What are the business applications of XML?
Because XML brings sophisticated data coding to Web sites, it helps companies integrate their information flows. By creating a single set of XML tags for all corporate data, information can be shared seamlessly among Web sites, databases, and other back-end systems. But the revolutionary power of XML lies in supporting transactions between businesses. When a company sells a good or service to another company, a great deal of information needs to be exchanged—about prices, terms, specifications, delivery schedules, and so on. HTML’s one-size-fits-all nature makes such exchanges difficult, if not impossible, over the Internet. With XML, all the necessary information can be shared electronically, allowing complex deals to be closed without any human intervention. That’s why business-to-business Web markets, such as those run by Ariba and Commerce One, already rely on XML to automatically match buyers and sellers. In the not-too-distant future, your company may be judged by the content of
