Transcript EDItX and Web Services

The Book Business and International Information Standards
EDItEUR Seminar, Moscow, September 2007
The new supply chain for books
EDItX and Web Services
Francis Cave
EDItEUR
The new supply chain…
• The Internet has changed the way that
businesses trade with one another
• The book trade is no exception!
– consumers buy books online
– publishers promote books online
– now supply chains are going online
• The cost of going online is relatively low
– small enterprises (publishers, bookshops) can afford
to be players in the new supply chain
– traditional EDI is too expensive for small players
Supply chain communication
• To trade electronically the book trade
needs communication standards
– standards define how business partners
communicate
• how messages are exchanged
• what messages contain
– standards exist for traditional EDI
• EDIFACT, national standards
– what is needed for trading on the Internet?
Standards for e-commerce
• There have been several international projects
to develop global standards for electronic
trading:
– ebXML
– EDIINT (AS/1, AS/2, AS/3)
– Web Services
• Do general-purpose e-commerce standards
work in the book trade?
– historically, no – not without modification
EDItX
• In 2001 EDItEUR decided to develop
XML-based message formats for
transactions used in the book supply chain
– in collaboration with the Book Industry Study
Group (BISG), representing the book trade in
North America
• EDItX = EDItEUR XML
EDItX for trade supply
• Initial development of a family of message
formats for trade supply:
– Order, Order Response, Ship Notice,
Order Cancellation, Order Status Enquiry,
Order Status Report, Stock Enquiry,
Stock Report
– Invoice format not included in original set
• Version 1.0 published by EDItEUR in
March 2004
EDItX for library supply
• The library supply chain has its own
requirements that differ from trade supply
• Separate set of message formats required for
use in library supply?
• EDItX Library Order format published by
EDItEUR in March 2004
• No initial demand for other formats
• Demand led by the requirements of the North
American market (BISG)
How to exchange EDItX messages?
• EDItX specifies message formats, but not how
they should be communicated
• For the supply chain to trade electronically there
need to be standard methods of communication
as well as standard message formats
• Existing Internet-based solutions use FTP and
email…
• …but these need to be integrated with order
processing and stock managements systems
• There has to be a better way…
Web Services
• In 2004 Book Industry Communications in the
UK launched the e4books project
– AIM: to have the entire UK book industry trading
electronically by May 2008
• An early conclusion was that the industry
needed to define better ways of communicating
over the Internet that were accessible to small
players
• BIC decided to develop a series of Web Service
standards for the UK book trade
What are Web Services?
• Web Services are established conventions
for the use of Web protocols for
communication between business systems
• Web Services enable transactions that
involve requests and responses to be
conducted in “real time” (without delay)
– e.g. an Order Request requires an immediate
Order Response
BIC Web Services
• Published BIC Web Service standards:
– Price & Availability Request / Response
– Order Cancellation Request / Response
– Product Information Request / Response
• ONIX and MARC versions
• Draft standards in development include:
–
–
–
–
Order Request / Response
Retrieve Invoice List
Copy Invoice Request / Response
Post Invoice
International interest in EDItX
• In 2006 there was renewed international interest
in EDItX, especially in Scandinavian countries
• In April 2007 EDItEUR published EDItX Version
1.1 for trade supply, including new formats:
– Invoice, Returns Request, Returns Response
• New interest in EDItX for Library Supply
– full set of message formats currently under
development
EDItX and Web Services
• In the UK, BIC is implementing a number
of EDItX trade formats in its Web Service
standards:
– Order, Order Response, Invoice
EDItEUR and Web Services
• The current Web Service standards have
only been developed for use in the UK
• BIC, through EDItEUR, is keen to share its
work with trade organisations in other
countries
• Maybe there is a role for Web Service
standards in the Russian book trade?
THANK YOU!