>Viv -
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>Thanks for the reply. I agree that in most cases the customer will want to stick to any pre-existing standard for this type of system-to-system communication. Luckily we seem to be catching them early in their journey down this road so I am hoping for some flexibility. The customer is huge; my client not so much, but wants to make them happy. I need to try to help drive a solution that the customer likes, but that is feasible (costwise) to my client.
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>I can't give any more specifics in terms of what the buyer expects right now, as that meeting hasn't yet occurred. Hopefully I will have a better idea next week. Have you used any type of file-based hand-offs similar to what's been discussed in this thread thus far? Semi-low tech, but would seem to perhaps be an option. Would love to hear others you might have as well.

Hi,
As Gary suggested I'd be inclined to look at any existing industry standards - although you're now seeing this as a one-to-one operation it would make sense to use something that is already used by other potential customers of your client (or, just being nice, other potential suppliers to this buyer)

There's usually two parts to this : (a) an agreed protocol for the transmission of documents between parties and (b) an agreed format for the various documents which will need to be handled. If you don't find an existing standard then:

If security is an issue AS2 is a good choice for (a). I've used components from nsoftware (http://www.nsoftware.com/ipworks/) - but they actually have a free version for use with a single trading partner. It handles stuff like encryption and validated acknowledgements in a pretty straightforward way....

Also I'd base (b) on XML. And one lesson I learnt the hard way - seperate the process into distinct layers. One for document transmission, one for translation (other possible buyer documents will probably need morphing which makes XML a good choice) and a final layer for processing into the existing system.

HTH,
Viv