Another trouble spot is a hesitation about XML among some businesses, which suspect it's little more than a reincarnation of the EDI concept. Still, Laghaeian predicts XML will eventually provide an integration model far superior to EDI, one that's driven by real-time business events rather than arbitrary batch transmissions. Others say XML's complexity is deja vu all over again. Haystack Toys Co., a small toymaker in St. Louis, uses Microsoft BizTalk Server to process purchase orders, inventory data, and shipment information from its online sales channels. Various business sectors are working to create industry-specific ways of mapping business data to XML to eliminate some of the difficulty.
Many companies are hesitant to adopt XML until that occurs.
But the efforts will take years, and the work of standards groups such as RosettaNet is nowhere near completion. This is the outside world. To assume coordination will happen quickly and easily isn't a given anymore. So far, the company is using the application with eight suppliers and customers and has used it to integrate its two online marketplaces, OneChem and Envera. But Eastman has yet to use the webMethods software to send shipment or payment notices, invoices, change orders, cancellations, sales forecasts, or inventory information.