Integrating Electronic Commerce with Enterprise Systems

By Robert Crigler

The success of Intemet-based Electronic Commerce will depend whether buyers can get all the information they need to make purchasing decisions quickly and easily, without human intervention. Accurate real-time information displayed on an organization's Web site will encourage buyers to visit and revisit. Competitive pricing, availability, and the ease with which an order can be processed will encourage the use of electronic ordering via the Internet. Electronic purchase orders entered by the buyer directly into the supplier's enterprise business system will result in increased efficiencies for both thebuyer and the seller.

IT Issues

Business System Transaction Access

Most companies run their businesses with central computer systems which they have developed over a number of years, and which hold all their sales order processing, stock, and financial information. The Electronic Commerce system must allow customers using a Web browser to communicate with these enterprise system and so so in a secure an controlled way.

The problem is that these central systems have generally been designed to work with terminals opersted by data entry staff. In a sales office, for example, the data entry personnel are call center operators who enter customers' purchase orders directly into screen-based host system forms. To fully enable Electronic Commerce over the Internet, some way must be found to bridge the communication gap between the browser and the host system. The following sections examine two remote database (RDBMS) access and virtual terminal emulation.

1. Direct Relational Database Access

Relational databases are at the heart of many corporate business applications, so most Electronic Commerce systems will need some way of reading relational data. One way of doing this is to give the Web user direct access to the relational database. The latest versions of database products from major database vendors such as Oracle®, Sybase® and Informix® feature direct Web interfaces, and applications can be written using these "web enabled" software products to provide realtime access to business data. Direct database access is a good solution, where customers only need to look up information in the database -for example, the latest product pricing.

However, Electronic Commerce systems typically involve updating the database rather than just reading from it. Placing an order electronically means that the underlying business application has to be able to access and update several data tables: the stock table, to remove the item from inventory; the invoice table, to generate an invoice for the client; the dispatch table, to prepare the item for delivery; and so on. The real world implementation of Electronic Commerce combined with direct database access can be quite complicated. This approach can be used effectively when new enterprise applications are being developed from scratch.

2. Virtual Terminal Emulation (Screen Mapping)

Most businesses have existing applications that they do not want to replace. For these organizations, screen mapping is a good alternative to direct relational database connectivity. Screen mapping works by using the Web server to map the data that would be displayed on a local terminal screen into the Web client. To the existing host system business application, the Web client looks the same as a local client (terminal). To the user, the host system appears to be like any other graphical webbased application.

Screen mapping has a number of benefits:

It does not require any changes to the host business applications. There is no need for upgrades to the latest system or database software. Virtual screen emulation will operate with any version of the screen protocol.
The host application software used to collect and display data for Electronic Commerce is already written.

Screen mapping is a secure method of connecting a business application. Users gain access to the system via forms generated by the web server, and all they are permitted to do is fill in information via the electronic form; the web server controls the menu selection and navigation through the business application. Because there is no physical connection between the Web client and the business system, and users are never given a mainframe prompt, and they have no way of setting up a direct communication session.

Conclusion Electronic

Commerce using Internet technology provides huge potential for businesses, but to be successful it must be integrated into their existing IT framework. However appealing a clean-slate approach might be in theory, in practice most organizations do not want the expense and disruption of developing completely new business process. They will be much better off finding a way to integrate Web technology with their current IT investment.

(Rob Crigler is the Internet Solutions Manager at MODCOMP, Inc., a firm that provides software and turn-key programming services for companies integrating legacy systems with web technology. Crigler may be reached at (954) 977.1480 or crigler@modcomp.com.)

Article from Computing News & Review, June 1998