XML crosses the chasm
Sam Thompson
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Abstract
In 1999, the use of XML went mainstream. IBM has helped many companies throughout the Europe and other regions of the world become early adopters of XML by providing XML tools and partnering with them to help them build business solutions that leverage their existing core business systems and skills. This presentation will discuss success stories from European companies such as Amadeus, Seals, Svenska Handelsbanken, RWE Utilities, and other companies we've been involved in as well as provide some hints and tips for how you can get started using XML in your company's business applications.

Keywords

Contents
  1. Overview
  2. IBM and XML
  3. How XML is being used in the industy
    1. Swenska Handlesbanken
    2. First Union National Bank
    3. NC Focus
    4. JP Morgan
    5. Los Alamos National Lab
    6. Vervet Logic
    7. United States Federal Aviation Administration
    8. Seals GmbH
    9. RWE Energie
    10. Sprint and IBM
  4. IBM jStart Program
  5. Summary
Overview
Looking back, 1999 was a key year for XML. In the future, many people will consider 1999 as the year XML made the transition from "interesting new technology" to being a key building block that companies are leveraging to build e-business applications. 1999 was also a key year of major investments for IBM as IBM solidified it commitment to the technology, began to deliver key XMLdevlepment tools, and enable its product line with XML support. This paper will briefly discuss the IBM strategy for XML, then concentrate on how companies througout the world are leveraging those tools and products in their core, mission critical applications, and conclude with a brief discussion on the IBM XML jStart (jumpstart) program.
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IBM and XML
IBM is a strong believer in XML technology and is investing heavily to demonstrate their commitment.
IBM belives that if XML is to be successful, it must remain an open standard. The industry cannot allow XML to become another Unix, with vendors having their own proprietary implementation. To meet that goal, IBM is actively involved in most, if not all, the W3C committees that are working on the next level or new derivatives of XML based standards. IBM is a major sponsor of XML.ORG, hosted by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) which IBM believes will be the source for XML industry oriented XML grammers/vocabularies.
One of IBM's employees is co-chairing the joint United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) initiative which created the Electronic Business XML (ebXML) initiative to develop a technical framework that will enable XML to be utilized in a consistent manner for the exchange of all electronic business data. A primary objective of ebXML is to lower the barrier of entry to electronic business in order to facilitate trade, particularly with respect to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and developing nations.
Another example of IBM's commitment to keeping XML open can be illustrated with IBM's approach to the Trading Partner Agreement Markup Language (tpaML). The tpaML will be used by systems administrators of the trading partners agreeing to conduct business to business e-commerce to create an electronic contract (a trading partner agreement). Rather than keeping tpaML as an IBM unique technology, IBM has submitted tpaML to OASIS as the basis for creating a business-to-business integration markup language standard that specifies things such as:
Inside of IBM, software engineers around the world are working on XML related projects. IBM is enabling its entire product line for XML, with many of these enhancements already available in the marketplace today via such products as WebSphere1, Domino, DB2, and MQ Series and others. We're also a leader in the development tools market as well, providing many free development technologies via our alphaworks site at http://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com. Lastly, IBM is committed to making XML a language independent standard. While some vendors try to position XML as a subset of Java2, IBM believes the two technologies are very complementary. IBM views Java as a language that enables portable programs and that XML enables portable data. Combined with other pervasive IT technologies such as TCP/IP for networking and HTML for end user interfaces, for the first time in our industry's history, IBM believes all the key building blocks are now available for building true cross platform applications. For more information on IBM's XML strategy and its XML tools and products, please view the main IBM XML web site at http://www.ibm.com/xml.
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How XML is being used in the industy
Many companies believe that the use of XML will enable them to realize many of the benefits in the area of data exchange that HTML provided to them for thin client, platform independent end user interfaces. Some early misconceptions in the industry had XML replacing HTML, but for now, most industy leaders see them as complementary technologies.
To date we've seen XML being used in 4 different application categories:

The boundaries between these categories are not firm and well defined. Most of the success storied described in the rest of this paper will likely fall into 2 and sometimes 3 of the categories.
Swenska Handlesbanken
In a part of the world where 60 percent of the population carry cell phones, the largest Nordic bank, in a strategic partnership with IBM, is the first bank to show a working WAP application.
