Standardizing the New E-Business Platform: Lessons from the EDI Experience

Kai Reimers

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2000)

It is sometimes assumed that the Internet provides a sufficient basis for conducting business electronically. Early forms of electronic commerce, which essentially consisted of a web page on which products were described and orders could be placed, may have reinforced such a belief. However, even in the online retailing area it is now clear that conducting electronic business requires a sophisticated infrastructure for information discovery (prices, suppliers, quality, credibility) and settlement (payment, delivery). Regarding the business relationships between companies, these requirements are even more demanding since electronic forms of business are meant to automate large parts of the involved business processes. To enable the automation of business processes across company borders, a "common language" is required which allows information systems to automatically handle deliveries and purchases. The experiences made with earlier forms of electronic business (Electronic Data Interchange/EDI) allow us to understand these requirements in great detail. Now, a new platform for conducting electronic business between companies is emerging (based on the XML standard) which promises to significantly lower the costs of automating company-spanning business processes. In order to realize this potential, the basic XML platform needs to be extended to cover all functions addressed by EDI systems. How should this task be accomplished? Specifically, which types of organizations should be involved with which parts of the whole standardization process? This paper will address these question by drawing on the experiences made with earlier EDI systems.