L561: Information Systems Design for Digital Entrepreneurship Web services I. Business to business e-business How does it work? II. What are web services?

L561: Information Systems Design for Digital Entrepreneurship

Web services

I. Business to business e-business

• How does it work?

II. What are web services?

IIII. Examples of web services

• Data mining and warehousing

• Online analytical processing (OLAP)

• Business intelligence


I. Business-to-business e-business

What is b-to-b ebusiness?

The buying and selling of goods and services between companies online

Facilitating the procurement of goods and services

Includes activities related to the supply chain

Manufacturers, distributors,wholesalers, dealers, franchisees, retailers

Provision of business infrastructure

Adserver networks, content syndicators, content delivery, data mining, order fulfillment and logistics, payment processing



B2B e-commerce differs from “e-tailing”

Flexibility in pricing

Transactions require variability in the pricing of products between purchasers

Haggling is rare in the B2C marketplace

Integration of business systems

To realize increased productivity and savings, businesses integrate their internal systems, reducing human intervention

Pan-Western E-Business Team. (2005) Business-to-Business E-Commerce Basics. http://www.e-bc.ca/media/ebizguides/b2b_basics.pdf



B2B e-commerce take place throughout the economy

Sector Total EcommerceAll manufacturing 4.2 trillion 996 billion (23.4%)

Transportation equipment 663 billion 346 billion (52.2%)

Beverage and tobacco 111 billion 53 billion (47.2%)

All service 5.4 trilllion 59 billion (1.15)

Travel 28 billion 6 billion (22.2%)

Online information 32 billion 4 billion (13.6%)

US Census (2004). 2004 E-Commerce multi-sector data tables. http://www.census.gov/eos/www/papers/2004/2004finaltables.pdf



B2B marketplaces

Vertical e-marketplace

Spans vertically across all segments of anindustry

Each level can access all other levels, increasing collaboration

Advantages: increases operating efficiency, decreases supply chain costs, inventories, and cycle times

Buying/selling items in a similar industry is standardized, reducing need for outsourcing

Oil: PennEnergy Equipment exchange http://www.pennenergy.com/


Horizontal e-marketplace

Connects buyers and sellers across many industries

Example: maintenance, repair, and operations materials

These are crucial to the daily operation of all businesses

In many corporations the maintenance department buys directly on-line

Dovebid Industrial auctioneers http://www.dovebid.com/default.asp?bhcp=1




B2B supply chain

A linked set of resources and processes that begins with the sourcing of raw material and ends with the delivery of goods and services to the final customer

Includes vendors, manufacturing facilities, logistics providers, internal distribution centers, distributors, wholesalers and others

“Push” model: suppliers and vendors push products or services through the supply chain to the end consumer

Costs are accumulated through the chain and the consumer typically pays



B2B changes the supply chain

“Pull” model: the consumer has the most power in the supply chain, and suppliers must react to their demands

The linear nature of the chain may be broken as customers circumvent middlemen and resellers

Pressure on resellers to add value to keep customers

Suppliers respond to consumer demand limiting excessive inventory and storage costs

Shipping logistics are easier to control and costs are reduced as customers handle shipping tracking, etc.



Types of B2B exchangesType Pricing Orientation Examples

Many to many Dynamic Neutral www.altra.com.sg (market) (matching)

Static www.assetsmart.com (aggregation)

Few-to-few Negotiated Neutral www.ctspace.com (dyadic)

Few-to-many Posted Biased www,granger.com (monopoly) (supplier)

Many-to-few Static Biased www.covisint.com (monopsony) (buyer)

Palvou and El Sawy (2002). A classification scheme for B2B exchanges and implications for interorganizational ecommerce. p15.


Web services









Web services are a new breed of web application

They are self-contained, self-describing, modular applications that can be published, located, and used across the Web

Web services perform functions, which can be anything from simple requests to complicated business processes...

