The Electronic Enterprise

A fundamental difference between the proposals in these XML/EDI Guidelines and those found in other proposals for XML based web retailing, such as those covered in the Open Trading Protocol (OTP), is the client centric nature of the business processes, as contrasted with the server centric nature of electronic retailing. To distinguish these two terms, we use the term " Electronic Business" to refer to the processes of fulfilling customer requirements through the application of negotiated business processes leading to the supply of manufactured goods to retailers and service providers, and "Web Commerce" to describe the process of selling manufactured goods to consumers.

Electronic business is client centric in that is starts with a specification of a client's requirements, rather than a statement of what the supplier has to offer. The specification of requirements gets sent to a number of potential suppliers, who are asked to tender for the business by a predefined date/time. The purchaser is, as a result of this process, provided with more than one choice, and must determine which quotation to accept. This may require a period of contract negotiation to ensure that adequate terms and conditions, including delivery criteria, are met. This may require a looping of the processes, with a need to cross refer between successive documents.

Once the purchaser has selected a supplier, the business processes involved are very similar to those involved in web commerce, but there are subtle differences. For example, electronic payment before delivery is unlikely to be required for electronic business transactions. Instead of being an integral part of the negotiation phase, with payment being made at the time the order is placed, payment in the electronic business scenario is a separate process that occurs immediately after delivery. This introduces concepts such as statements, which do not occur in web commerce scenarios.

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