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Developing XML Requirements that are Extensible
 Michael   Maziarka
  Director
  CAP Ventures, Inc.  600 Cordwainer Drive
Norwell   Massachusetts  USA  02109
Phone: +1-781-871-9000 x213
Fax: +1-781-871-3861
Email: maz@capv.com Web: www.capv.com
 
Biographical notice:
 
Michael Maziarka is the Director of the Dynamic Content Software Strategies service at CAP Ventures, providing research and consulting services on document and content management software technology. Prior to joining CAPV, Michael held corporate and product marketing positions at Xyvision and Datalogics.
 
During his tenure at CAPV, Xyvision, and Datalogics, Mr. Maziarka was active in industry initiatives. Michael held the Chair position on the Board of Directors for OASIS (formerly SGML Open); was active in the development of the CALS electronic publishing standards; and participated in J2008 and ANSI committee work.
 
Michael holds an MBA from DePaul University and a B.S. degree in computer engineering from Iowa State University.
 
ABSTRACT:
 
XML is being used and planned for a variety of applications including publishing, Web content management, E-commerce, and software integration. Highlighting the applications that are using XML as their foundation (uncovered by primary research conducted by CAP Ventures) this presentation will address how to develop requirements for XML-based systems that are extensible beyond your project. Knowing which applications are likely candidates for future XML-deployment will help you identify what additional requirements might be necessary to insure future integration success. The presentation will help the attendee identify how their information and systems might interact with other technologies in their organization.
 

Introduction
 
The Web continues to change the paradigms for how we create and publish documents, collaborate within our organizations, interact with our customers and suppliers, and -- most importantly ‐‐ how we conduct commerce. When discussing E-commerce, there is a tendency to think of business to consumer commerce such as Amazon.com, Beyond.com, etc. However, the business to business commerce opportunities are tremendous. Those opportunities will even go beyond traditional physical products that are sold today. In this information age, the Web will enable us to begin buying and selling information by providing the mechanism to do so. What was once impractical or too difficult to accomplish, information commerce will soon become a standard business practice.
 
XML will play a key role in all of these activities, mostly because it enables data and transactional processing integration. XML is not simply an HTML replacement, used to markup and render documents. XML is about data interchange, access, and processing. For electronic commerce to be conducted successfully and profitably our Web commerce systems will need to be tied into many corporate systems, including content or document management, EDI, ERP, inventory systems, etc. Electronic commerce will change how we conduct business; it will influence how we develop and integrate our corporate systems; and it will drive the use of XML.
 
In a recent CAP Ventures analysis report, Frank Gilbane commented "Even if your product or project has no obvious connection to e-commerce, e.g., it is a purely internal intranet application in research or HR, you need to understand how developments and expectations of e-commerce solutions will heavily influence new products and technologies. Don't underestimate the importance of XML in e-commerce solutions and don't associate XML only with one application that you may or may not think is necessary."
 

Electronic Commerce
 
Electronic commerce is often associated with companies that have extremely high market valuations today. However, e-commerce sites have already started in the business to business sector; and many more organizations are primed to do so. As reported in a January 1999 Information Week article, the National Association of Manufacturers' latest poll of 1,025 plant managers "found that 42% of transactions between manufacturers' product design departments and customers and 33% of transactions between product design and suppliers have been automated." Certainly some of this automation is pre-web EDI, but there is no doubt about the direction. The motivation goes way beyond more efficient transactions, as was the case with EDI, but access to a broader market, i.e., revenue growth. This is especially appealing to smaller companies who can't afford a large direct sales force.
 
But, what's holding many organizations back is the ability to produce electronic catalogs, and to integrate their information sources and systems into one cohesive application. Electronic commerce is more than a transaction. To sell products or information over the Web, it is crucial to have your site serve the content that informs the purchaser of what is available and at what price; enact the commerce transaction; and then deliver or queue the delivery of the product. Ideally, that same application also is tied in with your inventory system that can guarantee product availability; refer the consumer to related products or services; and record statistical information about the purchase. Over time, information about who purchased what products and when the purchases took place will be used to sell advertising. It is not farfetched to anticipate advertising space being sold for business to business sites, where the sale of related products and services could be conducted.
 