Once a web service is deployed, other applications (and other web services) can discover and use the deployed service

Vasudevan, V. (2001). A Web Services Primer. XML.com. http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2001/04/04/webservices/index.html



A web service is a set of applications that standardize communication of of information across systems, business partners, and customers

They provide a standard means of interoperating between different software applications, running on a variety of platforms and/or frameworks

They can then be combined in a loosely coupled way in order to achieve complex operations

Programs providing simple services can interact with each other to deliver sophisticated added-value service

W3C. (2004). Web Services.http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/Activity



Official definition:

A web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network

It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically WSDL)

Other systems interact with the service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP messages

These are conveyed using HTTP with XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards

W3C. (2004). Web Services Architecture. http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/



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java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/WebServices/WSPack/webservices_model.gif

Sun Microsystem’s web services model


A software system identified by a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML

When properly configured, web services can be found by other software systems

These systems interact with the service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using XML based messages conveyed by net protocols

They are loosely coupled, reusable software components that semantically encapsulate discrete functionality

They are distributed and programmatically accessible over standard Internet protocols



Enterprise applications that exchange data, share tasks, and automate processes over the Internet

The logical successor to EDI

Net-native applications that increase interoperability and lower the costs of software integration and data-sharing with partners

Based on simple and non-proprietary standards and designed to allow computer programs to communicate directly with one another

They exchange data regardless of location, operating systems, or languages



Web services use reusable application components that dynamically interact with each other using net standard protocols

Services include:

Formatting messages using XML

Invoking via simple object access protocol (SOAP)

Publishing in Web services description language (WSDL)

Location through universal description discovery and integration (UDDI)

Everett, D. (2002). Web Services: Fulfilling a Spectrum of Business Intelligence Needs. DM Review http://www.dmreview.com/master.cfm?NavID=55&EdID=5242



eXMLsystems.com. (2003). Microsoft.Net. http://www.exmlsystems.com/ TechnologyInsight.htm

One view of web service architectures



Formatting messages using XML

It is a “meta-language” for creating markup languages that describe structured data

It is a subset of SGML, and allows “generalized markup”

It is useful for storing structured and semi-structured text that will be published in a variety of media

It is extensible, which means that it describes a way of defining a set of tags and attributes

By itself, XML does not define any tags

This means that you create your own tags, effectively creating your own markup language



Simple object access protocol: invoking services via SOAP

It is an XML syntax for exchanging messages

It is both language and platform independent

A SOAP message consists of an “Envelope”, an optional “Header”, and a mandatory “Body”

Envelope

Identifies an XML document as being a SOAP message and encapsulates all the other parts of a message

It contains the version information about the message

Identifies the rules used by the application to serialize data






www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/jgodel/SOAPNETCOMIntroductionpartI11162005042800AM/Images/soap1.gif

This is a graphic version of a SOAP message


SOAP

Header: optional and used to extend the message syntax independently from a particular application

Information can be inserted to add authorization or transaction information

Body: carries application-specific contents including method name and serialized values of the methods’ input or output parameters

Serializing a web services message in XML format allows the SOAP XML to pass through firewalls





<SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/’ SOAP:encodingStyle='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/' xmlns:v='http://www.topxml.com/soapworkshop/'>

<SOAP:Header>

<v:From SOAP:mustUnderstand='1'>

[email protected]

</v:From>

</SOAP:Header>

<SOAP:Body>

<v:DoCreditCheck>

<ssn>123-456-7890</ssn>

</v:DoCreditCheck>

</SOAP:Body>

</SOAP:Envelope>

TopXML. (2004). SOAP Workshop. http://www.vbxml.com/soapworkshop/articles/intro/page2.asp


www.germes-online.com/direct/dbimage/50297131/Sell_Color_Lined_Soap.jpg


Publishing services in WSDL

An XML-based language to describe a business’ services

Allows businesses to access the services electronically

Basis of the Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) initiative

Derived from Microsoft's SOAP and IBM's Network Accessible Service Specification Language (NASSL)

Replaces NASSL and SOAP as the means of expressing business services in UDDI registry

WebServices.com. (2004). Web Services Description Language. http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/gDefinition/0,294236,sid26_gci521683,00.html



