Latest Webswell Connect - full open source ebXML implementation suite released

Webswell Inc have announced the release of their latest version of Webswell Connect, the open-source ebXML integration platform. The latest Webswell Connect 1.4.1 contains:

• E-business registry and repository
• ebXML messaging system
• Application connector called Webswell Broker
• Demonstration and monitoring utilities
• Components and libraries needed for the platform function- XML editor
  

Together with easy installation procedure Webswell Connect 1.4.1 constitutes a comprehensive ebXML integration platform that supports http, https and email communication while keeping it safe and reliable - implementing digital signatures, encryption, acknowledgments mechanism, duplication elimination etc.

Webswell Connect 1.4.1 is entirely open source software distributed under Academic Free License.

You can download at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webswell/WebswellConnect1.4.1.jar?download

GM relies on BEA WebLogic and ebXML to re-tool parts ordering for 8,000 dealerships

Since its nationwide launch of RIM in August 2005, about 1,000 GM dealers are active on the new system, and another 3,500 are enrolled and will soon be active.

According to Donna Colorito, process information officer at GM Service and Parts Operations, GM uses BEA Systems Inc.'s WebLogic Server to distribute parts information from its legacy systems and has adopted Electronic Business XML (ebXML) as its communications protocol.

By the end of 2007, GM expects to have its approximately 8,000 U.S. and Canadian dealers using its Retail Inventory Management (RIM) system, which relies on intelligence gleaned from nationwide parts sales to recommend parts-restocking policies at dealerships.

"A key aspect of the system is recommending what part to stock, and that’s not a trivial thing. GM has some 1.3 million parts that can be ordered, and dealerships typically have between 5,000 and 12,000 parts on the shelf at any given time, said Mike Nicholes, a parts management consultant and head of Nicholes Capital Management LLC in Portland, Ore".

For more details see the full article:

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,109799,00.html

Norwegian e-Health Infrastructure based on XML, ebXML and PKI

Norway's National Insurance Administration (NIA) upgraded the EDI-based communications infrastructure it used to connect to its business partners with a new architecture based on open standards, including the ebXML Messaging OASIS Standard, ISO 15000-2.

NIA's ebXML Message service was built using the Xenos terminalONE end-to-end, transaction gateway solution.

To date, NIA's system is in production with four applications, and has transported several million ebXML messages corresponding to transactions totaling more than 10 billion Norwegian Kroner (equivalent to 1.2 billion EURO, or 1.5 billion USD).

At present the four applications using the new architecture are :

• Medical certificate. Currently, 900 general practitioners at 350 offices (out of a total of 1850 offices) are using this application, covering access to 20% out of a total of 3.5 million medical records. The expectation is that this will double in 2006, as more and more suppliers of software to general practitioners add ebXML Messaging capabilities to their products, thus enabling their customers to connect to the e-Health infrastructure.
• Requests for payment from general practitioners to the NIA. This is currently used by 500 doctors at 200 offices.
• Requests for payment from pharmacies to the NIA. All pharmacies in Norway are using this application, and transactions totaling 10 billion Norwegian Kroner (equivalent to 1.2 billion EURO, or 1.5 billion USD) annually are transacted using this application.
• The EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) is a European standard card format for European Union, European Economic Area or Swiss nationals traveling or staying temporarily in another EU/EEA country or Switzerland, indicating they are entitled to receive medical care should they become ill or have an accident. The order process between the NIA and the card producer uses ebXML Messaging. Currently, two million cards have been produced using this application.

The report states "The use of open standards has been a strategic choice that has worked well for the project. The National Insurance Administration would certainly recommend ebXML Messaging for other sectors looking for reliable messaging to handle sensitive information. As other projects of similar scope and nature are found, the real challenges in deploying and extending the Norwegian e-Health infrastructure are not technical, but related to the organizational complexity of connecting large numbers of partners that use a diversity of enterprise and legacy systems, but are required to converge on a common interface".

More details are available from the case study website and links to the whitepaper.