Handelsbanken plans to extend its existing Internet banking service beyond the PC to a variety of mobile devices. The new service will allow the bank's customers to access stock information in different forms, account information, transfer money, buy and sell stock and even pay bills anytime, anywhere. The new service is based on the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), which is an open industry standard for mobile Internet services, and in the first phase it will be delivered via Nokia's3 new WAP-enabled smart media phone.
The bank's financial advisers and selected customers are currently taking part in test phase of the service, which allows them to receive general and personalized stock market information on their WAP-enabled telephones. They can also receive specially adapted research pieces on the phone. The bank provides them with Nokia's smart phones.
Each of the three companies provides a critical element in the new service. Handelsbanken is offering their customers a unique opportunity to use wireless banking services. But for Handelsbanken this particular WAP-based service is only a small part in the bank's overall strategy that will lead to a broad range of banking services allowing their customers to conduct banking business when, where and how it suits them best.
IBM is providing the application development tools and specialized software, which translates the information from the bank's back-end system into a highly condensed form that can be sent to a mobile phone. In addition, IBM is providing project management, design and programming skills to the overall project. Nokia is providing the server through which the information is sent on the wireless network, as well as the state-of-the-art Nokia phones that will receive it.
All of the wireless e-banking services from Handelsbanken will be based on WAP, the de-facto global standard for enabling Internet communications and advanced telephony services on digital mobile phones, pagers, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices. By 2003, analysts estimate that the number of wireless subscribers around the world will pass the one billion mark. They also predict that more than half of mobile devices shipped between now and then will be WAP-enabled. Because WAP is an open standard, it can work on any type of wireless device or wireless network. It gives manufacturers, content providers and service providers a common global platform to build on, and it offers consumers a broad array of services.
First Union National Bank
First Union National Bank, the 6th largest bank in the US with $229B in assets and more than 72,000 employees nation-wide is in the process of extending many of the banks's applications using Java and XML technology.
The First Union environment is very heterogeneous, consisting of OS/3904, AIX5, Solaris6, HP/9000, and Windows NT7 servers with Win NT, Win98, Solaris and AIX clients. In order to cost effectively build applications that will run in this environment, First Union turned to Java for platform run time independence and to XML for platform independent data.
The bank's distributed applications are built on a messaging infrastructure. Application logic running on distributed web and application servers initiate data requests and transactions to the OS/390 server via an IBM MQ Series message block. The message block's content is based on a First Union proprietary specification that they developed called the Common Interface Message (CIM). Back on the OS/390 system, a message broker interrogates the "CIM" message and routes the request to the appropriate OS/390 subsystem such as CICS or DB2 for processing.
In today's environment, both the distributed and the mainframe components of the application are very dependent upon the message protocol and content format. To better insulate both sides of the application for future changes and additions to that message protocol, First Union is introducing XML into the picture.
First Union investigated various ways to insulate the applications from the message content and quickly decided upon using XML technology. Client applications format requests as XML documents. A service, which utilizes the IBM Parser for Java (IBM4J) parses the request and converts it back to the CIM format for backend server processing.
First Union has also written a service to convert COBOL copy books to DTDs. This allows them use the IBM4J parser to properly format and validate the requests before forwarding them to the host.
The use of Java and XML has been proven to be very successful to date and will soon be incorporated into several systems company-wide. The first deployed usage of XML was in the latest version of First Union's commercial Cyberbanking application. It is also being used in the bank's call center application and in a new credit scoring application that will be used in home equity loan processing.
NC Focus
As a technology resource company it is only fitting that NC.Focus would employ Java and XML to control the presentation and delivery of content from its web site. By visiting http://www.ncfocus.com users can subscribe to research information --- from both an analyst and implementation consulting perspective.
NC.Focus provides subscription-based research to keep companies updated on emerging tools and technologies. This research is written from the perspective of the customer implementing solutions. NC.Focus also offers systems design, architecture, and project management services for EAI, EIP, and e-Business applications. These services are enhanced because of its close relationships to vendors and their products, and its in-depth understanding of the marketplace.
The IT experts at NC.Focus wanted to build a web site that was independent of a particular database, Web server, and hardware platform. Java and XML were originally selected to test their capabilities for server-side enterprise back office processing. With unexpected responsiveness, NC.Focus decided to use a combination of these technologies as a framework to architect the functionality on its web site.
