I agree with the article's main thesis that EDI and XML
will co-exist.
I don't agree with the following statement:
"Open EDI standards--ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT--provide
the basis for unambiguous B2B data exchanges."
Anyone who has actually implemented X12 or EDIFACT knows
that these EDI standards are far from unambiguous. On
the other hand, I doubt that there are any unambiguous XML
schemas for B2B data exchanges.
The article states:
"XML makes possible a Web-based EDI alternative for
small and midsize organizations that don't have the
resources to implement earlier, less flexible EDI
systems."
I also think that, in general, XML software is less
expensive than EDI software. The reasons for this
include the following:
- There are many high-quality, open source XML tools,
including parsers, editors, translators, etc.
- You don't need a schema to parse an XML document.
It's not possible to parse an EDI document, unless
you have the EDI standards tables. Thus, you can't
parse an X12 document, unless you purchase the
X12 standards tables (or purchase an EDI translator
that includes the X12 standards tables).
- XML software products are likely to be less expensive
than EDI software products, since the XML market will
be much larger than the EDI market.
Best regards,
Bob
<sig name = 'Bob Lyons'
title = 'E-Commerce Consultant'
company = 'Unidex, Inc.'
phone = '+1-732-975-9877'
email = '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
url = 'http://www.unidex.com/'
product = 'XML Convert: transforms flat files to XML and vice versa' />
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