Implementing WebSphere Business Integration Express for Item Synchronization

Chapter 1. UCCnet 11

Figure 1-2 Current item exchange

The supplier and retailer represent the trading data differently in their back-end

systems. Any change in the item catalog on the supplier’s end, for example an

item added into the supplier catalog or an item change, has to be manually

exchanged with the retailer. This data has to be converted into the retailer

specific format, either prior to dispatch by the supplier or by the retailer on receipt

of the data. In many cases, this may be a manual task. As a result, the whole

process is not only time consuming, but it can lead to errors or discrepancies due

to multiple format representations of the data or simply due to human error.

The use of inaccurate trading data costs the retail industry tens of billions of

dollars annually in supply-chain errors, bottlenecks, and time-to-market delays.

1.5 UCCnet proposed scenario

UCCnet offers a single, standards-based registry to publish and access product

information. For suppliers and retailers, this eliminates the need for sending or

receiving product information in partner-specific format to or from each of their

trading partners. Also UCCnet acts as the single point of contact for each of the

suppliers and retailers for all of their trading partners that have subscribed to

UCCnet. In this way, the supplier does not have to exchange the item information

individually with each of its retailers.

To implement UCCnet supply-side transactions, data needs to be extracted from

the back-end systems and sent to the UCCnet GLOBALregistry via XML or via

the secured transport protocols such as HTTPS or AS2. WebSphere Business