B2B Interoperability using Business-Driven Integration: Conceptual Framework and Case Study

The interoperability among companies and the business-to-business (B2B) message exchange are key aspects of the growth of businesses: in the next years the companies that are able to cooperate with each other will be winners. The use of B2B messages modifies a company’s method of operation and, of course, its internal business process. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to solve the two types of problems that arise in the B2B field: one is more methodological, aimed at choosing guidelines oriented to the integration of business processes and the definition of business messages; the other is more technological, aimed at choosing an infrastructural solution more suitable for the development of message exchanges. The paper also defines a case study in order to show the feasibility of the conceptual framework. Using a specific case study, the paper will show the methodological and technological choices and how ontologies are the glue for different standards and notations involved in business-driven integration problems. Using BPMN notation, we design in this paper a business process that involves different business messages. The paper also presents a REST implementation of the business message exchange.