The Payload Format
Each business application stores data in its own proprietary format
Data can be packaged into different formats.
Some formats are standardized so they can be used in applications written by different software vendors.
Other formats are proprietary, only to be used by applications from a single vendor. Each business application stores data in its own proprietary format.
Step 3 is the process of converting the data from the proprietary format of the source application into an industry standard format.
There are many different standards, but EDI and XML are the two most popular for B2B integration. Industry standards provide a common language that enables all business partners within a particular sector to communicate easily.
Have you ever emailed a digital photo to a friend or family member? If so, chances are they were able to view the photograph on their computer without any problem. Reason being, the formats used for digital photographs—GIF, JPEG and TIFF (just to name a few)—are highly standardized.
Standardized Formats
Have you ever created a file on a Mac and tried to transfer it to a PC? Were you able to open the file? And was it properly formatted? This has become less of a challenge recently as desktop software vendors have moved towards standardized formats. Ten years ago, it was a big problem. And it is still a big problem in the world of business interactions.
To solve these interoperability problems, the technology industry created B2B standards.
- 1970sEDI
EDI, created in the 1970s, was the first widely used standard for B2B.
- Late 1990sXML
XML, introduced in the late 1990s, is another alternative that is steadily gaining adoption.
The idea behind the standards is that all companies in a particular industry can share information electronically using a common language.
- 01Oracle ERP → XML
Data from an Oracle ERP system can be extracted in its native format then converted to XML.
- 02XML → Business partners
The XML message can then be transmitted to a community of business partners that each understand XML.
- 03XML → Microsoft Dynamics
Each individual company can convert the XML into the format of its business application—perhaps Microsoft Dynamics.
The Terms EDI and XML
Although we have been using the terms EDI and XML in the singular form above, there are actually a great number of different standards based upon these two technologies. Originally, different EDI standards were used in each country (US, Germany, France, UK, Japan), but over the years the industry has converged on two primary formats—ANSI X.12 (popular in North America) and EDIFACT (popular in Asia and Europe).The XML standards introduced later were designed for global use, but often within a particular industry. There is RosettaNet for the high tech sector, CIDX for chemicals, SPEC2000 for aerospace, GUSI for consumer products and so on.
- ANSI X.12North America
- EDIFACTAsia and Europe
- RosettaNetHigh tech
- CIDXChemicals
- SPEC2000Aerospace
- GUSIConsumer products
How will you know which standard to choose?
Actually, you are not in a position to choose. Your customers and/or business partners will tell you which standard they prefer. You must convert (map) your system’s data format to an industry standard format (EDI, XML, etc.) that you choose. Every data (message) you send to or receive from your customers and/or business partners is formatted according to this standard.
One benefit of this is that you can tell us which standard you prefer. Thus, we perform the necessary conversion for you.
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