Industry / Academic Partnerships for XML E-Business Forum für den Finanzdienstleistungsbereich Institute of Information Systems J. W. Goethe-University Tim Weitzel J. W. Goethe University Institute of Information Systems Mertonstraße 17, D Frankfurt am Main Tel.: Fax:

Content Management and E-Banking  Optimierung verkaufsnaher Prozesse (3 Produktionsfaktoren)  Intern (PPS)  Zwischenbetrieblich (EDI) [OAG-Bild]  „4. Produktionsfaktor“ (verkaufsnahe Prozesse nur als Ergebnis der Wissensprozesse/Differenzierung) [The success of the WWW, Wissen in der Wettschöpfungskette von Unternehmen]  Suchen (Intranet)  Finden (DMS/KMS/CMS)  (Infrastruktur, X.500?) (lokal, dann zwischenbetr.  Security enables E- Knowledge?)  Neue Technologien  OO, Protokoll (Web), Syntax (XML)  ubiquitous clients  Research: HyperBRAIN-Protocols (RDF...)  Neue Rolle der Konsortien (ebXML and banking???)  Muss her, eigenes System muss Power haben, sich an zukünftigen Branchenstandard anzupassen  Security: Darf nicht im Wege stehen oder lästige Pflicht sein sondern auf allen Ebenen unterstützen (no obscurity)  Semantic Web: Maschinenverständliche Daten im Web...auch für Anwendungen, die völlig unabhängig voneinander entwickelt worden sind.  Wissensbrowser, kompilierbares Wissen (Gulliver?)

Why – lessons from our EDI partnersWhat we can do Industry/Academic Partnerships for XML Industry benefits and cooperation designs

Why – lessons from our EDI partners Industry/Academic Partnerships for XML What we can doIndustry Benefits and cooperation designs

Lessons from our EDI partners EDI lesson: Integration could be nice, if all played...  75% of Fortune 1,000 vs. <2% of Non-Fortune 1,000  < 5% of all who could benefit actually use it  large companies focus on benefits, SMEs on cost  underestimation of benefits  „excess inertia“

Lessons from our EDI partners Now there is XML...  clients everywhere  XML is cool: Continuously on hype curve, still cool  XML is simple  there is general interest (but what about 18 months ago?) But...  increasing fears  complexity  balkanization balkanization  to become locked into proprietary solutions (MS suspicion)  too few people know about potential benefits  too few skilled people  too little time to play

What do our partners need?  they need interoperable XML vocabularies (we told them 1997)  they need skilled people (we breed 250 p.a.)  they need technology scouts and state of the art innovations (we are high tech geeks who want to play)  they need to get to know potential (esp. local) partners (we organize workshops, symposia etc.)  they need vendor-neutral assessment partners

What does that mean for ebXML?  ebXML is cool, and it solves „real problems“... but success requires design AND diffusion  neutral, credible institutions like universities can be excellent communication pipelines  public awareness for standardization initiatives and associated individual benefits  esp. SMEs do not know (and dare) much about XML, let alone ebXML  particular industries are lagging (banks...)  skill people  cross-domain applications require some interdisciplinarity  and don‘t forget vendor-neutrality (government as well)

Why – lessons from our EDI partnersIndustry Benefits and cooperation designsWhat we can do

What we do Institute of Information Systems: XML Competence Center (xml-network.de) founded in1997 to  create awareness for the standardization process  find partners to play  offer regular courses for students and industry partners  take the discussion to those (unknowingly) involved  develop cool XML solutions (XML/EDI, e-market, CMS, MAS/agent ontologies...)  Management Workshop on XML  We reached  SMEs (PBS), large companies (esp. Frankfurt/Rhine-Main area: bank, aviation, logistics), public authorities (EU), and students  In workshops, courses, publications (scientific, technical, „public“)

Competence Network Electronic Commerce CNEC Symposium on XML vocabularies, March 2001  CNEC established 1997 (  funded by DG Bank (German Top 5 bank)  brings together experts from various industries and academics  bi-annual symposia (7 so far)  1162 participants (high level executives)  43 speakers from five countries

Why – lessons from our EDI partnersIndustry benefits and cooperation designsWhat we can do

Fringe benefits Benefits for DG Bank from „network“  Marketing/network engineering e.g. via symposia  Knowledge Transfer  internal workshops on XML, standardization, EAI etc.  further projects (e.g. due diligences)  Projects with university people/skills (e.g. trading platform migration)  Innovative branding, press  Recruitment potential  Externalizing R&D (e.g. diploma theses, PhD partnerships)

Financial designs cooperations  Working together on particular topics (3-5 years)  University: –1 PhD student as project head –involvment of 8 or more students per year (diploma theses etc.) –university network –integrating project content in courses (skill breeding) –external communication (Workshops, Symposia, media) –technological state-of-the-art gateway  Company –costs about $ for 1 PhD student plus overhead –marketing budget, sometimes „strategic alliances“ or... –avg. headhunting costs $ –at least 5 out of 8 students can be hired: cooperation paid for by HR budget –research, strategic and marketing benefits for free

Concluding encouragement  universities can be a neutral communication pipeline  use it  think about strategic partnerships (R&D...) with tactical elements (HR...)  play with us  new technologies  new concepts  new questions  there are others you might want to get to know or involve  be aware of the fringe benefits:  HR development potential/skilling (internal, recruitment)  continuous knowledge transfer... Help us let everyone know about ebXML  Help us let everyone know about ebXML

Tim Weitzel, J. W. Goethe-University, Institute of Information Systems, Mertonstraße 17, D Frankfurt am Main, Tel.:

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