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Grid technologies for affordable data synchronization and SME integration within B2B networks (GRID2(B2B)) in a few words...

The GRID2(B2B) Business Experiment has provided an efficient, open, reliable and affordable integration architecture that allows companies, especially SMEs, to join existing B2B platforms without changing their legacy information system. The innovation is based on the new, OGSA-DAI Trigger functionality, which allows automated, selective data replication across heterogeneous databases.

Case Study

Download the GRID2(B2B) – Grid Technologies for Affordable Data Synchronization and SME Integration within B2B Networks (BE24) - case study

Situation

Business-to-Business (B2B) networks are formed by a mid-large company, called the Starter, that invites its business Partners to join its selected B2B IT solution, called the Platform. This allows the Starter to better manage their supply chain by providing a mechanism to electronically exchange information between the members of the network. The cooperation requires a frequent and fast exchange of information between the companies (orders, plans, transportation information, etc), and that is why many manufacturers manage their strategic suppliers through a B2B Platform. Currently most B2B Platforms allow companies to interact through a web interface or through costly and complicated electronic data interchange mechanisms. The GRID2(B2B) project partners realised that the OGSA-DAI Trigger BEinGRID component could underpin an affordable and easy to deploy integration mechanism that could allow companies with limited ICT capabilities and budget to join a B2B Platform supporting bi-directional electronic data interchange. This improves significantly the B2B network performance, because data flows quickly and directly between different legacy systems.

Objectives

The GRID2(B2B) Business Experiment major objectives were:

Design, develop and test a solution to allow electronic data interchange between Starter and Partner legacy systems through an existing B2B platform.
Validate the OGSA-DAI Trigger BEinGRID component as the cornerstone of the proposed architecture.
Pilot the solution on a significant Italian manufacturing network constituted by Ducati Motor (the Starter), Bentivogli and PM (Ducati Motor strategic Partners) and based on MaNeM, Ducati’s chosen B2B platform, developed and provided by Italian software firm Joinet.
Introduce to the European ICT market the project results.

To achieve the automated data interchange, we created two components: a GRID2(B2B) Data Federation Agent and a GRID2(B2B) Data Service. A Configurator component facilitates the deployment of the software. All of these components involve the OGSA-DAI Trigger BEinGRID componeny.

Solution

The GRID2(B2B) Data Federation Agent is designed to be deployed on the B2B platform and the GRID2(B2B) Data Services will be deployed on the Starter and Partner sides. Data entered into the legacy systems are intercepted by the local Data Service components and propagated to the remote Data Service components via the Data Federation Agent. The Configurator component serves a dual purpose: it allows the integration of the components with the legacy systems and, importantly, it provides an interface for administrators to configure at any time which data they will publish to the platform.
A prototype has been successfully deployed using members of the Ducati B2B Network and the project partners are working towards an agreement to continue developing the solution into a final product.
The GRID2(B2B) components will be bundled in two kits:
The Starting kit, to be used by a Starter to connect its legacy system with its B2B platform.
The Partner kit, to be used by Partners to connect their legacy systems with the B2B platform of the Starter.
We also intend to develop a web site to define and provide consultancy and support services to GRID2(B2B)-enabled manufacturing networks.

Business Impact

The business impact of the use of GRID2(B2B) in Supply Chain Management includes:

Capability for the B2B platform providers to:
- Increase market share by offering advanced electronic data interchange
- Increase revenue by selling a new, very desirable, added-value service
Capability for the Starters to:
- Improve efficiency through more frequent production reschedules, so as to follow the demands of the market more closely
- Cut costs by automating very time-consuming processes such as goods reception and invoice registration
Capability for the Partners, including SMEs to:
- Satisfy customer integration requests at an affordable cost
- Cut costs by automating the import and export of electronic documents, such as orders and plans
- Invest in a mechanism that can be configured to support electronic integration with multiple different B2B platforms simultaneously

We estimate that around 10000 B2B networks are in place in Europe. We intend to start the exploitation of the project by recruiting Distributors in Italy, Spain and Hungary where 700, 500 and 200 manufacturing B2B networks are respectively in place. These national Distributors recruit B2B platform providers as Starting Value-Added Resellers (VARs). Starting VARs market GRID2(B2B) to their Starters who push GRID2(B2B) to their Partners. The Partners then involve their ICT suppliers, which become Joining VARs.