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On-line Procurement Hub
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| Our Design Consideration
We focus on solutions that help companies to connect to their key business partners to achieve business process integration. In this aspect we understands that separations of data from process are needed to achieve a seamless integration of business process between two partners. That is why we make use of XML standard for data interchange.
XML offers the ability to separate the data from the processes that act on that data. XML provides a syntax that allows you to define each information object in an unambiguous way. By doing so, you can capture the information as one object and the process it with many different applications depending upon the requirement at the time.
Companies intending to foray into e-business must understand need to evaluate their existing business processes and if needed they need to re-engineer their processes to achieve automation. The internal business processes need to be enhanced before they can consider linking themselves to other partners. It is a business and not a technical decision; the management needs to understand that changes are needed and manage the changing process.
The overall plan will take into the consideration the existing business applications. Many existing companies have applications such as MRP, ERP that were designed before the advent of Internet. Typically most companies have streamline business applications that link their internal business processes that have proven to be efficient. It is imperative that companies continue to use these applications and focus on building the "bridges" to link these processes to their business partners. The advantage of this approach is that they can leverage on existing investment.
Other may use "best of the breed" business applications which are not linked. For such case, they need to consideration the possibility of sharing information between these applications. They can consider building "bridges" to link these applications or processes if there are needs to share information.
A typical backend system like MRP, ERP operate on their own data bases and generate documents such as purchases orders, production schedule, inventory information, delivery orders etc. They provide data export as well as import features. These data files are commonly presented as a fixed-width data file or in the form of delimited data file. Other are implemented using SQL server databases.
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On-line Procurement Hub
The on-line procurement hub consist several sub modules. It is designed to enable the on-line procurement to be executed on a single computer or on multiple computers system.
The advantage of this design is that it isolates the back-end system from the front-end. This three tiers configuration provided added security and flexibility.
Back-end bridge - scheduler
We developed a scheduler program, which is an application that fire up the utility to extract and import the data to and from the back-end application. It transfers data extracted to the on-line procurement hub system. This scheduler can be executed either on demand or can be programmed based on time or interval.
For future need, new utilities can be added and configured to extract different databases from different system. For example, when payments advise information is needed, a new utility can be installed to the scheduler to extract the data.
Data Mapper and Converter Engine
The data extracted from the back-end system are fixed-width flat files. The data mapper processes the incoming data and store the data on to a SQL Server. This software is designed to enable us to configure any data structure through a user interface. For example we can define the start and end location of the record for each data field. It can trigger additional software utilities to perform additional computation before storing on to the SQL database.
Business Process and Data Access Engine
This module is a collection of software components implemented as COM/DCOM objects. The advantage of software component is that it can be reused in other applications and allow easy update. These software components provide methods to access the SQL database as well as to implements the business logic.
When a new data is received from the back-end, the Data Mapper and Converter engine will send a message to the email notification component in the Business Process and Data Access Engine to generate a list of email addresses. This information will enable the Mailing List Server to generate email message to the business partners.
Supplier Interfaces
Multiple protocol and access methods are supported to enable as many suppliers as possible to use the system.
The simplest mean of access and acknowledgment of documents is through the Web forms. In order to be compatible with all web browser, these forms are presented in pure HTML format. Data transformation is done at the server end using style sheet techniques.
Supplier can download XML compatible as well as comma delimited flat file through this web forms. While the current implementation focuses on pushing out information, it can cater for pulling information from partners. Additional interfaces can be added: for example suppliers can send product catalogue and price list.
SOAP interface will be the most ideal methods to deliver this information.
Business Partners Integration
At the supplier end, we provide a FTP client to download data. Supplier who has on-line connection to the Internet can use the SOAP interface for data transfer. The data received are processed and convert to the format that is suitable to import to the Business Application.
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