UDDI Global Yellow Pages for business…really connecting business through the net

Abstract

Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) is all about sharing business information on the Internet. It is about finding trading partners and having them find you. By automating these processes any business will have a means to describe their services and processes in a global, open environment on the Internet, thus extending their reach.

Potential trading partners will quickly and dynamically discover and interact with each other on the Internet via their preferred systems, thus reducing time to market. ·The barriers to rapid participation in the global Internet economy will be removed for any business anywhere, thus allowing them to fully participate in the new digital economy.

This foundation gives all businesses that register in the UDDI Business Registry a kind of ID card, a globally unique identifier for them as a business.

What is UDDI?

UDDI is a proposed standard, called Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI), that will allow businesses to describe the type of services they offer and will allow those services to be located by other businesses via an on-line directory, not unlike a massive global yellow pages system.

The directory will be an online marketplace, larger in scope than previous attempts to list businesses online. It will not be limited to a specific industry and will list companies participating in any business. Companies would be required to register themselves with a centralised authority and could then be found automatically by potential customers.

Why has UDDI come about?

The explosive growth of Business to Business or eCommerce on the Internet, more commonly known as B2B, has presented incredible opportunity and reach for businesses of every size. It has provided them with opportunities to find new customers, streamline their supply chains, provide new services and promote greater chance for increasing profits.

Many of those organisations that have moved their business to an online model are now realising significant economic and competitive gains. They are seeing increased revenue, lowered costs, new types of customers and innovative branding opportunities. Perhaps most of all many businesses are seeing the ability to move from their traditional base to new lines of customer service.

However, even though there has been outstanding growth in Business-to-Business eCommerce in recent years many believe it is still far from reaching its full potential. Major impediments have held back this enormous potential not only for those already conducting B2B but also for those not yet involved in the digital economy.

Most software systems that enable eCommerce and Web Services currently in use take very different approaches to the way they inter-connect their customers, suppliers, marketplaces and the enabling service providers. Also, up until now it has cost a very significant investment in technology and infrastructure to put in place the appropriate technologies.

For instance, a company manufacturing Payroll software in Dubbo who is looking for a Bio Recognition device manufacturer in Silicon Valley, who is looking to work with a computer manufacturer in Sydney, could only conduct global business once they have firstly discovered each other amongst a maze of other Internet listings. Even then they would only be able to transact business when they have agreed they are using the same technology types ie software systems.

How does it differ from normal engines

Businesses utilise countless ways to reach their customers and partners with information about their products and Web services in the traditional sense. However because global eCommerce participants have not until now agreed on one standard for communicating their services, finding and working with potential trading partners has been severely limited. In eCommerce, supply and demand alone does not control the flow of business unless buyers and sellers can be connected.

Thus far there has been no central way to easily get information about what standards different companies support and no single point of access to all markets of opportunity, allowing them to easily connect with all possible target trading partners.

How do individual companies differ in applications compatibility? Can’t everyone talk to each other over the Internet?

A supplier of ball bearings to industrial customers – perhaps all of which are already online – can take its business to the Internet but not be able to transact with more than half of its current customer base because they’re all using different applications and services to conduct Web-enabled business.

Without major investments in technology infrastructure, the supplier may not be able to offer – even to its current customers – all the advantages of B2B eCommerce, and may lose them to suppliers who can.

Marketplaces, businesses, and directory providers are all attempting to solve these communication and transaction problems, and all are adopting their own very distinct and divergent approaches centered on their own requirements. The result is a staggering diversity in approach, content, and architecture that is preventing other members of the B2B eCommerce community from accessing or using their business.

What caused UDDI to start and how long before it is in major use?

The last few years have seen a remarkable evolution in Web-based B2B eCommerce, electronic sales, online auctions, dynamic electronic marketplaces, and applications that process and route information. These comprise the essential foundation of B2B eCommerce infrastructure, ensuring an organisation’s ability to establish connectivity, put product or service information online, access and interact with a broad range of customers, process transactions, and fill orders.

Thus, the model of the business Internet needed to change, to move forward in ways that enable businesses to connect, to discover and reach each other, to learn what kinds of capabilities their potential trading partners have, and to continuously discover new potential trading partners, understand what their capabilities are, and seamlessly conduct eCommerce with them.

A framework was also needed to allow businesses to describe the business services their Web sites offer, and how they can be accessed globally over the Web. A global solution needs to go beyond traditional directories, but needs to define standards for how businesses will share information, what information they need to make public, and what information they choose to keep private.

Who is setting up the UDDI?

A group of technology and business leaders have come together to develop the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration [UDDI] specification.

Each incremental advance in Web-enabled commerce has carried deep implications for business processes and organisational culture. UDDI is a major advance - the first cross-industry effort driven by platform providers, software developers, marketplace operators, and eCommerce and business leaders that comprehensively addresses the problems limiting the growth of B2B eCommerce.

For the technically minded! The UDDI specifications take advantage of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), HTTP, and Domain Name System (DNS) protocols. Additionally, cross platform programming features are addressed by adopting early versions of the proposed Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messaging specifications found at the W3C Web site.

The proposed standard is based on a system known as Extensible Markup Language (XML), a Web standard for data exchange that is rapidly becoming the preferred language of online business.

Major benefits have been historically derived by the use of widely adopted standards in all industries and/or initiatives. UDDI-enabled businesses will realize unprecedented value from the rapid acceleration of eCommerce as a result of this global initiative. Using UDDI, the supplier of ball bearings will be able to continue to serve its existing online customers, to quickly and easily discover new trading partners, and to conduct B2B eCommerce with them all.

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au