Language gap
XML's huge potential has been stymied by delays over standards. As a result, resellers are still searching for a way to sell it.
In science fiction movies the difficulty of people speaking different languages is usually solved by some high-tech device that, when spoken into, instantly translates the words into the language of choice. Even beings from other planets suddenly seem to be able to speak as if they have lived all their life somewhere in North America.
Sadly, such a device isn't with us yet. But when it comes to computer data the closest thing we have is probably eXtensible Markup Language (XML). In a nutshell, XML is a language that allows computers to share data. Every time a buyer looks at the Amazon web site, for example, they are gathering information by grazing through screens of data. They can do this better if their machine can grab that data and manipulate it or analyse it as they see fit. With XML such machine-to-machine activity becomes possible. Amazon has already made this data available.
There seems little doubt that XML is slowly gaining ground as a tool in business. For resellers and distributors the impact is two-fold: internally on intranets and externally as a value add to customers. But when it comes to customers, the big question for resellers is: "Is it a money earner?"
Rod Rodericks, managing director of mobile printing vendor Zebra UK, thinks so. "XML is quickly becoming the standard for business-to-business and application-to-application transactions, and is gaining use in EDI (electronic data interchange), ERP, and manufacturing systems," he says.
"These applications are driving the need for a simple, efficient interface to on-demand printers. By adopting XML-enabled printers into their business process applications, companies can reduce costs for middleware, licensing, print server hardware, administration and programming. XML is fast becoming the standard for enterprise software."
And in telecoms services, the impact is beginning to be felt in the voice over IP arena.
Sarah Morgan, head of platforms at Mitel, says: "Resellers can develop applications for the 3300 ICP PBX using our XML toolkit. This means they can add value by creating products that are tailored to specific customers. For example, they can develop XML applications for the contact centre environment, where there is a demand for personalised GUIs (graphical user interfaces) for end-users.
"One of our resellers developed an XML application that enables end-users to manage groups of contact-centre agents more easily and change standard on-screen forms quickly."
But the impact of XML is perhaps most visible in web services. The likes of Microsoft, IBM and Sun in this area means that application developers can easily publish XML-based APIs over the internet and use them in Java or .Net clients.
Mark Quirk, head of technical development platforms at Microsoft, says it is important that the channel understands web services. "It's about how to use the internet or an internal service to communicate better. I am surprised how quickly XML has spread. It's not a big topic now because it is almost normal. Organisations are just doing it. Take House of Fraser, for example; it recently shifted from EDI to web services using XML," he says.
Meanwhile, the likes of Bell Microproducts are keen for XML awareness to grow. The firm allows vendors and customers to link into its ERP system and is eager to migrate all of them to XML. Those connecting get a link into ordering, order management and licence management.
"It's really key to us. It allows us to save money and be more efficient," says Alex Tatham, vice-president of global software at Bell. So far six vendors and two customers are taking advantage of the service. "It is very important that resellers realise this will allow them compete more strongly with direct vendors because it removes two or three tiers in the sales process, making them more efficient. Microsoft is amazed at how fast we can now turn around orders and process licences," Tatham adds.
Other distributors are also on the XML bandwagon. Ingram Micro launched a similar service in September last year, and Computer 2000 claims a one-hour turnaround with its service.
But as far as boosting sales is concerned, Neil Macehiter, research director at Ovum, is more cautious. "The key question for the channel is how to make money out of XML. Can you make money out of web services? We saw this problem already with Microsoft's Hailstorm project, and then with Passport, where there was huge concern about passing around individual data. On the other hand, it works for Amazon's affiliate services, but Amazon doesn't charge for it. It's about making it easier to monetise it. My advice to resellers is to find the touchpoints that help reduce cost and inefficiency, while delivering better customer service."
But as so often happens in this industry, while the marketing staff might be preaching revolution, it's not taken off quite like that.
"It's a quiet revolution," says Eduardo Loigorri, managing director of accounting and business solutions firm Exchequer Software. The turning point has been the government's adoption of eBIS-XML as its standard for e-procurement, also known as eGovXML. "Already several of the larger local authorities, including Bristol City Council, the Department for Education and Skills, and Customs and Excise are using XML for e-procurement," Loigorri adds.
This is just one of many initiatives that should make it easier for resellers to take a role in shifting firms to XML-based activities. Another is the recent United Nations report on non-financial reporting. It states that there is a massive increase in such information in relation to reporting social and environmental impact. There is an increasing use of the XML variant XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) which the UN believes is an evolving global standard for tagging data about a firm so that it can be processed automatically.
In November Microsoft announced it is working with several partners to build XBRL solutions based on Microsoft Office. The partner solutions cover a range of functionality from creating to consuming XBRL financial data. Microsoft reports its own financial information in XBRL and provides XML support in Excel.
Also in November 2004 OASIS ratified version 1.0 of Universal Business Language (UBL), defining a common XML library of business documents for online transactions. This is a royalty-free technology to provide a common set of business-to-business document standards. According to OASIS, UBL 1.0 offers a cheaper alternative to the expense of EDI systems. UBL provides a library of documents such as purchase orders. NEC, Oracle, SeeBeyond and Sun have contributed to the development of UBL 1.0.
But despite pockets of enthusiasm, it is not difficult to find resellers who are seeing little or no XML activity. "We are not seeing much of it in the channel," says Ian Kilpatrick, managing director of distributor Wick Hill Group. "It's something of a slow-burner for us."