WSDL provides information about how web services can be located and operated

It contains “service definitions” for distributed systems

Support the automatic creation of client-side stubs or proxies, and the binding to the Web services

It describes interfaces to a web services implementation

How messages should be formatted

Bind the abstract message to a concrete protocol

What the correct address of the endpoint is

It is a "take-it-or-leave-it" technical contract offered by a web services provider to web services consumer



Web services process with WDSLRequestor: person or company looking to run a web service

To run the service, a requestor locates the WSDL document that details how to run the services

Once the document is found, it's downloaded

It is then examined, and based on what is found in it, a SOAP request or requests is sent out to the Web service provider

The service sends the information requested - in essence the Web service itself - using the SOAP protocol

Gralla. P. (2002). An inside look at WSDL. The Web Services Advisor. http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid26_gci811272,00.html



Typical WSDL elements

<type> and <message>

Describes information to be passed in the web service

<message> element is the web service itself - the information that is going to be exchanged or requested

<binding>

Details how information will be passed between the requestor and the web service

Includes information such as the protocol and data format



Typical elements

<portType>

Describes a web service, operations that can be performed, and messages that are involved

Can be compared to a function library (or a module, or a class) in a programming language

<service>

Location of the web service



<?xml version="1.0"?><definitions name="StockQuote"targetNamespace="http://example.com/stockquote.wsdl" xmlns:tns="http://example.com/stockquote.wsdl" xmlns:xsd1="http://example.com/stockquote.xsd" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"><types> <schema targetNamespace="http://example.com/stockquote.xsd" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/XMLSchema"> <element name="TradePriceRequest"> <complexType> <all> <element name="tickerSymbol" type="string"/> </all> </complexType> </element> </schema></types><message name="GetLastTradePriceInput"> <part name="body" element="xsd1:TradePriceRequest"/></message>

This is what WSDL looks like



<portType name="StockQuotePortType"> <operation name="GetLastTradePrice"> <input message="tns:GetLastTradePriceInput"/> <output message="tns:GetLastTradePriceOutput"/> </operation> </portType>

<binding name="StockQuoteSoapBinding" type="tns:StockQuotePortType"> <soap:binding style="document" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/> <operation name="GetLastTradePrice"> <soap:operation soapAction="http://example.com/GetLastTradePrice"/> <input> <soap:body use="literal"/> </input> <output> <soap:body use="literal"/> </output> </operation> </binding>

<service name="StockQuoteService"> <documentation>My first service</documentation> <port name="StockQuotePort" binding="tns:StockQuoteBinding"> <soap:address location="http://example.com/stockquote"/> </port> </service></definitions>

More of the WSDL message

Gralla. P. (2002). An inside look at WSDL. The Web Services Advisor.



Universal description discovery and integration: locating services through UDDI

An XML-based registry for businesses to list on the web and publish information about their web services

Goal: to streamline online transactions and allow companies to find each other and make their systems interoperable for e-commerce

Used to search for web services

Can store company information, its services, and specific technical information for binding with a service

UDDI.org http://www.uddi.org/




www.openves.org/images/uddi.gif


UDDI has:

White pages: business name, business type, services used and technologies supported

Green pages: details on technologies supported, documents accepted and transaction interfaces.

Yellow pages: business type codes, geographical areas and technical or international keywords

Allows a service requester to locate businesses, their web services and the means through which they do business

Providers can publish their business information, services, and methods of transacting business



UDDI repository structure is defined in XML schemas with four entity types

Business entity: information about a company (white pages)

Business services: provided by a business entity with types of services offered (yellow pages)

Binding templates: implement business services and connect to and make use of them (green pages)

Models: metadata about technical specifications for services (green pages



The following query returns details on Microsoft

<find_business generic="1.0" xmlns="urn:uddi-org:api"> <name>Microsoft</name> </find_business>

