"Peter Olivola" wrote:
> Why do you think this (XML) will be more successful than X12/EDIFACT at
achieving
> true standardization?
I don't believe that XML will bring a true standard Purchase Order or
Invoice or any other document type. I cannot foresee anything standardizing
the content of documents for all market types (electronics, health,
transportation, etc.) for all tax environments in every country. It just
ain't gonna happen!!
However, I believe XML has the ability to get to a wider audience. I saw a
demo from XMLSolutions (hope they forgive me for using their name) where
they had an Access database reading a remote web-site's XML document using a
very small VB script and populating the database. Reasonably impressive on
its own but add to that the ability to pass that into a small PC based
accounting package and you have B2B (admittedly manually initiated but with
no retyping) for a very small business that anyone with a little Access
knowledge and a manual could achieve. Even in its current state, the number
of tools available for XML already far outstretch that of traditional EDI.
Add to that the ability to include things like multi-lingual environments to
an XML document without altering the structure and meaning of the
information (much like your multi-channels on a DVD) and you have fantastic
potential.
We just need some guidelines, templates, standards, whatever you want to
call them that everyone follows to make the whole process flow smoothly.
Andy (self-proclaimed visionary ;^)
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