Page 28 - GAO-02-327 Electronic Government: Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language

Chapter 1: Background: Features and Current
Federal Use of XML

number of their business systems. However, smaller federal agencies
generally have not made the same commitment to EDI. Lacking the
necessary skills and resources, many small and midsize companies also
have not adopted EDI. Accordingly, EDI-enabled organizations have been
unable to conduct automated electronic business with those organizations
that have not developed the same capability. As a result, EDI has not
attained universal use as a data exchange standard.

4
According to reports from Giga Information Group and the Logistics
5
Management Institute, XML is not a replacement, but a complementary
technology for EDI. Although both EDI and XML can be used to
accomplish the same basic task—facilitating the transfer of business data
from one system to another—each technology has advantages and
disadvantages. Depending on business needs, the two can be used
together, particularly if companies have already invested in EDI
methodologies. The convergence of EDI and XML can provide a
potentially lower cost alternative for small and midsize companies to
conduct business with federal agencies that already have traditional EDI
systems in place.

One advantage of EDI is that a full suite of standards is already in place to
support business transactions. For example, figure 5 depicts the typical
flow of electronic documents between a buyer and seller in an acquisition
process using ANSI ASC X12 EDI transactions.

4
Giga Information Group, XML’s Role in the EDI World (June 23, 2000).
5
Logistics Management Institute, Open Buying on the Internet and Extensible Markup
Language: Recommendations on Adoption by the Federal Government (January 2000).

Page 24 GAO-02-327 Electronic Government