AnalystAnalyst OutlookOutlook COLLABORATION5 http://radjou.ASCET.com Navi Radjou The X-Internet Invigorates Forrester Research Supply Chain Collaboration The X-Internet – an executable and extended Internet built from Rapid responses to unforeseen events. Web- post-Web technologies – will transform online collaboration based B2B apps like e-procurement rely on a between supply chain partners. rule-based workflow engine to automate rou- tine transactions between partners. But they’re not designed to let firms actively find Global firms pin big hopes on the Internet’s the world has changed: Empowered customers unplanned events like delayed parts or a capabilities to connect them with customers are more fickle and competitors challenge suc- looming equipment failure in a contractor’s and suppliers. For example, 84 percent of busi- cessful new products more quickly. Firms have plant, let alone resolve them in real time. To nesses surveyed by NAPM/Forrester in come to rely more on partners to improve their provide preemptive customer support and October 2001 view the Internet as a critical ele- supply net performance and customer service. continually optimize asset usage, firms need ment of their purchasing strategy. Many firms To meet the new realities of B2B collaboration, to sense and respond to unforeseen events are stepping up investments in business appli- business apps need to support: without human intervention. cations (apps) that promise to move their Rich, real-time collaboration. Web- offline supply chain transactions to the Web. anchored supply chain apps like those from The X-Internet Reshapes But so far, these Web-centric B2B apps have Manugistics Group can’t rapidly reflect Supply Chain Collaboration failed to deliver the promised benefits because changes in partners’ production schedules Since its birth 30 years ago, the Internet has they are undependable and sluggish. HTTP because their centralized databases need undergone multiple evolutions; the Web is (the Web’s underlying communication proto- hours to collect and process such scattered just its latest manifestation. Recently, the lim- col) was designed to deliver static content, not info. So high-velocity businesses like Cisco itations of the Web – and of the B2B apps built to run interactive apps like collaborative Systems that use these batch-based apps are upon it – have become glaring. To efficiently design systems that require minimal latency. forced to make decisions based on historical move their offline collaboration to the Net, Designers manipulating 3D models, for data. To continually track and improve its firms need a B2B app architecture that is free example, need to see the results displayed supply net’s actual performance, Cisco needs from the Web’s deficiencies. In the next immediately. So it’s not surprising that, after B2B apps that enable real-time collaboration decade, Forrester expects scores of post-Web pilot-testing Web-based design tools like those by exploiting a distributed data architecture. technologies to emerge and take hold – paving from SDRC, most manufacturers revert to their Everything, not just everyone. Although a the way for a more compelling Internet that old practice: sending CAD drawings to part- Web-enabled supply chain execution app we call the X-Internet. Unlike today’s ners via overnight mail. Another limitation of from a vendor like EXE can manage the cross- Web-rooted Internet, the X-Internet will be: Web-based collaboration apps is that they are company information flow associated with Executable. The X-Internet will exploit browser-bound and PC-centric. Current B2B order management, it doesn’t tie that data to smart code like Java and a distributed infra- apps were originally built to reliably serve a the physical assets used to fulfill that order – structure to push the locus of execution closer limited number of office-bound PC users – not the shop-floor equipment that manufactures to end-user devices – enabling these devices to engage in ephemeral communications with the product or the container in which the to talk back and forth with services in the net- tens of thousands of non-PC client devices. As product is shipped. To provide customers work using self-describing data. This exe- a result, today’s apps are inadequate for with more accurate and up-to-date order- cutable Internet will reduce latency and make mobile workers – a community that soon will status info, firms need B2B apps that can cross-firm app integration easier. represent 31 percent of the U.S. workforce – monitor all of the production and transporta- Extended. The X-Internet’s reach will who rely on tools like dial-up modems, cell tion assets within their fulfillment network. extend deep into the physical environment in phones, and PDAs to access their corporate data and to reach out to partners. Existing Web-based B2B apps were Navi Radjou is a senior analyst at Forrester Research where he covers supply chain integration and collaborative product development. Prior to joining Forrester, he worked as an IT consultant in