There is of course more talk about XML services between resellers and distributors: "I see a fair bit in terms of the links between resellers and disties," says Nigel Lomas, commercial director at reseller Trams. "We have linked through to Ingram for years like this, but it's now becoming a matter of how we link to larger customers as well. The bigger firms have in-house systems and are asking suppliers to link into them to provide a product catalogue. The problem is, it takes time and requires expertise that not everyone has."
But perhaps no adoption of international standards would be complete without a battle behind the scenes. This became noticeably apparent at the end of last year when the European Commission (EC) became arbiter in a spat between Microsoft and the Redmond giant's deadly rivals, IBM and Sun. Essentially, the latter had objected to Microsoft's XML implementations in WordML. But in a statement, the EC recently said the three vendors had "responded positively" and that Microsoft had agreed to publish and provide access to future versions of WordML Document specifications. Microsoft also stated it would document the existing non-XML formatted elements of WordML.
Another storm creeping up on the XML bandwagon is that of performance. Critics say transactions are slowed by a bloated XML standard, and a slimmed-down version is needed. The main problem is that XML standards call for information to be stored as text, and in doing so it creates large files, partly because each element within a document needs to be tagged.
In an attempt to do something about this, various groups are working on a slimmer XML. Leading the pack is Sun, which has started the Fast Infoset Project. In addition, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has formed the Binary Characterisation Group to look into the idea of putting XML into binary format. But such efforts are already leading some to fear that XML will splinter into variants.
For resellers, the areas of greatest potential seem to be government and financial services. With the Office of Government Commerce increasingly stressing the use of XML for selling into the public sector there is a growing need for public-sector bodies to reassess their ordering systems.
Meanwhile, research by analyst IDC last year concluded that western European banks are 'cautiously' moving towards web services to manage horizontal and vertical applications. IDC suggested that brokers and securities firms are the most likely to be seeking new applications.
As far as web services are concerned, the watchword appears to be convergence: the coming together of skillsets, technologies, standards and reference case studies. In its most recent Worldwide Web Services report, IDC concluded that the industry is entering a critical phase of acceptance and support for higher levels of web services standards and technologies. "Users and vendors alike must acknowledge and support an environment that allows for a phase change rather than a big bang," says Sandra Rogers, web services software and integration director at IDC.
It is a view echoed by Simon Evans, senior project consultant at system integrator Conchango. "Although it's not something customers specifically ask for, XML is important," he says. "It's an accepted standard across different systems, and it is usable across the internet, so it will remain the standard for such communication for the foreseeable future."
Lannon Rowan, principal security consultant at Trend Network Services, believes the channel must seize the opportunity now. "The channel is at a crossroads. You can embrace XML and be in on the early adoption cycle, or risk missing out," Rowan says. "The secret is to get their name out there as a user of XML and then to leverage that to become a provider of XML services. Web services are coming at a time when firms must be leaner, and a channel player can become the trusted adviser by putting together a solution and providing licences."
TALKING XML
First the science bit. XML, otherwise known as eXtensible Markup Language, is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation for creating special-purpose markup languages. It is a subset of Standard Generalised Markup Language (SGML). The key function of XML is to allow simple sharing of structured text and information across the internet.
So far so good. But the going gets a little tougher when you bear in mind that there are a number of standards based on XML, including RDF, RSS, MathML, XSIL and SVG.
On top of all that, SGML itself is a descendent of IBM's Generalised Markup Language (GML) developed in the 1960s.
SGML was originally designed to enable the sharing of machine-readable documents in government and the aerospace industry: documents that have a very long shelf life. But the complexity of SGML prevented widespread use.
While HTML is an SGML format, XML is what is known as a 'profile', which is a subset of SGML that is easier to use. As such, XML has been used for a large number of standards, notably XHTML, RSS, XML-RPC and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
As of February 2004, the current version of XML is 1.1. Currently there are discussions on an XML 2.0.
According to Wikipedia, electronic business using XML, known as ebXML, is a family of XML-based-standards sponsored by OASIS and UN/CEFACT. These organisations are committed to creating an infrastructure that supports global business. But ebXML is not a standard - it is a container for key 'specification' standards such as messaging services and the register. The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has approved four specifications as the ISO 15000 standard. The OASIS technical committee is responsible for maintaining and advancing these specifications.
XML web services are the building blocks in the move to distributed computing over the internet. Applications are constructed using multiple XML web services from various sources that work together regardless of where they reside or how they were implemented. XML web services expose useful functionality to web users through a standard web protocol, usually SOAP. XML web services provide a way to describe their interfaces in enough detail to allow a user to build a client application to talk to them. This description is usually provided in an XML document called a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) document. XML web services are registered so that potential users can find them easily. This is done with Universal Discovery Description and Integration (UDDI).
SOAP Version 1.2 provides the definition of the XML-based information which can be used for exchanging structured and typed information between peers in a decentralised, distributed environment.
CONTACTS
Computer 2000 (0870) 060 7998
www.computer2000.co.uk
IBM (0870) 610 2502
www.ibm.com
Microsoft (0870) 601 0100
www.microsoft.co.uk
Sun (0800) 731 0658
www.sun.co.uk
Trams (020) 7544 1200
www.trams.co.uk
Wick Hill Group (01483) 227 600
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