Some fairly technical writing here, but it shows again that DELL is leading the industry in initiatives and service.
Fez
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XML Applications Stand Up To EDI
(04/16/99, 11:28 a.m. ET)
By Ellis Booker , InternetWeek
XML is starting to prove itself as a practical alternative to EDI for e-business trading.
E-commerce pioneer Dell this week revealed it will use an application based on XML as the interface between its customers' ERP or procurement systems and its own online order-management systems.
Separately this week, RosettaNet, a consortium creating XML-based supply chain processes for the $700 billion IT industry, said it had completed a successful test of its first Partner Interface Process (PIP), an XML derivative that defines various electronic interactions between trading partners.
The approaches are different, so companies trading with both Dell and a RosettaNet partner might be forced to define products, parts, or processes in multiple ways. But unlike more rigid e-commerce technologies such as EDI -- under which a company would have to codify every item and match them precisely with each trading partner before exchanging any data -- XML is an extensible language under which a recipient can change tags and map them to other tagging methods, even on the fly.
XML could even be used as a wrapper to EDI, allowing companies to retain their investments.
Dell's procurement system, due this summer, will rely heavily on Microsoft products, particularly its XML-based BizTalk schema and server products coming out in the second half of the year.
"We already have efficient [order processing] now," said Michael Dunn, Dell's chief technology officer. "But XML will give us a common interface for letting customers and data sources interact."
Analysts said Round Rock, Texas-based Dell will lure customers with cost savings.
Kevin Dick, an independent technology analyst, said he estimated some users spend several million dollars per year processing purchases from a single preferred vendor such as Dell, and XML could help cut costs by as much as 50 percent. Also, once a customer establishes an XML infrastructure to communicate with Dell, it could use the same data structures with other trading partners, Dick said.
An XML application designed for content management and personalization already works in the background on 17 different sites that serve Dell customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Managing different languages, currencies, and tariffs was becoming a huge task and an impediment to growth, said Gordon Ballantyne, director of Dell's overseas Internet operations.
"We see advantages of stripping the data layer from the presentation layer, and leveraging the underlying data for different types of customers," Ballantyne said.
Before moving to XML, Dell duplicated HTML pages for each country-specific site.
The new configuration uses a Microsoft Internet Information Server, backed by Object Design's eXcelon XML data server and Microsoft's SQL Server database software.
For its part, RosettaNet is producing XML schema that define activities and data exchanges between traders of IT products.
The RosettaNet PIP test, conducted between IBM and Microsoft, showed how manufacturers can update product specifications and part numbers in online catalogs belonging to their trading partners, distributors, resellers, and even large users.
"We are defining every possible dialog between partners in a supply chain," said Fadi Chehade, RosettaNet's CEO.
RosettaNet intends to produce more than 100 PIPs before disbanding next June.
Interestingly, Dell is not a member of RosettaNet, which counts American Express, Cisco, CompUSA, Compaq, EDS, Federal Express, Intel, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and Netscape as members.
But Chehade is confident Dell will come around. "Dell deals with [RosettaNet member] Intel, and Intel said last month it will use our PIPs to do all trading with its customers," he said.
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