David,
My money says that the XML and HTML being sent to the 27,000 web site is to
Dell's CUSTOMERS. I know that Dell is a huge user of the X12 and most likely
UN/EDIFACT standards when it does business with its SUPPLIERS. My money here
says that Dell requires its suppliers to do it the Dell way. Not unlike the
Walmart, Sears, J.C. Penney, Ford Motor Co., GM, P&G, etc. do with their
suppliers.
Bob Haugen is correct when he says that it's supply chains competing against
supply chains. Those that compete and are world class get extremely tightly
coupled with their processes and information systems, shared databases, etc.
Ultimately, perhaps XML will be the key glue between these tightly coupled
organizations across a supply chain. However, as Steve so accurately pointed
out, all of those suppliers doing business with the big guys are most likely
doing business with other big guys, plus some smaller guys as well. Thus,
they are confronted with the issue of multiple versions, variations, etc. on
a theme and this will be true regardless of what syntax (X12, EDIFACT, XML
or the next new kid on the block) is used to structure the data.
As I've said for many years and many times on this list and others, the real
challenge is not in what rules you use to structure the data, it is in
semantically aligning the data with ones business partners. There is no easy
way to doing this yet. It takes knowledgeable people who understand the
business process, the process information requirements, the systems
processing requirements, the business rules being enforced by the systems,
and the rules being used to structure the data. It's not a walk in the park
and won't be for the foreseeable future.
Therefore, we ought not to over-promise on what XML or any other technology
is going to do. All of them have their complexity, cost to implement and
cost to support and maintain. One is most likely not cheaper than the other,
but hopefully the newer ones enable a company to be more flexible and agile
and extremely responsive to the changing marketplace, if not proactive and
leading the marketplace, This is the bread of commercial life! Ain't it fun!
Rachel
|
|
|
|Message text written by Steve Bollinger
|>They also
|>enforce a lot of uniformity of process at least in
|>their tier 1 suppliers, as do auto companies.
|<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
|
|Hmmm, I see - so this is why Dell is currently send XML and HTML
|to 27,000 Web sites in as many different formats as the day is long.
|
|Sounds really uniform to me - NOT!
|
|I think you need to revise your model somewhat.
|
|If you got customers - they will come to you.
|
|DW.
|
|
|
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