EDI XML
EDI XML is the sending of Electronic Data Interchange
messages (EDI) in an Extensible Markup Language (XML)
format. Though EDI XML was frequently spoken of between
1998 and 2002, the reality of EDI XML has as yet not
been realized. In some Scandinavian countries, EDI
XML has taken precedence over traditional EDI messaging,
but in effect what has happened is that there has been
a verbatim translation of the traditional EDI
standards to XML.
In the late 1990s the expectation was that EDI
XML would simplify business-to-business ecommerce
by making EDI more accessible to non-EDI experts. The
major reason was that in contrast to traditional EDI,
EDI XML is based on the more accessible XML format.
The practical difference between EDI XML and traditional
EDI formats was essentially this and that there was
an expectation that EDI integration would become a
simple procedure since it would take place via XML.
In reality, EDI XML has not made a significant difference
regarding the ease of business-to-business ecommerce.
This area of B2B ecommerce is still relegated to EDI
XML experts who understand the business processes of
trading partners, the EDI XML message formats and the
development of trading partner requirements.
One of the problems that EDI XML has in comparison
with traditional EDI is ballooning file sizes. And EDI
XML file can be up to a thousand times larger than an
EDI file, and this increases the burden of EDI XML on
organizations’ networks, storage systems and processing
units. EDI XML that has been implemented to date has
little or no practical advantage over traditional EDI. EDI
XML does, however, have the above detractions and
this is probably what has prevented a large rollout of
EDI XML in the marketplace.
It remains to be seen how EDI XML is adopted in the market.
There are standards for EDI XML like Rosetta Net that have
been successful in particular industries. In addition,
the standard bodies that manage EDI, like the UN and ANSI,
are working on creating EDI XML standards. For these bodies,
EDI XML has required significant effort, but part of this
is due to the prevalence of academic personnel that see
the theoretical value of EDI XML, in contrast to the practitioners
that have little or no practical benefit. The future of
EDI XML is uncertain, though there may be a movement towards
it as broadband, processing and storage capacity increases
to enable EDI XML to become more prevalent.
EDI XML is a feature that many software companies have
begun to tout. As a small business, you are probably
wondering about EDI XML, trying to determine if
EDI XML is a standard that you should be concerned with. Will
EDI XML replace traditional EDI? The short answer is
no - EDI XML is not nearly as prevalent as is standard
EDI. Especially for the small business, EDI XML is a
standard that can be ignored at the present time. The
original promise of EDI XML was that EDI XML would make
the EDI process easier for both large and small organizations.
Unfortunately, EDI XML has not yet demonstated any advantages
over traditional EDI. For this reason, many of
the large retailers have now abandoned any EDI XML projects
and have continued to use traditional, proven EDI. EDI
XML is not dead, however, and EDI XML will most likely
find resurgence as integration becomes more prevalent
in the future. Nevertheless, for the small business,
EDI XML now seems to be simply a technology that tends
to complicate the picture.
Are there advantages to EDI XML ? Since XML is a frequently
used standard for data integration, EDI XML does hold
some promise for the future. At the same time,
EDI XML suffers from the same drawbacks that has made
EDI so difficult in the past. As hundreds of retailers
have adopted EDI, they have created minor individual “implementations” of
the broad EDI standard – meaning that each trading
partner is now using an EDI format that is “slightly” different
than the others. This will also be true with EDI
XML, negating many of the EDI XML advantages related
to simplicity and standardization. Will EDI XML
ever take hold and receive the same broad acceptance
as EDI? No one can say, but EDI XML must first prove
that it can provide significant cost savings and benefits
to the large retailers that mandate EDI. Until
EDI XML can be proven to provide these savings, EDI XML
will remain an interesting and underused technology.
EDI XML is fully supported in EMANIO’s Trading Partner® software. However,
because we have had so little demand for EDI XML, EDI XML
is a feature that is only available on request. If a trading
partner asks for support for EDI XML, your first response
should be to reject the use of EDI XML in favor of more
traditional EDI. |