Result: detailed listing of <businessInfo> elements registered for Microsoft

<businessList generic="1.0” operator="Microsoft Corporation" truncated="false" xmlns="urn:uddi-org:api"> <businessInfos> <businessInfo businessKey="0076B468-EB27-42E5-AC09-9955CFF462A3"> <name>Microsoft Corporation</name> <description xml:lang="en"> Empowering people through great software - any time, any place and on any device is Microsoft's vision…. </description>



More of the message

<serviceInfo businessKey="0076B468-EB27-42E5-AC09-9955CFF462A3" serviceKey="1FFE1F71-2AF3-45FB-B788-09AF7FF151A4"> <name>Web services for smart searching</name> </serviceInfo> <serviceInfo businessKey="0076B468-EB27-42E5-AC09-9955CFF462A3" serviceKey="8BF2F51F-8ED4-43FE-B665-38D8205D1333"> <name>Electronic Business Integration Services</name> </serviceInfo> <serviceInfo businessKey="0076B468-EB27-42E5-AC09-9955CFF462A3" serviceKey="A8E4999A-21A3-47FA-802E-EE50A88B266F"> <name>UDDI Web Sites</name> </serviceInfo> </serviceInfos> </businessInfo> </businessInfos></businessList>

Vasudevan, V. (2001). A Web Services Primer. XML.com.



Where web services fit in a business’ infrastructure

Geniant. (2003). Web services. http://www.geniant.com/img/web-services-XML-diagram2.gif



Typical web services architecture

Gottschalk, K. et al. (2002). Introduction to Web services architecture. http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/412/gotts1.gif



http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,38627|3,00.html

Web services in action



Web services









Data mining

It is a process of knowledge discovery in databases

It involves the extraction of interesting information, patterns, or rules from data in large databases

These data are non-trivial, implicit, previously unknown and potentially useful

It is a search for valuable information in large volumes of data

It uses statistical techniques to explore and analyze large quantities of data in order to discover meaningful patterns and rules

III. Examples of web servicesQuickTime™ and a

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www.liacs.nl/home/edegraaf/img/datamining.jpg


Data mining can be directed

Goal: to use the available data to build a model that describes a variable of interest in relation to the data set

Given what we know about people in Bloomington, which types of people are likely to subscribe to DSL?

Data mining can also be undirected

There is no variable of interest

Goal: to search through the available data to look for patterns and relationships

What can we learn about IU students who default on student loans?

III. Examples of web services


Data mining and BI

It provides an organization with “memory” and “intelligence”

Noticing: uses on-line transaction processing systems (OLTP)

Remembering: capturing as much of the transaction process as possible

Phone records, communications, CRM exchanges

Learning: the records must be organized into “data warehouses”

Data mining is used to analyze these data

Intelligence involves patterns, rules, and predictions



Data mining typically involves six activities

1. Classification: examining features of a data instance and assigning it to a predefined class

Uses a “training set” to sort unclassified data into discrete classes

Records are updated by filling in fields with “class code

Stored data is used to locate data in predetermined groups

Sorting credit card applicants according to risk levels



2. Estimation: sorts continuously valued outcomes

Using new data to predict whether a given data instance is above or below a threshold

Requires a model to determine the threshold level

Making predictions and determining churn rates

3. Prediction: similar to estimation but with expectation that there will be some check in the future

Uses a training set with historical data and a known predictor variable

Predicting the size of a balance likely to be transferred when a person accepts a credit card offer



4. Affinity grouping or association rules: goal is to explore an available data set to determine which data instances should be grouped together

This involves discovering relationships among data

Which items should be placed near each other in a supermarket?

What items do customers buy together

5. Clustering: sort undifferentiated data into like groups

This does not begin with predefined classes

What do the book and music purchases tell us about our customers?



6. Description and visualization: developing a preliminary understanding of the data

This is a first step in developing an explanation

What do we know about people who shop for food online?

