The Emerging eCommerce Wars

Over the past month we have seen a host of exciting announcements from established market leaders such as Netscape and Microsoft as well as from emerging players. We also see an increasing number of specific vocabularies, or tag sets, designed to facilitate eCommerce in particular industry sectors. And finally we see great claims by organizations that transcend any particular industry specific DTD, claiming to have already achieved interoperable XML-based eCommerce frameworks on their newest technology platforms. What's hot in eCommerce? And what can we count on?

Lets review some of the key announcements from March 1999:

• XML/EDI: On 26 February 1999, Matteo Mariani of Italy became the 1,000^th member of the XML/EDI Group. The next week, Robert Fuchs of Austria became the 100,000^th visitor to the XML/EDI Group’s web site at http://www.xmledi.org/. These two events signify how the XML/EDI Group has become the largest and fastest growing grass-roots organization for applying XML to electronic commerce. XML/EDI Group members took part in the initial mapping of the North American (X12) EDI standard to XML, working with the Data Interchange Standards Association and CommerceNet. Advanced examples of the many other areas are group members working with HL7 Healthcare and their development of the V3 XML pilot, and the FIX Protocol FIXML development pilot. The XML/EDI Group is a special membership organization of the GCA Research Institute. GCA (www.gca.org/) is the leading technical management association promoting the application of markup technologies and a supporter of XML since its creation.
• Microsoft Corporation: Microsoft announced their own eCommerce framework, BizTalk. Microsoft claims BizTalk will make it easy for businesses to integrate applications and conduct business over the Internet with trading partners and customers. The BizTalk framework is based on XML schemas and industry standards that enable integration across industries and between business systems, regardless of platform, operating system or underlying technology. Microsoft also announced plans to incorporate BizTalk into its commerce platform, future versions of Office, BackOffice and Windows, and MSN. Microsoft announced that it will broaden its offerings on the MSN Web site with the goal of making MSN the premier marketplace on the Internet. By adding new services and providing in-depth information on a wide array of products and services, Microsoft aims to create a comprehensive shopping experience for buyers and sellers.
• Netscape Communications Corporation: In March Netscape announced that it will integrate comprehensive support for XML across its portfolio of eCommerce applications. The Netscape CommerceXpert solutions are expected to use XML to facilitate management of cross-company business processes between trading partners. Using the XML language, companies can increase the number of suppliers and customers with which they interact to expand business relationships,increase catalog content, and help drive revenue.
• Ariba: Ariba launched Ariba.com Network, an Internet delivery platform and set of Internet services that connects buying organizations using Ariba Operating Resource Management System (Ariba ORMS) with supplier networks worldwide this March. Ariba.com Network is a distributed solution for large-scale content and eCommerce transaction integration over the Internet. Ariba demonstrated Ariba.com Network at the Ariba User Group and Advisory Council meeting to more than 600 business leaders.
• webMethods Inc.: webMethods announced support for Commerce XML (cXML) an open XML-based standard created to facilitate e-commerce within trading communities. webMethods is among 40 leading companies that have joined Ariba Technologies in the development of cXML, a suite of lightweight XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and their associated processes that define the exchange of catalog content and transaction information between buyers and suppliers. They also announced support for BizTalk, Microsoft's vision for cross-platform electronic commerce, and the next generation of the Microsoft Commerce Interchange Pipeline (CIP). BizTalk uses XML as a common language for a comprehensive set of industry and cross-industry business schemas defining common business documents such as purchase orders, invoices and shipping notices. webMethods will provide XML development tools and adapters for future CIP offerings, including cross-platform XML adapters for major enterprise applications such as SAP R/3 and real-time conversion of HTML-based Web data to XML formats.
• Commerce One: In late March, Commerce One issued a series of announcements claiming to move eCommerce to the next generation. Included in the announcements was the launch of MarketSite 3.0, Open Marketplace Platform; a software platform to build new marketplaces and link existing trading communities. Commerce One also announced MarketSite.net, a B to B Marketplace Portal, built on the MarketSite platform that interoperates with Commerce One BuySite, Electronic Procurement Application and other leading buying and selling applications. And finally it announced collaboration with market makers such as BT, to build additional marketplaces that will interoperate with MarketSite.net to form the world's largest business-to-business marketplace. According to Mark Hoffman, president and CEO of Commerce One, "Commerce One has taken the concept of real-time, dynamic trading and redefined it for the 21st Century. No other company to-date has delivered this kind of solution to the market." Commerce One claims to have expanded the reach of the marketplace portal by making MarketSite.net accessible by popular buying and selling applications, in addition to access through Commerce One. MarketSite.net is claimed to be available to buying organizations using Rightworks' ProcureWorks buying application, SAP's R/2 and R/3 purchasing modules as well as being accessible by suppliers using only a browser or by integrating with suppliers' websites built with popular selling solutions such as those offered by Intershop or Microsoft Commerce Server with the addition of BizTalk.

Business-to-business Internet commerce predicted to grow to hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years. So naturally everyone is scrambling to develop the winning commerce vocabularies and protocols. Clearly we all share the vision of Jay M. Tenenbaum, VP and Chief Scientist at Commerce One and former<BR>
Chairman of Veo Systems to develop the "ability to create open, dynamic highly scalable marketplaces."

The final solution is far from clear. Making the case for eCommerce is relatively easy. But recommending vocabularies, portals, and protocols will require not only study of each offering, but the continued good fortune of each in the marketplace.

 

Dianne Kennedy

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Editor, XML Files

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