But while these standards promise to facilitate the exchange of data, e-businesses still need a way to find each other. UDDI, announced in September, will allow e-businesses to share information through a common registry, much like DNS servers allow browsers to find Web sites. That could mean automating an e-business's exposure to customers and partners, says Brad Veselick, CEO of brokerage firm Couch Braunsdorf Insurance. As it stands, consumers can use insurance company Web sites to get quotes or find agents. Afterward, however, a policy still needs to be set up over the telephone or by regular mail.
Someone still has to pick up the phone to complete a transaction.
UDDI would allow us to remove some of the human interaction. That's because the brokerage could exchange quote information with its clients, such as Chubb, Hartford and Travelers, he adds. A B2B Registry UDDI was initially proposed by IBM, Microsoft and Ariba, which were later joined by Hewlett-Packard. It's unclear when the registry will go live. Without UDDI, unless a company uses the same applications and Web services as its trading partners, it must make large technology investments to transact business using the Internet.