Visualization is the graphic representation of the data

Directed data mining: classification, estimation, prediction

Undirected data mining: affinity grouping, clustering, description



Classes of data mining activity

Information Discovery, Inc. (2001). A Characterization of Data Mining Technologies and Processes. http://www.datamining.com/dm-tech.htm



The virtuous cycle of data mining

Transform data into useful information

with DM

Measure the results to reuse

the data

Identify problems where DM can provide

value

Act on the information



In business applications, data mining does not seek to replicate previous efforts

Goal is to discover new markets, not saturate old ones

In science, replication of results is more important

Data mining is a creative activity

Many patterns will be found, but the art is in focusing on the meaningful ones

Data mining results can change over time

Models can become less useful over time as data change and markets change

III. Exampls of web servicesIII. Examples of web services



If improvements, obtain more data

If a new technique improves performance

Building a DM model

Identify data requirements

Obtain data

Validate, explore, clean

data

Transpose data

Add derived variables

Create a model set

Choose modeling technique

Train model

Check model performance

Choose best model

If new derived variable improves performance

If a new segmentation improves performance

If data are not available

If values don’t look correct

If values don’t look correct


Data warehousing: a central repository for data derived from different organizational sources

The data store is optimized for decision support and not for specific operational functions (reservation processing)

A common format or data model is imposed on heterogeneous data

The data are cleaned and pre-processed

Operational: capturing basic activity (who, what, when, where)



www.asu.edu/spiada/data_admin/pictures/warehouse.jpg


Summary: providing an overview of the data by aggregating individual data points

Schema: physical layout of data (tables, fields, types)

Business rules: what’s been learned from the data

A business rule defines or constrains an aspect of a business

It is intended to assert business structure or influence the behavior of the business




Metadata: logical model and mapping to sources

Used in data acquisition/collection, data transformation, and data access

Acquisition metadata: maps translation of information from the operational to the analytical system

Transformation metadata: includes a history of data transformations, changes in names, and other physical characteristics

Access metadata: provides navigation and graphical user interfaces allowing non-technical users to interact intuitively with the contents of the warehouse



Types of data warehousing

Middleware tools: a single interface to a distributed network of data sources (data stores, departmental data warehouses)

Requires a common protocol

Difficulty is that the nodes on this network tend to be incompatible and have heterogeneous data

Departmental data warehouses: contain data prepared for and relevant to specific areas and functionalities

Tend to be customized and work well in specific domains

Tend not to work well with warehouses in other domains



Types of data warehousing

Interdepartmental staging areas: simplifies access with a single interface to different data sources

Can clean data but does not maintain a history or well- developed data model

Operational data store: data from related sources

Will typically use a relational database

Multitiered data warehouse: uses a normalized relational database with a consistent data model

Focuses on data and how it is used in the organization

Maintains a history of data transactions



Structure of data warehousing

Source systems: origin of the data (typically heterogeneous)

Data transport and cleaning: moves data among data stores

Normalizing data for comparative analysis

Central repository: main storage location

Metadata: describes data characteristics and location

Data marts: specialized access for end users

Operational feedback: integrates decision support into operational systems



On-line analytic processing tools (OLAP)

Primary tools for accessing data warehouses

For reporting about the data (not finding patterns in data)

A presentation tool for manual knowledge discovery

OLAP works with data mining but does not replace it

Provides an interactive connection to data allowing fast analysis of shared multidimensional information

Data are stored in a cube (a relational database) allowing multiple access points for querying and analysis

A functional area will have its own cube (sales cube, marketing cube)




customervalufinder.com/images/olap.gif


Dimensionality is the key to OLAP

Multidimensionality allows users to analyze data across multiple axes

A 5 dimensional cube includes time, products, customer, salesperson, and measures

Within each dimension are “levels” or hierarchies that organize the dimension members

A time hierarchy might be: years, quarters, and months

OLAP allows users the ability to look at any intersection among the dimensions




What OLAP looks like

Olap Business Solutions. (2002). Why OLAP? http://www.obs3.com/why_olap.shtml



With OLAP, users have direct access to information

Puts information into the hands of the decision makers

Allows users to ask questions of the database

High ROI, relatively easy to build, a quick development cycle

OLAP has become an analytical standard

Lower costs have increased usage of OLAP products

Most RDBMS systems now include an OLAP tool

By 2004 the market is projected to be at over $5 billionOlap Business Solutions. (2002). Why OLAP? http://www.obs3.com/why_olap.shtml



