Mitchell A. Cohen

A practical approach to Web-based Internet EDI

In traditional business environments, many inter-company processes (such as buying and billing) are performed using paper documents, such as purchase orders and invoices. Electronic data interchange (EDI) allows companies to exchange these documents in a structured and computer-processable format. This helps to automate and streamline business by eliminating or simplifying clerical tasks, speeding information transfer, reducing data errors, and eliminating business processes. Although EDI has been successfully employed in specific industries (such as retail) and in some large enterprises, it has not been widely adopted. The primary barriers to widespread acceptance of EDI are the costs of implementation and the costs of communication, which is frequently done using value-added networks (VANs). These costs are generally too high for companies that do not conduct large numbers of EDI transactions. We introduce a Web-based Internet EDI model that provides valued-added functions traditionally provided by EDI over VANs. In this model, users conduct business transactions using Java-capable browsers instead of traditional EDI software, eliminating the costs of VANs and EDI-related applications.

A State Machine Based Approach for a Process Driven Development of Web-Applications

Traditional workflow systems are not suited for highly interactive online systems. We present a state machine based workflow system, named FlexFlow, which formally describes Internet applications using statecharts. The FlexFlow engine uses these descriptions to directly control the execution of web applications. FlexFlow helps in generating controls for user interactions on web pages. Different versions of an application can be generated by visually editing its FlexFlow description, with minimal incremental effort in rewriting application code or related web pages. FlexFlow provides an efficient way to customize online systems and supports different versions of business processes in the same e-business system for different sets of industries, organizations, users, or devices. We demonstrate FlexFlows use for rapid prototyping of business processes and describe how we have used FlexFlow in commercial platforms for B2B e-commerce.

Dealer collaboration: transforming the value chain through integration and relationships

The retail and aftermarket in most value chains is highly segmented and can include dealers, distributors, resellers, independent repair shops, parts suppliers, specialized accessory retail stores and content providers. In the automotive industry, the aftermarket value chain is quite large and fragmented. OEMs need to transform the way they do business in order to obtain a share of this aftermarket revenue and provide better quality of service for handling critical product failures. Crucial failure symptom information is lost between the end consumers of products and the manufacturers due to lack of proper collaboration with dealerships and intermediaries offering independent service. Currently, this results in increased warranty costs for manufacturers and customer defection. In this paper, we present an IBM software solution for automotive dealer collaboration, which enhances the OEM-Dealer relationship through contextual collaboration, information integration and transparent process management. The solution is based on open standards such as Web services, J2EE, J2ME, Struts and others.

A Supplier Performance Evaluation Solution for Proactive Supplier Quality Management

Todaypsilas business environment forces companies to rely heavily on suppliers for products, services, and software. The increased reliance on suppliers and the growing complexity of the products, services and extended supply chain raises the importance of having an effective supplier quality management system. One of the keys to an effective supplier quality management system is the ability to provide an end to end supplier performance evaluation system.In this paper, we present a Supplier Performance Evaluation (SPE) solution which has been developed and commercialized that provides effective decision support for sourcing and supplier improvement. More specifically, this solution provides a real-time evaluation of supplier performance by consolidating information across functions, organizations, and various product lines throughout the product lifecycle. Its scoring function combines both subjective and objective metrics using data from surveys, engineering, manufacturing quality, warranty claims and other sources. An embedded alert management function helps to raise the timely awareness of quality issues related to suppliers, or supplied parts. Finally, a supplier performance evaluation example process is illustrated to showcase the usage of the solution.

A bid evaluation system for Internet contract negotiation

Competitive advantages in a fast-changing electronic procurement market are enabling buyers to explore many opportunities to purchase the best commodities, not only at the most favorable prices, but also to satisfy business objectives and organizational strategies. Some seasonal commodities and future contracts have to deal with uncontrollable factors such as the elasticity of the price and the constant variation of the demand. These trends present some new challenges in bid evaluations and business decisions. We have developed a system, which uses a hierarchical decision-criteria framework to handle complex constraint hierarchy with n-ary variables. In addition, the system provides the mechanism to analyze and forecast certain events based on the seasonal and historical data.