Business to Business Integration

BizTalk Server 2009 enables you to integrate trading partners into your existing business processes. A trading partner can be an external company or even a department within your own organization. BizTalk Server includes a number of capabilities to simplify the integration of your business processes with your trading partners and the management of trading partner relationships:

Native support for EDI and AS2 protocols. BizTalk Server provides data exchange options including a native engine that provides integrated support for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) data (including both X12 and EDIFACT, and HIPAA support) and Applicability Statement 2 (AS2) data for EDI over the Internet.
Trading Partner Management. BizTalk Server provides a common storage database to store and manage all trading partner information. This information is maintained using the BizTalk Server Administration console, through the TPM Web Services (TPMgmtWS, TPMPubWS).
BizTalk Server accelerators. Accelerators are used to integrate BizTalk Server with a broad spectrum of business scenarios and industries. Accelerators include specific BizTalk Server components, samples, and guides that help to reduce the time, effort, and costs associated with developing an industry-specific solution.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Applicability Statement 2 (AS2)

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is still one of the most prevalent means by which businesses exchange data electronically. Representing approximately 75 percent of all business-to-business electronic transactions. EDI usage entails message syntax and standards (including ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT), messaging protocols, and transports. To facilitate EDI over the Internet (EDIINT) as an alternative to EDI over value-added networks (VANs). , BizTalk Server 2009 supports AS2 (Applicability Statement 2). The use of the internet for data exchange via point-to-point connections, instead of using VANs via intermediate connections, reduces costs, increases flexibility and efficiency, and has advantages in terms of redundancy and scalability. AS2 is a specification that enables transport of business data over the Internet in a confidential, safe, and reliable manner. BizTalk Server 2009 uses AS2-defined methods to send, receive, encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify messages between partners using HTTP over the Internet. BizTalk Server helps ensure the security of messages through the use of encryption keys, digital signatures, certificates, and non-repudiation.

EDI Processing

The EDI capabilities have been completely rewritten in BizTalk Server 2009. The BizTalk Server Administration console has a new EDI section for managing trading partner configuration and reporting and auditing of EDI message activity. The EDI parser/serializer uses the existing BizTalk pipeline architecture and supports both EDI and AS2 transactions.

Both inbound de-batching and outbound batching is supported. Batches can include different transaction sets and would be processed properly as long as the corresponding schemas are deployed. Batches can be initiated based on a schedule, based on number of messages received, or based on some kind of external trigger (for example, contents of a message).

BizTalk EDI and AS2 receive processing capabilities include:

Parses the EDI interchange, processing batched transaction if configured
Performs HIPAA document splitting
Validates the message
Generates the acknowledgment or acknowledgments
Receives EDIINT/AS2 encoded messages over an HTTP/HTTPS transport.
Re-assembles the interchange if the batch is to be preserved

BizTalk EDI and AS2 send processing capabilities include:

Serializes the EDI interchange, batching transaction sets if configured
Validates the message to be sent
Sends EDIINT/AS2 encoded messages over an HTTP/HTTPS transport.
Processes a received acknowledgment or acknowledgments to the message

Other functionality

Provides the capability to set processing properties for parties engaging in EDI document exchange and AS2 document transport
Provides a comprehensive status of EDI document exchange transactions through a list of EDI interchanges and their correlated acknowledgments
Provides the capability to validate schemas, validate instances, and generate instances at design time

EDI Parties

A party is an entity outside of BizTalk Server that interacts with a BizTalk process. For example, each trading partner that you need to integrate with can be configured as a separate party with its own unique communication parameters. You must set properties for how BizTalk Server will receive an EDI message from, and send an EDI message to, the party. On its end, the party must do the same, and to exchange messages, the configurations must be compatible. Party properties determine the following specific processing:

EDI envelope processing and generation
ACK processing and generation
Validation of incoming and outgoing EDI messages
Batch creation
Status reporting

You define a party in the BizTalk Server Administration console. You must define the following sets of properties for a party for EDI communications:

Party properties that define general aspects of the party, such as name and aliases, send ports, and the signing certificate.
EDI properties that define how BizTalk Server will process an incoming message from the party and how it will generate an outgoing message bound to the party.
AS2 properties that define how BizTalk Server will perform AS2 communications, both incoming and outgoing. These properties affect EDI communications only when an EDI message is sent over AS2.

Any time BizTalk Server receives an EDI message, it attempts to determine the party that sent the message. It attempts to resolve the party by making a match between the message and the party using the sender qualifier, sender identifier, receiver qualifier, and receiver identifier. Any time BizTalk Server generates an EDI message to send, it attempts to determine the party that it is going to send the message to. It attempts to resolve the party by making a match between the message and the party using the context property DestinationPartyName, or the sender qualifiers and identifiers, and receiver qualifiers and identifiers, or the send port name.

Trading Partner Management

Maintaining the information required to manage trading partner relationships can be unwieldy when many organizations are involved or when the parties change frequently. BizTalk Server includes several services and tools to simplify the integration of your business processes with your trading partners and the management of trading partner relationships.

Some examples of trading partner integration scenarios:

Modifying the business process criteria. Consider three separate shipping companies that ship orders depending on the order destination and the total order amount. You can integrate these three shippers into an orchestration by using role links, and configure the orchestration to dynamically select the correct shipper configuration based on the order criteria. To change the criteria when a particular business process should use a specific shipper or add a fourth shipper, you can use the BizTalk Trading Partner Management (TPM) functionality without modifying the existing business process.
Adding new partners. Consider a cosmetics company with hundreds of trading partners that supply necessary ingredients for its products. To add a new supplier, an information worker can easily input the required information and specify the agreements and rules for interacting with the supplier. You can make such changes in a central location instead of the hard coding the rules into the business processes.
Processing student loans. Consider a company that processes student loans for thousands of universities that use its services. Each university is different and has different rules for interacting with the student loan processing company. In this situation, you can use TPM to configure and maintain trading partners.

BizTalk Server Accelerators

Accelerators are used to support a broad spectrum of business scenarios and industries, from high tech to healthcare. Accelerators for BizTalk Server add additional functionality and vastly reduce the time, effort, and costs associated with solution development, deployment, and management. BizTalk Server accelerators include a powerful combination of product enhancements, simple-to-use tools, documentation, and samples that are developed in concert to ensure they work well together. This translates into rapid deployments, a lower overall cost of ownership, and improved efficiency.

Microsoft offers these BizTalk Server accelerators:

Accelerator	Description
BizTalk Accelerator for HL7	Provides a comprehensive HL7 messaging solution that enables sharing of patient information within and between healthcare systems and organizations. For more information, got to: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=140030.
BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT	Extends the capabilities of BizTalk Server for the financial services industry by delivering cost-effective, reliable, and secure SWIFT messaging capabilities, including message schemas and network connectivity. It will provide financial institutions and corporate treasury departments with a single extensible infrastructure for integration, both within the organization and also for integration with counterparties and external service providers. For more information, go to: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=79657.
BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet	Helps you implement RosettaNet for your business. RosettaNet is a consortium of major companies working to create an industry-wide approach to process standards for open electronic business. These standards form a common business language that helps to align the processes of supply chain partners on a global basis. Implement a BizTalk Server environment customized to RosettaNet standards with this accelerator. For more information, go to: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=140031.

Note: Support for the HIPAA protocol is provided with the EDI capabilities.

For more information on BizTalk Business-to-Business Integration please refer to the BizTalk Interactive Capabilities Reader or the BizTalk Product Documentation on MSDN.

For Business-to-Business Solutions using BizTalk please refer to the BizTalk B2B page.

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