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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.