RIP for EDI?

By Shawn P McCarthy -- Logistics Management, 2/1/1999

Will electronic data interchange (EDI) be laid to rest within the next decade? Admittedly, any report of EDI's death is premature. It's the backbone of traditional electronic commerce, capable of handling everything from insurance transactions to shipping manifests.

But the problem with EDI is that it resides in the back room, where computers conduct the day's business in detailed "transaction sets" that include the date, time, prices, part numbers, amount ordered, and a lot more. In most cases, if one piece of information changes, the whole transaction set must be transmitted again.

The exchange of electronic data would be more flexible if such sets could be broken apart, allowing a finer level of "granularity" in business data. Imagine being able to update any piece of information in a transaction at any time, with both partners approving the change.

The key to making this happen is the use of online business forms that are based on extensible markup language (XML). When information is entered, it can carry with it XML descriptions for using and storing the data, including feeding stock numbers or price changes to databases that in turn feed other resources, including Web pages. It's a living, constantly evolving solution that moves away from batch EDI models.

Another advantage of this technology is that any Web browser can read such forms. They become your desktop application, sending direct requests, changes, purchases, and so forth to a business partner.

Several recent developments seem to indicate that EDI may be on its way out. For example, the biggest providers of traditional EDI services, such as General Electric Information Services, are deeply involved in XML development, including projects that would make XML and EDI work together so XML can feed information into traditional systems.

Meanwhile, companies like Trade'ex Electronic Commerce Systems Inc. are working on transport protocols that actually create an encrypted channel, allowing secure data to be sent back and forth at will. It's a cheaper solution than leased lines.

Some EDI software makers, moreover, are enhancing their database capabilities to support XML, which makes it easier to define how information is channeled into the enterprise and associated Web sites.

The bottom line is that EDI won't go away anytime soon because companies have invested in it so heavily. But if XML gains the flexibility to either map to old EDI systems or strike out on its own with new solutions and designs, it has the potential to change the future of online commerce.

If XML does, in fact, evolve into the new electronic-commerce standard, the world will have to follow, and traditional EDI's days will indeed be numbered.

Tip of the Month

"MetaCrawlers" are tools that send your search term or topic to multiple Web-search engines. But the results can be overwhelming because of the sheer volume of responses. My new favorite metatool is Bullseye Pro from Intelliseek, available at www.intelliseek.com. Bullseye not only queries the search engines for you, it throws out duplicates and sorts the results by concept. For researchers, it's a fantastic time saver.

Pointers

* The Washington Publishing Co. offers downloadable versions of its extensive EDI implementation guides for railroads, ocean carriers, the metals industry, and more. Visit www.wpc-edi.com/.

* The CommerceNet site at www.commercenet.com/ continues to be one of the best sources for data interchange tools and ideas.

* Visit the Trade'ex site at http://www.tradeex.com/.

* EC stalwart Sterling Commerce Inc. offers some XML solutions. Visit http://www.sterlingcommerce.com/.