 | Randy Johnston
has been involved in computing for over 25 years. In addition to being a top-rated and entertaining speaker presenting technology seminars worldwide for K2 Enterprises (www.k2e.com), he is also Executive Vice-President and Co-owner of Network Management Group, Inc., a full-service computer networking and service company. Randy recently published Technology Best Practices for Wiley Publishing. You may contact Randy by e-mail at randyj@nmgi.com, or by phone at (620) 664-6000. |
Computers & Software
2002-01-01 13:32:00
XML... how it works
Answer: XML is the new language to transfer data on the web. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a standards-based approach to sharing data content on web pages. The standards or rules that are developed allow applications that follow these standards to transfer data from one application to another. Some sources claim that by the year 2004, there will be as many as 500 variants of the XML standard customized for specific industries. As a user of XML technology, however, you do not have to worry about the mechanics behind XML, as long as you know that your application supports XML.For example, a variant of XML for the accounting industry is XBRL. This standard defines the exchange of data for cash flows, income statements and balance sheets between financial systems and analysis tools like Excel spreadsheets. Excel supports XML today, and can read XBRL data. Accounting software from vendors like ACCPAC, Best Software, Navision and Microsoft/Great Plains have all supported XBRL for over a year. The standards organization driving XBRL has a web site at http://www.xbrl.org/.Other industry specific XML definitions include HR-XML which is currently supported by a consortium of 110 organizations. This standard was approved this year, and allows for the interchange of Human Resources information between systems without rekeying the data. Your expectation should be that data processed by an outsource payroll company like ADP, Ceridian, Paychex, or any other payroll service can be exchanged between your in-house system and the outsource provider with security and no re-entry of the data. Eventually, you can expect job placement and temporary agencies to send you potential employee information in HR-XML format.Also this year, key financial players like Fidelity Investments, American Express, the stock exchanges, and other financial advisors agreed to create an exchange standard for securities related data. Fidelity has a working model of this type of XML today.All companies can use XML, and most industries will have a specialized type of XML that will make doing business easier between companies because of the well-defined data interchange mechanism specific to that industry. This will reduce the need for older standards like EDI, and will make supply chains, exchanges and portals far more effective, and easier to implement or join.This really brings us to your second question. Yes, you can create a portal on your web site using XML and have data from your accounting system or from someone else's accounting system or web site feed information into your web site. Part of the definition of XML data relates to the security of the data. You must agree with your potential partner on what data needs to be exchanged, and how to protect the security of the data. This process today is not simple, but should be understood by people in your Information Technology department. Third party tools like those from eBridge (http://www.edi-bridge.com/) may be required, or your accounting software may do this integration for you.