Here is where XML comes into the picture. As Frank Gilbane indicated in his article, "there is no doubt that XML, while no magic bullet, makes complex content management systems for e-commerce applications a significantly more practical endeavor. XML removes a lot of the information integration roadblocks."
 

Dynamic Content
 
Ultimately, electronic catalogs and e-commerce applications require the delivery of dynamic content ‐‐ as opposed to strictly documents. At CAP Ventures, we define dynamic content as the convergence of structured data and unstructured data (documents) combined with the types of transaction processing associated with each. Now the three-part bottom line: all information systems now need to be able to manage dynamic content; XML is arguably the most important enabler of dynamic content; and e-commerce applications will drive other IT systems to deal with dynamic content.
 
As a result, it is no surprise to see the range and breadth of new XML products and technologies being introduced into the market on a weekly basis. Naturally, content management, authoring, and publishing tools from the traditional SGML market space were the first to announce product intentions and availability. Since that time, XML support has also been announced by the database suppliers such as Poet Software (although, arguably, Poet introduced their support a year earlier in the SGML market), Object Design, Oracle, and Ardent. But this support is not strictly for data storage. As with the case of Object Design and other new entrants into this space, products have been announced to assist in integrating XML applications. Even back office applications, such as ERP system provider SAP have announced XML support. And front office applications in the sales force automation and CRM arenas, such as Clarify, have also thrown their hats in the ring.
 

What Does this Mean for You?
 
With the level of effort being supplied by software suppliers to add XML support, or develop new XML products, the next wave of integrated Web applications is coming soon. And, the market is gearing up to move forward with XML system deployments. But, where does one start?
 
To determine where XML adoption is happening the fastest ‐‐ in which industries, which application spaces (e-commerce, EDI, content management, enterprise system integration, etc.), and which XML standards and vocabularies are being used ‐‐ CAP Ventures embarked on a marketing research project. The project included interviewing 250 end-user organizations ‐‐ of all sizes. Interviewees were asked questions about on-going or planned projects and XML's role in those projects. At the time of the writing of this paper, the results were not yet analyzed. However, a fast review of the responses indicates that adoption is happening across all industries and that XML is being used for a number of IT projects. Actual results will be highlighted during the presentation at XML Europe.
 
It is no surprise that XML is being used for a variety of projects, and to satisfy a number of needs today. If you are embarking on a project that will use XML for data creation, storage, or interchange ‐‐ or if you aren't considering XML as a component of your system, it is important to do the following as you go forward with your project.
  1.  Explore which departments or organizations in your corporation are planning to use XML.
  2.  Understand corporate objectives for using the Web to conduct commerce.
  3.  Determine what information that you create or manage might interact be used by other systems or applications ‐‐ and what information from other systems would be useful to your goals.
  4.  Spend time analyzing what meta-data could be useful for selecting information, and interacting with other corporate systems.
  5.  Develop a model that is extensible, so that as new applications and requirements develop overtime, you will be able to meet new demands.
 

Conclusions
 
It is not stepping out on a limb to predict that electronic commerce will take us beyond the selling of traditional physical products to include services and information. As that happens, you will need to be prepared to interchange and process information with other corporate systems, including transaction applications, back office, front office, and content repositories. You may also need to interchange information with suppliers and customers.
 
Electronic commerce will drive the way Web applications are developed. For electronic commerce to be successful, it will need to bring together disparate systems in a manner not common today.
 
The use of XML, as the enabler for electronic commerce solutions, will become pervasive for Web applications. It is not too early to determine how you will use XML to solve your business problem, and how your organization will use the Web to interact with customers and suppliers and to conduct commerce.
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