Georges
At 20:36 22/06/01, Brigham, Georges wrote:
>If a hundred people send you XML documents, what do they use as standards,
>both format and labels? Or do you have fun matching one on one? Doesn't
>sound very practical to me.
To the best of my knowledge, "one message per trading partner" is a myth
and will remain so. I have never believed it to be a practical problem and,
so far I feel vindicated by experience. In earnest, I don't understand why,
after 3 years of industry experience with XML, it's still around.
Think in terms of community. You and your trading partners form a
community. It is likely that some community members want to take an active
role but the majority is happy to follow suit. That's the setup I have
encountered in just about every projects: most users want packaged
solutions and they have neither the interest nor the willingness to develop
their own digital messages.
The worst-case scenario then becomes: every pro-active member cooks up its
own standard and enlists a dozen supporters. That's suboptimal but still
far more manageable than one message per partner. But even that scenario is
unlikely. What I have always observed is that pro-active members work
together and develop 1 or 2 digital messages (per business process) that
are used and supported across the community.
Notice I did not mentioned EDI or XML in the above discussion because it is
largely irrelevant. Although EDI messages are standards, there are
variations there too (X12 vs EDIFACT, different directories, different
guidelines, etc.).
A corollary but important observation is that companies active in more than
one community have to support several messages. Again this is not an XML vs
EDI problem. There are some interesting observations on the dynamics of XML
users vs EDI users but I digress.
One last comment: I vividly recall a project for a logistic company. They
were interfacing with so many different communities that they had to
support close to a hundred different messages. That was in 1996 unless
memory fails but I'm sure it was before XML. X.12, EDIFACT, Gencod,
Tradacom, Odette, "Cobol records", you name it; they had it with as many
different directories and implementation guidelines as possible.
The concept of communities (understanding whom you're doing business with
and what you are trying to achieve) was as relevant then than it is now.
--ben
New! XML and the Enterprise at www.marchal.com
"With answers to these basic but pertinent questions, managers may
make educated decisions regarding the adoption of XML at their
respective companies." -- PDFZone
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