Business Networking with Web Services: Supporting the Full Life Cycle of Business Collaborations

Abstract

This chapter describes how the latest advances in Web services technology are paving the way toward dynamic B2B integration. It begins by distinguishing between three kinds of life cycles: the operational life cycle, the B2B trading life cycle, and the business networking life cycle. In the past, most B2B integration solutions have been designed to support the operational life cycle by specifying a set of predefined B2B conversations. We will show that Web services can be used to settle those conversations at run-time, and that they can support the B2B trading life cycle all the way from partner search to contracting, operation, and evaluation. In general, though, the B2B trading life cycle may change across different markets, which requires mechanisms for a company to retrieve information about how it should proceed once it enters a new market. These mechanisms belong to the business networking life cycle, and they can be supported by Web services as well. The conclusion is that Web services provide the required features to support the full life cycle of business collaborations.