According to news report, Malaysia's cyber dream finally take shape despite skepticism. http://www.asiagateway.com/c/n/shownews?url=http://www.worldroom.com/pages/wrnkl/coverstory.phtml&&title=Malaysia+Cyber+Dream+Takes+Shape&&ID=149392&&Rate=0.00&&Hit=4 For any IT savvy Malaysians, this is a pure state propaganda. "The Next Big Thing" that has taken place in US now is the effort to develop XML/EDI for e-commerce. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) has been around since the 1960s, but is used mostly by large corporations and their satellite suppliers working over a private network called a Value Added Network) to automate the transfer of information between corporation departments, as well as between companies. But the cost of operation over VAN has limited the affordability of EDI to large corporations. Broadband services are not cheap, US with it's huge geographical areas can not affort to build the same sort of IT infrastructures as envisaged in MSC. This is a serious obstacle for US in it's pursuit of IT development. In order to overcome it, a new technology called XML technology finally emerged. The arrival of Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology on the Internet has opened new vistas for data exchange. By leveraging Internet as a data transport mechanism and by combining the flexibility of XML-based data definitions with the business language and practices of EDI, a cost effective, secure, reliable and interoperable data interchange solution can be built.This ability to exchange data electronically means that traditional ERP and Legacy applications can now be integrated to the web without occurring exorbitant cost. This will give EDI a new lease of life. A lot intiatives to promote and develop XML/EDI have been going on with religous zeal, even the United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) is involved but MSC is virtually ignorant about this development. Like all other dot com companies, Malaysian MSC status companies have taken a piecemeal approach in providing e-commerce solution, giving rise to a slew of business issues when they arenˇ¦t integrated with other systems. There, is often no link, for example, between the applications and the companyˇ¦s inventory or production systems. A standalone Internet e-commerce application does not check product availability, it cannot prompt just in time production or delivery and it cannot update stock records. And, importantly, these front-end applications, unlike a complete procurement solution, do not contribute directly to managementˇ¦s overall view of the business. Pricing issues create another immediate problem for companies entering the e-commerce world. The handling of foreign currencies, the rationalization of prices and product features across international boundaries, differing tax and customs law are all questions that need to be answered. Again, these complicated issues cannot be handled by a simple front-end Web-based application. Lack of integration equates to inefficiency, inflexibility and poor customer service. And e-business without integration drives up costs and reduces customer satisfaction. The failures of dot-com companied to grasp this underlying principle, have witnessed the frenzy drive of creating islands of applications that take and process orders without integrating to the backend ERP applications or legacy systems. Which ultimately will lead to their demise. The sad fact about Malaysian IT companies is that they are equally ignorant about the XML/EDI development taking place in US. Is there any effort to develop XML/EDI im Malaysia? Yes, but only confined to a single individual and no one else. Why the world is so crazy about this " Next Big Thing"? According to news report, the ability to automatically exchange business information with trading partners will becoming, the primary means of conducting business. It has been estimated that 90% of the Fortune 1000 companies use EDI as part of their business operations. In the past, these benefits often did not transfer to the vendors for these trading partners, who were required to be able to receive and generate EDI documents. By leveraging Internet as a data transport mechanism, a cost effective, secure, reliable and interoperable data interchange between peers of companies can easily be build, smaller companies can now recognize the same benefits with a rapid return of investment. At present only 6 percent of the estimated 10 million U.S. companies are EDI capable. EDI/XML integration growth is expected to experience phenomenal growth in term of billion of dollars by 2001. Mahathir's vintage project will remain a dream and only exist in virtual reality. Malaysians should stop indulge in self deception and wake up to face the reality. It is the killer applications not the white elephant infrastructures that will ensure the sucess deployment of IT projects _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. 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