Asia for three designed to support large corporations operat- years, and as a development analyst at IBM’s Toronto Software Lab. Mr. Radjou holds undergraduate degrees ing in a mature environment – with stable in computer science from the University of Paris and CNAM-Paris and an M.S. in information systems from demand and a captive supplier network. But Ecole Centrale Paris. He has also attended the Yale School of Management. The ASCET Project • 249 AnalystAnalyst OutlookOutlook which firms operate – a real world made up cian to install the new filter. Meanwhile, • Object monitoring. New tagging tech- of billions of physical objects that range from Carrier extracts the performance history of nologies and standards that improve shop-floor equipment to pallets. The X- the filters in all its existing HVAC installa- device-to-device interoperability will Internet will use ever-cheaper sensors as well tions, combines it with details of the make it easier for firms to identify and as smart tagging and tracing technologies to Taiwanese filter failure, and dashes the track physical assets. track every product from inception to fadeout. package electronically to the filter supplier. • Adaptive planning. Intelligent agent The X-Internet’s executable and extended The supplier runs a root-cause analysis, technology will enable machine-to- attributes will enable B2B apps to deliver a mapping the Taiwanese incident against all machine resolution of problems that whole new level of benefits to users – helping other customer uses – and spots a previously involve multiple firms – boosting part- them make the transition from flat data undetected pattern: The filter’s performance ner networks’ adaptability. exchange to contextual collaboration. Among businesses today, online supply chain Net-Resident Services collaboration is limited to simple document exchanges. But in the X-Internet era, static Partner Object Adaptive Integration Monitoring Planning queries will give way to executables – encap- sulations of app logic and data along with Partner A Partner B codified knowledge of companies’ business rules and constraints. Firms can then transi- tion from an explicit but context-insensitive style of B2B communication (“Ship me 10 widgets!”) to one that is more implicit, yet richer (“I need to launch this new product next year – how can you help me?”). The X-Internet will extend the scope of B2B collaboration from people-centric to any-to- Figure 1 X-Internet technologies will provide the foundation for a new B2B architecture. any interactions. So, if your supplier’s truck is stuck in traffic, it can notify your shop-floor degrades whenever it is operated below Partner Integration Services. systems and alert you. The X-Internet will 65˚F. The supplier immediately tells its Eighty-two percent of Global 3,500 firms have support the migration to network optimiza- customers to set their HVACs’ tolerance level yet to integrate a majority of partners to their tion. Today’s intra-enterprise decisions can to 65˚F – and directs its R&D team to internal apps. But the X-Internet will simplify inadvertently hurt partners’ performance. But improve the filters’ performance level in partner integration by offering Net-resident the multi-tier supply network visibility and low-temperature conditions. That’s how the data synchronization services. Rather than real-time data provided by X-Internet services X-Internet can transform collaboration. invest a fortune in integration software from will let firms run trade-off analyses to recon- firms like Vitria Technology and hardwired cile multiple partners’ incongruent goals, The X-Internet Will Create a connections, firms will leave these hassles to driving improved asset utilization and cost New Supporting Infrastructure e-business brokers like Grand Central reductions across entire value chains. To reap these benefits – maintenance based Networks that offer Net-resident, subscrip- The X-Internet’s capabilities will reshape on real data, product-design feedback loops, tion-based data translation and transforma- the way firms work with suppliers and and proactive customer service – firms will tion services built on open standards like customers. Here is an example. Today, HVAC need new technologies. These technologies XML and SOAP. Partner integration services suppliers like Carrier maintain their prod- extend – not replace – existing ERP and SCM also consist of semantic translation services. ucts on set schedules. But when unforeseen systems. The X-Internet will spawn new Even XML isn’t enough to support complex factors cause its products to fail, Carrier Net-resident services to turn these inward- B2B interactions like negotiation and media- must rush orders to suppliers to replace any facing apps outward, making them fit for tion, which require greater levels of concep- affected part in its defective product. Fast- dynamic collaboration. Over the next six tual knowledge (like terms, constraints, and forward to 2005. Sensors embedded in all years, a new structure will emerge, with three relations).