RE: [ubl-dev] UBL vs xCBL 4.0 - and SAP implementations

[Fulton Wilcox <fulton.wilcox@coltsnecksolutions.com>]

Roger,

The SAP-CommerceOne relationship had as its primary practical consequence
SAP's introduction of "Professional Buyer." 

SAP Professional Buyer, like Ariba Technologies' and CommerceOne's own
offers, was aimed at "non-production" buying (office supplies, maintenance
and consumables, some services) as opposed to "production buying" (e.g., a
car company buying parts for assembly). SAP Professional Buyer also
supported what it terms OCI (open catalog interface"), Ariba Technologies
(and Oracle) term "punchout," and CommerceOne referred to as "Roundtrip."
These are primarily aimed at "configurable" goods and services (e.g., Dell
or Cisco's online configurators) or goods in very large catalogs (e.g.,
Barnes and Noble's) or goods with rapidly changing or per transaction
pricing (e.g., chemicals and gases). 

"Professional Buyer" was also somewhat (and perhaps deliberately, given
sensitivities of purchasing organizations) misnamed, because it was really
aimed at empowering the "requisitioner." 

Below are links to some SAP information regarding Professional Buyer.

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn?rid=/webcontent/uuid/ff03d072-0501-0010-aa88
-8018506a2ebe

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn?rid=/webcontent/uuid/ff03d072-0501-0010-aa88
-8018506a2ebe

Theoretically, cXML or xCBL could be used for production buying, but for the
most part the major EDI standards (and industry-specific variants)already
occupied that space.

					Fulton Wilcox
					Colts Neck Solutions LLC

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Bass [mailto:roger@traxian.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 8:52 PM
To: ubl-dev@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [ubl-dev] UBL vs xCBL 4.0 - and SAP implementations

 

I'd be interested in comments anyone might have comparing UBL with xCBL 4.0,
which I understand to have been  "conformed" to UBL from earlier versions of
xCBL.  (Of course, this list won't need reminding that xCBL was the original
basis for UBL), and the pros and cons of each.

 

The context for this is that I'm interested to identify communities of
application users have support for one or other XML standard "out of the
box".  Ariba's cXML standard has a fair amount of traction out there - but
has various IP disadvantages.  My particular focus here is SAP - which had a
historical relationship with CommerceOne, originator of xCBL (via Veo
Systems).  I'm working this through various folks I know at SAP - but would
welcome any additional pointers.  In particular, I was interested to note
that AT&T's supplier facing website includes a document that talks about
their support of xCBL 3.0 and 4.0 http://www.attsuppliers.com/downloads.asp 

 

I'm guessing that AT&T's support of this standard comes via some
software/mapping component running on their SAP XI infrastructure - perhaps
provided by SAP itself.  For UBL (or any other XML standard) to become
widely adopted by corporates, I suspect its availability (and *very* easy
activation with trading partners) would be a requirement.  While SAP has
been quite engaged with UBL and other standards historically, I'm not aware
of any one standard being favored in its "shrink wrap" availability.  If
anyone is aware of packages that are "ready-to-run" on SAP XI (with hooks to
standard procurement / AP processes) for UBL, xCBL or other standards, open
source or otherwise, I'd be interested to hear about it.

 

Incidentally - Oracle seems well ahead of SAP here (an observation I've
shared with my SAP contacts).  Certain of their applications seem to support
OAGXML natively, and cXML via a standard mapping service - details of the
implementation make it *extremely easy* to connect SMB suppliers.  Can
discuss more offline if anyone's interested.

 

Regards,

Roger Bass

 

Traxian <http://www.traxian.com> 

Electronic Transactions Made Easy

	
Roger Bass
Founder & CEO 

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