The productivity gains that can result from using Java and XML is best illustrated by the following:
To insulate the Web site from broken links, NC.Focus uses XML to describe the name of a page in the repository. When that page is being transformed into HTML, the page name will be looked up in the XML-based Page repository and the attribute with the URL is replaced in the page. If the page name is not in the repository, then no link is inserted in the HTML, just an error message.
Because the page repository already existed in XML to support transformations to HTML, it provided a source for all links to all active pages on the site. When NC.Focus wanted to add a site map, it took 2 hours to build the code to parse the page database, create a DOM representation, and transform the DOM to HTML based upon specific attributes of each Page element.
XML allowed for the dynamic control the content being displayed to the user based upon identification and access levels without requiring all the content to be atomically broken up in a specific content management system. IBM's XML for Java parser (XML4J) provides the parsing services for the NC.Focus web site. XML4J offered the first robust implementation of a XML parser that supported SAX and DOM and is enhanced quite frequently to keep up with the Every evolving standard. The Java application currently runs on Solaris 2.6 and communicates via TCP/IP with a Netscape Java plug-in.
The website could easily be updated because it's based on Java/XML and the page repository exists to provide a search engine and add metadata tags to each Page element that can be used for searching.
JP Morgan
On June 17, 1999 J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP announced that International Business Machines Corp. would participate on the technical committee for the recently announced Internet-based protocol FpML8 (XML-based financial products markup language), a specification for electronic dealing and information sharing of financial derivatives.
The two firms also announced that IBM would help create FpML seminars for technical and financial services professionals worldwide. The FpML standard enables Internet-based electronic dealing and information sharing of financial derivatives, initially focusing on interest rate and foreign exchange products.
The FpML standard, which will be licensed freely to the technical and financial markets, is based on XML, the emerging Internet standard for data sharing between applications. The FpML specification will allow the Internet-based integration of a range of services, from electronic trading and confirmations to portfolio specification for risk analysis.
For more information on the FpML seminars or the FpML standard, see http://www.fpml.org.
Los Alamos National Lab
The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is located in the Jemez Mountains, approximately 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Owned by the Department of Energy, LANL occupies 43 square miles of land. Since its inception in 1943, as part of the Manhattan Project to create the first atomic weapons during World War II, the Laboratory has been managed by the University of California.
Although national security remains the central part of the Laboratory's mission, the scientific assets and expertise within the laboratory is very diverse. Using what is often referred to as the greatest concentration of scientific computing power on the planet, the lab focuses its resources on topics such as:
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (http://www.lanl.gov) use several different simulation codes to model and study scientific applications in the areas of:
Simulations for shock-wave phenomena help in studying the effects of sonic booms and supersonic projectile motions (for example, bullets). Turbulence simulations can model flow patterns that occur during the stirring and mixing of fluids. This can contribute to the study and understanding of climate and weather. The simulation of basic material properties, such as strength, stress and strain, and heat capacities help describe physical principles for materials. These lead to a better understanding of material behavior under varying conditions.
Computer simulation programs are executed on high-performance parallel super computers to handle the multi-dimensional models required for such research. All of these programs have their own specific input file formats and naming conventions, but share many of the same underlying concepts. As a result, researchers are faced with managing large amounts of data and information for these varying formats and conventions.
By using XML, a document type definition (DTD) was defined to describe all the different vocabularies that were pertinent to the different computer simulation programs. This created the foundation to translate data and information between the simulation configurations. Now, researchers need only be fluent in one file format type and a set of naming conventions to execute simulations using all the different computer programs.
Building upon the notion that XML is a natural solution for the conversion, translation, and formatting of data, researchers are compiling a set of common tools for the manipulation and sharing of XML data between simulation programs.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory is creating their XML tool set using solutions from IBM's Alphaworks web site (http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com). By capitalizing on the platform independent aspects of Java technology, LANL filled most of their solution architecture needs by incorporating IBM's XML4J Parser and Xeena tools. The generic, yet compliant XML validating parser and the flexible XML document editor, respectively provide the backbone for LANL's computer modeling solution.