Business intelligence technology

One of the more interesting thing about business intelligence technology is not so much it’s advanced in the last 10 years. Rather, it’s how little that technology has changed.Kestelyn, J. (2003). Against the Grain. Intelligent Enterprise. 5(15) p. 6



Trends affecting business intelligence

There is a fundamental shift occurring in the BI market

Gartner calls it corporate performance management (CPM)

IDC and META Group call it business performance management (BPM)

AMR calls it enterprise commerce management (ECM)

This is a significant change in the importance organizations place on the use of BI software to increase corporate profitability



BI technology is becoming increasingly important

Achieving multiple goals in organizations

Inventory control

Financial modeling

Customer retention

Decision making support

Security

The important question is what happens next



BI technology must support several imperatives

Enable decision makers across the enterprise to act with confidence using current, valid knowledge

Align business and BIT goals to be able to rapidly exploit new opportunities

Extend the reach of BIT to all stakeholders to improve their decision making (partners and customers)

Maximize value in the supply chain by collaborating with partners and suppliers

Develop, formalize, and enforce best practices that are aligned with business strategy

Business intelligence technology: Systems and trends



Trends

Congressional attention increases BI transparency

Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandates Boards of Directors to attend to finance issues

It tightens auditing and increases accountability

Venture capital funding is drying up

National venture capital spending sank to a four-year low in Q3 2002, ($3.9 billion — half the level of Q3 2001)

This means that innovation becomes more difficultBurriesci, J., Kestelyn, J., and Young, M.M. (2003). The Top 10 Trends For 2003: Latent patterns in the fabric of strategic IT http://www.intelligententerprise.com/030101/602news1.shtml



Trends

Greater attention to metrics and methodologies

Performance goals will be monitored and compared against benchmarks and applied enterprisewide

Increasing attention to collaborative services

Providers are working to add workgroup collaboration functionality to their product lines

Collaborative budgeting and planning solutions will be standard tools



Trends

Embedding analytic tools

Allowing different types of analyses in different locations

Ensuring that business rules and metadata remain consistent across the enterprise

Developing intelligent infrastructure

BIT must be able to adjust quickly to changing marketing conditions

BIT has become a mainstream application



Trends

More use of web-based reporting and distribution

It extends deeper into the organizational chart

Closing the gap between operations and decision makers

It become more deeply integrated into DSS

Need to understand best practices to link operations to decision making

Developing interpretive functionalities in BIT

Online application processing (OLAP) tools can show that sales dropped 10% but can’t explain why (product, personnel,competition?)



Trends

BIT has to overcome adoption challenges

Too many products are “shelfware” because they are too difficult to implement and customize

There are cultural obstacles

Decision makers are not part of acquisition process

Other stakeholders are left out of the process

They don’t demonstrate a clear advantage



Trends

Legacy systems deliver the same data in familiar ways

They must be able to scale up

Many different people in the organization can integrate BIT output into their work

Analytic engines that drive BIT have to become more robust

Some companies are porting software to UNIX (Sagent, Microstrategy)



Some are trying “server clustering”

One server automatically takes over the tasks of another that has failed

Two or more servers (nodes) work together and appear as a single virtual server to a network

It is important to extend analytic ability

Manipulating records from a variety of entry points and with a variety of techniques



Trends

BIT will develop new functionalities

Allowing data to be moved easily across departments, business functions, and organizational boundaries

Moving beyond linear projections to allow forecasting

Also providing snapshots of point-in-time data

They will use local data models

Will be better able to work with local data models

Current tools come with vendor-supplied data models, forcing changes in local data



Trends

Intelligent agents will change BIT

They will provide single point access to distributed data

They will attempt to learn and anticipate user needs

The agent will question the user and then predict what the user wants

They can merge different types of data (numeric and non- numeric) in a single interaction


Documents

L561: Information Systems Design for Digital Entrepreneurship Web services I. Business to business e-business How does it work? II. What are web services?