Industry execs discuss EDI's place in an XML world

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- EDI lives and .Net cannot be ignored, said industry executives and audience members at a panel session here Monday.

Officials from companies such as Oracle, SAP, and Siebel were asked by audience members to explain the advantages of XML-based integration technologies compared to EDI-based integration. They also were criticized for being heavily focused on Java. The executives were participating in a panel discussion on J2EE, XML, Web services, and enterprise application infrastructure at The Yankee Group Integration Technologies Forum, "Leveraging Web Services & Integration Technologies for Maximum Business Value."

One attendee questioned why standards development would be better or different in XML or the traditional EDI world.

"We're going to have to have XML standards for business transactions themselves, things likes ordering a rail car," the audience member said. "It's an issue of business semantics, not technology."

Panelist Jeanne Baker, director of product strategy at Sterling Commerce, said EDI remained valid. Upon the introduction of XML, criticism of EDI as a "dead man walking" was "probably a little premature," Baker said.

"It's not that XML is superior to EDI, but what we should do is take advantage of the fact that everybody is interesting in playing this game," as far as supporting XML, she said.

XML differs from EDI in that when EDI was developed, users wrote their own ERP systems, said panelist Andrew Dent, CTO at Hubspan. "Now, the battle lines are really drawn at the protocol stack layer, not at the business layer," Dent said.  The EDI X12 format offers a semantic format that should not be ignored, he said.

MohamadAfshar, principal product manager for Oracle 9iAS server technologies at Oracle, said that to fuel the adoption of XML technology Oracle is trying to drive technological standards so that business standards have a common base.

Siebel's BharathKadaba, vice president of the universal application network, stressed that standards development has accelerated dramatically with XML and Web services when compared to the five-year development period that it took for standards to emerge in the 1980s.

"Certainly, the XML and SOAP standards have evolved very quickly," Kadaba said.

Another attendee asked where Microsoft's .Net development platform fit into the equation, given the board's emphasis on Java-based technologies.

SinisaSimek, director of technology architecture and standards at SAP, said Java simply has a jump on .Net, being around for seven years as opposed to three for .Net. But he expects .Net to draw more attention in the next three years. Clients are demanding both, he said. Siebel's Kadaba concurred that IT shops will be using both technologies.

Panelist Bernard Gracy, vice president and general manager for professional services at Pitney Bowes, said his company was supporting both, and took a jab at SAP.