Towards a Negotiation Protocol for ebXML

Abstract

In the last decades many research efforts have been devoted to improve electronic business among partner enterprises. The well succeeded results of these efforts led to the widespread use of tools like eCO-Framework (Macro-Economic Framework), EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) and SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). More recently, the ebXML standard has been developed to expand the B2B (Business to Business) practice, assuring security at a low cost and enabling the commerce among small and medium businesses. However, ebXML provides only physical connection among the parts, lacking support for a business protocol capable of helping a negotiation. A well succeeded negotiation requires a dialog, involving customers and suppliers, product specification, requests, offers, requirements, all in a cycle of successive refinement of expectations. This paper aims at contributing to bridge this gap by means of a conceptual model for negotiation based on the client satisfaction cycle of Flores. Additionally, we demonstrate the electronic commerce route among the enterprises, describe some patterns that led to the arising of ebXML and that are part of its current core, specify the ebXML and propose some trends for the B2B commerce.