Vervet Logic
XML Pro9 Version 2.0 offers the features of an advanced XML Editor with an intuitive interface that allows XML experts and novices alike to create valid, well-formed XML documents. By combining the features expected in a professional XML solution with the pricing expected from consumer products, XML Pro is a perfect tool for XML developers, content providers, and authors. XML Pro provides the quick, functional editing solution missing from many high-end packages and fits well into any XML toolkit.
Version 2.0 of XML Pro has many exciting features the help make you more productive when creating and updating XML documents:
XML Pro Version 2.0 features the IBM XML4J parser, offering solid support for the W3C Document Object Model and the SAX interface. Using the IBM parser, XML Pro integrates well with customized XML solutions for the enterprise.
United States Federal Aviation Administration
The introduction of jet airliners, and a series of midair collisions, spurred passage of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958. This legislation transferred the Civil Aeronautics Administration's (which was created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940) functions to a new independent body, the Federal Aviation Agency. This new agency had broader authority to combat aviation hazards. The legislation also gave FAA sole responsibility for developing and maintaining a common civil-military system of air navigation and air traffic control.
In 1966, the United States Congress authorized the creation of a cabinet department that would combine major Federal transportation responsibilities. This new Department of Transportation (DOT) began full operations on April l, 1967. On that day, FAA became one of several modal organizations within DOT and received a new name, Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA's major functions include:

Since aeronautics has continued to evolve at a rapid pace over the last fifty years, the FAA has had to address a wide variety of technical issues. The Aviation Safety Research Act of 1988 mandated greater emphasis on long-range research planning and on study of such issues as aging aircraft structures and human factors affecting safety. In February 1991, the FAA replaced the National Airspace System Plan with the more comprehensive Capital Investment Plan (CIP). The new plan included higher levels of automation as well as new radar, communications and weather forecasting systems. As the modernization program evolved, the FAA shifted its emphasis toward enhancing the air traffic control system through incremental improvements and greater use of off-the-shelf technology.
Moving into the next millennium, the FAA realizes that it needs to prepare itself for the ever-growing demand for information. As the Airline Industry beings to move its business onto the Internet and to Pervasive Computing Devices, there has been an increasing demand for fast access to detailed aviation data. Since the FAA governs many of the information systems used within flight centers throughout the USA, the FAA is presented with data access requirements that go beyond any existing capability within their current information systems. To address these new demands, the FAA is exploring the use of emerging technologies such as JavaBeans and XML.
One applied research example is the Adaptation Process/Data Management project that is experimenting with the creation of virtual, as well as real maps of airspace, using national and system / location specific aeronautical airspace definition adaptation data.. This adaptation data is used to help drive legacy air-traffic control systems. It all begins with the Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) data that describes the national airspace as well as airspace over the oceans. AIS is the single authoritative government source for collecting, validating, storing, maintaining and disseminating aeronautical data for the United States and its territories to support real-time aviation activities.
Each FAA system (i.e. en-route, approach, towers, sequencing, air-traffic management, and others) takes this data and adapts it for use within their specific system and requirements. This concept of operations creates a problem because there are numerous FAA systems that collectively provide air traffic separation services, flight planning services, weather information services and traffic flow management services. Once one of these systems gets modified, other systems that depend on each other potentially could work from a different set of data. This concept of operations is working today because of set of highly skilled individuals that have developed a system of exchanging information so that they do not make mistakes. As the FAA seeks to prove increased automation aids to support free flight and increased safety and security, the adaptation process is becoming more labor intensive.
The objective of the Adaptation Data Management project is to show that all systems can work from the same set of data and that commercial tools are available to increase the effectiveness of the Adaptation process. XML was chosen as the appropriate technology for defining and sharing the adaptation data. In addition, this project is laying the groundwork for a migration from legacy 3270 based applications to a thin client architecture, which makes use of JavaBeans for managing the data.
The solution, in development with assistance from IBM's Global Services and IBM's e-business Software Project Office, is using IBM's Visual Age for Java10 to develop the JavaBeans that will run as Java Servlets on IBM's Websphere Application Server. These JavaBeans will interact with an OS/390 DB/2 database, which will contain the centralized adaptation data. The team is also using Java Servlet technology to export the adaptation data in XML using IBM's XML Parser for Java.
