications, reducing the amount of time it takes to deliver custom documentation
and strengthening the relationships with their OEM customers.
This demonstration is available in CD format from Interleaf.
Travel Books.com
The success of Amazon.com has forced publishers and booksellers to look
to their marketing departments for new ideas to ensure that they can continue
to compete. A global publishing company turned to BladeRunner to turn a world
beating idea into reality – using the benefits of XML to their commercial
advantage by providing the ability for customers to design and print their
own personalised travel guides online.
Having licensed the content of a wide range of travel guides Travel
Books.com are able to offer their customers a personalised printing service.
The content of the travel guides is held as XML objects in a repository.
Visitors to the web site are asked to enter personal details about themselves
and their travelling companions. Then with a particular trip in mind they
can select the destinations that they wish to visit and the type of accommodation
and activity they want when they get there. Drawing on the breadth of content
available in the repository this publisher can create and publish a unique
travel book personalised to the customer’s requirements. Even the title
and cover of the guide will be personal to the customer. This ‘book’
can then be delivered as a bound paper document; a CD or Internet accessed
file.
Further information on this application and BladeRunner™ is available
from Interleaf.