GXS makes use of web services standards across our portfolio of software and services, and will make more aggressive use of this set of standards as they are adopted by our customers and key standards mature.

Web services are a perfect solution to many supply chain communication challenges, because they provide a means to exchange information that is easy to begin using, without requiring all parties to agree on a vendor, or even a particular technology stack (Java versus .NET versus scripting languages or LAMP). The GXS approach to web services is to develop SOAP-based capabilities that provide access to our software and services, while providing core web services capabilities through partnerships with industry leaders like webMethods and Systinet, and leveraging major open source work like that of the Apache Group.

GXS currently tends to focus its usage of web services on the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and WSDL (Web Services Description Language) standards. Our current interfaces complement one or more additional protocols used for bulk data transfer (often AS2 or FTP). Current development work involves the use of WS-Security for the GXS Trading Grid Business Services APIs, as well as SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language).

Key products in the GXS software portfolio support access via SOAP, among them GXS Application Integrator (translator software), GXS Enterprise Gateway, and GXS Product Information Manager. SOAP interfaces generally offer both administrative and operational capabilities.

In addition to offering SOAP interfaces to its own capabilities, the GXS Enterprise Gateway may be used to develop and expose SOAP interfaces to your own applications. Any “service” (a package of business logic) within GXS Enterprise Gateway may be "exposed” as a web service—meaning it can be called using SOAP. GXS Enterprise Gateway is able to offer a SOAP interface to any system it is connected to.

Our most aggressive usage of web services to date, GXS Trading Grid Business Services APIs is a carefully engineered interface to the GXS Trading Grid, currently enabling GXS technology and global alliance partners to perform trading partner configuration and operational support. In addition to supporting partners that want to integrate their software to GXS Trading Grid, the GXS Trading Grid Business Services APIs also power desktop widgets capable of displaying near real-time information from the GXS Trading Grid.