Seals GmbH
Seals GmbH provides services for secure and flexible electronic data exchange between companies. To help its customers leverage their existing investments in technology and to deploy applications that allow them to take advantage of the Internet, Seals has created Java -based InvoiceXchange.
InvoiceXchange is a new application that is offered as a service in the business to business area. It converts invoice data from an inhouse format to XML, stores it and makes it available to the recipients via the Web in various formats, allowing a direct integration with inhouse databases or ERP systems.
In order to use the service, the sender transmits his invoice data to Seals via a secure FTP connection. The recipient receives from Seals an individual smart card with a digital certificate on it. Using this smart card, the user can log on to a secure web server, maintained by Seals, where a list of invoices waiting is posted. The user can then check the invoice using a web browser and import it to inhouse systems. The system imparts security procedures and user authentication by allowing the assigning of rights, such as "View invoices", or "Import invoices" to other participants (e. g. a regional manager).
By 2002, Seals expects to be conducting approximately 300 million transactions per year using this new system. Seals fully expects InvoiceXchange to reduce the costs and lower the entry barriers for the electronic exchange of business documents. The application is designed to fulfill the original goals of EDI systems.
Businesses are continuously looking for means to improve customer service and by this, retain their customers. One way of improving customer service is improving the efficiency of their internal processes. The InvoiceXchange service does not only have an impact on the biller's side, but also on the recipients', making their work with invoice data easier. As such, the suggested process is expected to increase customer loyalty, which has to be an important aspect to any business's growth.
Seals needed to build a system enabling XML/EDI to meet customer demands today. InvoiceXchange uses one data format for presentation and processing the data; this format is XML. Seals designed InvoiceXchange for:
Java was selected as the development platform because Seals found that:
Java also could help Seals develop the InvoiceXchange application using component technology. This allowed for faster development time and an increase in speed to market of the InvoiceXchange solution.
IBM's WebSphere application server provides the environment for the developed Java components. It was selected for its support for Servlets and Java Server Pages as well as its connection pool for database connection using JDBC. WebSphere also proved to be the most cost effective technology investment for Seals.
InvoiceXchange is the first step in the process and is being offered as a web based service. To complete the transaction cycle, Seals plans to offer other Internet business services, including:
RWE Energie
The German Energy/Utilities market has been in the process of deregulation; bringing new utility service providers for customers but translating into new competition for existing utilities. Existing utility companies, such as RWE Energie, must develop new business services to retain their customer base and defeat competitors.
Incorporating this new business paradigm revealed that necessary changes to its customer care process could not be met with the existing IT infrastructure and applications. The decision was made to develop a completely new system with the latest technology, which emphasises code re-use, ease of maintenance, portability, scalability, component technology and had to be based on open standards.
CHEOPS is the new Customer Care Information System, developed by IFS, a subsidiary of RWE Energie. The system has been developed for an international marketplace with the initial user and technical requirements coming from RWE Energie and several of their partners. Developed in 100% Pure Java, CHEOPS, enables true platform and vendor independence, giving RWE Energie the open solution it desired. The effort to develop CHEOPS took around 450 man years -- virtually three years to complete.
The Customer Care Application is written in 100% pure Java. But the design is such, that simple browsers or even hand held devices can be catered for in the future. RWE Energie currently has nearly 1000 clients in its environment and the needs to support around 100+ concurrent users on the system.
Assistance from IBM Services was critical to help educate RWE and its staff in OO design, Java development, and code re-use. For a jumpstart in the skills area, IBM, through both formal training classes and on-site development, offered RWE Energie some of the most experienced Java developers in Europe. And it were these IBMers, who designed all the fundamental parts of the application architecture and were key to establishing the business object model, the very heart of the CHEOPS application.
The application server has been developed in house, again, for vendor independence. RWE Energie is considering using Enterprise JavaBeans as an option for future development, aiming eventually for Corba component technology for optimal code re-use. An array of databases can be supported through the JDBC interface, but given the expected volume of data, RWE Energie sees DB2 as the best choice under OS/390.
CHEOPS has been developed to run on a multitude of platforms and provides numerous features for companies operating in a deregulated energy market in these function areas:
RWE Energie expects to achieve the following benefits from a fully deployed CHEOPS installation:
In the future, IFS will expand on the functionality to enable CHEOPS to appeal to additional customers. IFS expects that CHEOPS will mature to a highly accepted standard application in the deregulated European energy market.
