[October 03, 2001] Logistics.com has developed a collection of LEMA standards [Logistics Event Management Architecture] which enable its customers as "shippers and carriers to buy, sell, manage and optimize transportation services over land, air and ocean. Logistics.com's LEMA standards are available to its customers and any other company wishing to reap the benefits of an open and standard business platform. The company is now seeking to expand LEMA participation through the endorsement of the standards bodies."
tXML description [company web site 2001-10-02]:
Transportation XML (tXML) defines the system interfaces to the application components, which comprise the OptiManage, OptiBid and OptiYield product solutions. These interfaces and data flows are the details that define the larger business processes between shippers and carriers that include management, procurement and optimization of transportation services. In short, tXML provides the transactional and base data support for Logistics.com's technology.
tXML is a customer driven and adopted standard language that allows multiple business process components to publish and subscribe to various logistics events. Unlike other XML standards developed in committees, we worked with a select number of customers defining the business processes associated with the tXML message set. This assured quick maturity of the standard and assured its adoption by our customers.
The tXML interfaces can be categorized into three areas: transactional, new business process and base data.
Transactional tXML most closely mimics today's business processes provided for in current transportation technology. Shipments, orders, payments and tracking messages make up the list of transactional messages. Being a superset of the existing EDI documents, the tXML is fully backwards compatible with their EDI counterparts. However, transactional tXML provides additional context during processing and content flexibility.
Given the inherent flexibility and real-time nature of the LEMA architecture, opportunities for new business processes arise. Examples of these new tXML messages are documents exchanged between shippers and carriers to match capacity. Most of these are related to the OptiBid procurement process and are some of the more innovative business processes Logistics.com has pioneered. These include the bid/offer/response messages used for the spot market (individual shipments) as well as the complex responses carriers use to the OptiBid Network requests.
Base data tXML interfaces provide an easy mechanism for shippers and carriers to update their working data. Maintaining a common vocabulary allows conversations between business partners to flow easily. Examples of these include lists of facilities, equipment, service levels and relationship rules.
From the announcement 2001-10-01: "Logistics.com Inc., a leader in transportation procurement and management technology building the industry's first standards-based logistics network, has introduced Logistics Event Management Architecture (LEMA), with the goal of leading the logistics industry into its next quantum improvement. Logistics.com developed LEMA as an open, standards-based and user-driven architecture to empower a more seamless flow of information among supply chain and logistics community members as well as adjacent industry participants such as providers of information technology and services. LEMA has three primary benefits, which are intra- and inter-enterprise application integration, free flow of information and the reduction of cycle time in processing logistics events such as simultaneous offer and acceptance of shipment moves. LEMA simplifies the integration of legacy systems and protocols with Internet-enabled systems and protocols and transforms internally-focused supply chain events into truly collaborative events between trading partners, such as vendors and customers. Through the adoption of LEMA, multiple organizations can process the same logistics event through independent work flows and customize their own specific view of that event's activity. LEMA addresses five critical logistics industry-specific business issues that represent the context in which logistics events execute: (1) Business Objects such as distances, locations and facilities, trucks and ocean and air containers; (2) Relationship Rules and time components that make up the process of contract management; (3) Business Rules, or rules that define the business processes associated with execution of events; (4) Event Monitoring and exception management capabilities such as rejected load scenarios; (5) Integration of various business processes, which is addressed by tXML. Logistics.com developed tXML in conjunction with customers to enable standard application integration among all members of a logistics chain as well as intra-enterprise requirements between legacy and new systems. Logistics chain members include shippers, carriers, consignees, suppliers, third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and other vendors. The backbone of LEMA is its message bus, which seamlessly integrates with over 70 distinct external business protocols such as EDI, HTTP, SOAP, XML/RPC and XML over the web. This standardization dramatically reduces the cost and risk of intra- and inter-enterprise application integration and enables the free flow of information versus custom integration. One immediate benefit of LEMA adoption is the elimination of high initial set-up fees and on-going interface maintenance fees associated with each interface between enterprises or applications. The following Logistics.com web-native transportation procurement and management applications were developed natively to the LEMA and tXML standards: (1) OptiManage Capacity Finder: fully automated, web-native product for rapid capacity acquisition; (2) OptiManage Core: web-native, inter-enterprise transportation management solutions; (3) OptiBid Lane: web-native e-procurement tool for transportation; (4) OptiYield Profit Analyzer: web-native interactive tool to improve carrier profitability."
References:
[October 02, 2001] Announcement 2001-10-01: "Logistics.com Introduces Logistics Event Management Architecture to Foster Business Process and Integration Standards in Logistics Industry. Key Components Include TransportationXML (tXML) for Application Integration and Message Bus for Standardized Collaboration. Dozens of Leading Companies Already Involved."
[October 03, 2001] "New Logistics Standard Launched." By Heather Harreld. In InfoWorld (October 3, 2001). "In an effort to eliminate one of the major barriers now plaguing the electronic logistics arena, Logistics.com has developed a logistics standard designed to allow multiple industry players and software programs to communicate more effectively. The Burlington, Mass.-based company, which markets software to help shippers and carriers buy, sell, manage, and optimize logistics, launched a logistics event management architecture this week designed to foster business process and integration standards in the logistics industry, according to company officials. The new system features tXML (TransportationXML) to enable standard application integration among all members of a logistics chain as well as intra-enterprise requirements between legacy and new systems. The backbone of the architecture, which is called Logistics Event Management Architecture (LEMA), is its message bus designed to integrate with more than 70 external business protocols such as EDI (electronic data interchange), HTTP, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and XML over the web. Logistics.com already has established the LEMA set of standards with many of its customers, said John Lanigan, Logistics.com CEO. The company now is seeking to expand LEMA participation through the endorsement of standards body, he added... LEMA will provide application integration, free flow of information, and the reduction of cycle time in processing logistics events, such as simultaneous offer and acceptance of shipment moves, according to company officials. It is designed to allow multiple organizations to process the same logistics event through independent workflows and customize their own specific view of that event's activity."
