The electronic marketplace demands a strategy that transcends the unachievable and undesirable notion of standards while making real-time interoperability possible, regardless of the data s complexity. Nor can so serious an obstacle be overcome by piecemeal approaches. An interesting solution is now emerging. MCI, which had its own origins in an ability to think outside the box, now uses what it describes as a data transaction converter or an interface management engine. Enabling a company s existing data-processing networks to read otherwise incompatible electronic records is becoming the prerequisite for bringing full commercial potential to the electronic marketplace.
Businesses are then able to retain, protect, and leverage their immense back office investments.
They become more independent from their IT vendors, more flexible and responsive, and more in line with the real-time, worldwide interconnectivity that is supposed to be the promise of the early 21st century. Derek Leebaert teaches the economics of innovation at Georgetown University. He also advises corporations on technology management and on adopting new information products and services to leverage computerized infrastructures. I became involved in a project with MCI and Linguateq, Inc. to explore a new solution to the data interoperability problem. MCI decided to confront this chaos by deploying a general purpose interface technology that supports information conversion and uses a scalable architecture to support reuse.