Title: Using Lixto for automating portal-based B2B processes in the automotive industry

Authors: Robert Baumgartner, Marcus Herzog

Addresses: Institut fur Informationssysteme, Technische Universitat Wien, Favoritenstrasse 9–11, A-1040 Vienna, Austria; Lixto Software GmbH, Donau-City-Strasse 1/Gate 1, 1220 Vienna, Austria Lixto Software GmbH, Donau-City-Strasse 1/Gate 1, 1220 Vienna, Austria ' Institut fur Informationssysteme, Technische Universitat Wien, Favoritenstrasse 9–11, A-1040 Vienna, Austria; Lixto Software GmbH, Donau-City-Strasse 1/Gate 1, 1220 Vienna, Austria

Abstract: In this paper, we propose an alternative method for facilitation of B2B process integration: front-side integration, which allows us to exploit existing web-based application infrastructure for business process integration across company borders. In this approach, so-called wrapper programs perform intelligent HTML to XML conversion in order to utilise the HTML output of web-based applications. Moreover, interaction with web-based user interfaces is automated to perform the appropriate actions on remote applications. Lixto technology converts web applications of collaborative (and even non-collaborative) business partners into programmatically accessible information sources, similar to web services, however without requiring any changes on the partner|s IT infrastructure. We will give a concrete example of how to set up such a business process integration application in the automotive industry domain.

Keywords: B2B process integration; content aggregation; semi-structured data extraction; automobile industry; automotive portal; business process integration; internet; web-based applications; interoperability; Germany.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2004.005884

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2004 Vol.2 No.5, pp.519 - 530

Published online: 23 Dec 2004 *

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