Does ebXML Simplify EDI?
“There’s no XML in complexity” is the fallacious cry we often hear from eager XML adopters embarking upon the re-engineering of their domain in XML. One user is certainly suspicious of these claims about the electronic business technologies ebXML and EDI. Is it really a fallacy? I for one was convinced by ebXML advocates at XML conferences who lauded the increased equality of opportunity that ebXML afforded. Peter Hunsberger indicates that there’s little advantage for existing EDI users with the XML-ification of EDI. Not too surprising. But he also points out that ebXML’s lower cost of implementation is a key factor: Bottom line, for me, was that if you already had a (good) EDI exchange mechanism in place there was little benefit to XML. To clarify my parenthetic qualification; it depended a lot on your tools, many were hard to adopt to new business areas. However, the lower cost of entry for XML-based technologies allows it to displace EDI technologies from the bottom up and horizonta