IT companies are starting to offer low-cost or free
products to provide business-to-business connectivity. Analyst firm
Gartner sees this as a shift in the way such software is
sold.
One example of this is /N Software, which plans to offer a
"public preview" version of its AS2 adapter, which enables
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) connectivity with a single B2B
trading partner.
AS2 is an internet standard for providing process-to-process,
real-time EDI based on the protocols Mime and HTTP. The standard
aims to provide a way for businesses to exchange information
electronically in a secure manner over the internet using standard
protocols.
Gartner said businesses were looking at AS2 in areas such as
global data synchronisation efforts in the retail industry. Users
need to support multiple standards in order to connect to business
partners and Gartner believes that the most successful B2B
technology is based on service oriented architectures, which
provide the ability to compose processes that facilitate a range of
connectivity mechanisms, including AS2 and EBXML Message
Service.
Gartner analyst Frank Kenney recommended that users running B2B
technology that does not support AS2 should look at /N Software's
free system as an adjunct to their established infrastructure.