B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

186 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
formats and mapping guidelines, delimiter instruction, communication
protocols and security protocols.
6.7. Conclusion
XML has become the lingua franca of the B2B e-business revolution. It
has created a mechanism to publish, share and exchange data using
open standards over the Internet. There is no doubt that in the future
XML will be used in each and every B2B application.
XML is not an integration solution in itself—it is just a data
definition language. Companies will have to install application integration
servers that comply with all the leading XML standards and perform
the traditional operations, such as routing, messaging, transformation
and connectivity with databases and applications.
In making a transition from EDI to XML-based communication,
companies should try to leverage their existing hardware and software
investments using an XML/EDI server. The XML/EDI server should
enable companies to communicate with virtually any type of business or
trading partner. This communication should be fast, secured and maintain
data integrity. In all likelihood, they should be able to get an additional
tool from their current EDI vendor that supports XML/EDI translation
for all different dialects of EDI and XML.