In an effort to provide the highest degree of flexibility within the application framework and also shield application programmers from having to worry about a plethora of printer and output formats, RWE is deploying the print utilities from IBM's SanFrancisco11 Component framework. In a combination of the IBM print utilities and IBM XML parser for Java, print objects are converted into documents, then into an XML stream and from there to a specific printer output stream. As such, the tedious task for adapting a document for a specific output format is being moved to a flexible, standardized component responsible for the transformation of any print document to any possible output format.
Sprint and IBM
In its continuing effort to use Internet-based technologies from its Application Framework for e-business, IBM is providing its employees with wireless access to its corporate phone directory, known as BluePages. Through a unique partnership agreement with Sprint PCS, IBM is delvering BluePages results into pervasive computing devices such as digital phones and personal digital assistants.
All IBM employees presently have voice and wired Intranet access to IBM's corporate directory. The next logical extension, beyond PC access to the Internet, is to pervasive devices. This effort is another example of IBM's ability to proliferate enterprise-level content to a variety of platforms and devices. Technologies such as transcoding, Java, and XML are enabling e-business solutions for the new era of device-driven computing.
Content management is one of the key elements of the Unwired BluePages project, which makes use of technologies such as transcoding and XML. However, this solution would not be complete without wireless Web access for the IBM employees. IBM has teamed with Sprint PCS to provide wireless access to IBM's Intranet. This project is the fruit of the efforts between the two companies and further evidence of the unique service offerings IBM can provide to its customers.
An initial demonstration of the Unwired BluePages project was shown in early December 1999 in Philadelphia, PA, at the XML '99 tradeshow and the Java Business Conference in New York, NY. The demonstration used TouchPoint phones from Sprint PCS, which connected to IBM's Intranet site to access the BluePages application. Users were able to access the following applications:
The demonstration touches on some of the key design points required for a successful wireless application, specifically:
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IBM jStart Program
jStart
The IBM jStart program is a worldwide program focused on accelerating the use of emerging technologies by IBM's customers. This includes Java technologies, XML, Transcoding, and Pervasive Computing. It is a proven approach to help a customer move quickly from talking about e-business to doing e-business.
The typical jStart customer is one who considers themselves an early adopter of new technologies. These customers want to use new technology to give them a competitive advantage and drive them to leadership positions in their respective markets. IBM is using the jStart program to help these customers leap the technology chasm.
By utilizing the jStart program to move quickly, the customer benefits from a "time-to-market" standpoint for they quickly have an e-business application in place. As such, a jStart project is typically a small scope (2-4 months) project - to test the waters with Java, XML, and/or pervasive computing technologies and serve as a "proof of concept" for the customer. This also minimizes the risk involved for the customer. The solution must satisfy a critical business requirement - the jStart Program is designed to demonstrate the mission critical readiness of the emerging technology - not to just create fancy websites and flashy GUIs.
An essential for participation in the jStart program is the customer's willingness to be a reference account for IBM. IBM needs its customers to help evangelize its work in the Java, XML, or pervasive computing technology arena. It is through the jStart program that we hope to drive acceptance of these emerging technologies by the mass market.
The IBM jStart program uses a proven 5-step engagement model:

Phase 4 and 5 are designated to be an iterative loop. What we have seen with jStart projects is that the customer typically finds other e-business applications to develop as the first one progresses. With jStart, customers "start small and grow fast."
There are a number of benefits to the jStart program including lower risk (because of the proven 5-step methodology), working with IBM in a partnership mode, accelerated skill development in the emerging technologies, and a "learn while developing" approach.
You can get additional information on jStart and review case studies at http://www.ibm.com/developer/java or http://www.ibm.com/developer/xml. If you are interested in getting more information on the jStart program and/or being a part of the program, please contact the jStart team at jstart@us.ibm.com
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Summary
As one can see from reading the success stories described in this paper, XML can no longer be considered a "new, emerging" technology. Many companies throughout the world are using XML to help them with internal application data interchange and to help them develop business to consumer and business to business applications.
IBM is extremely commited to supporting XML technology and is investing heavily to back up this view. IBM is working extremely hard with organizations like the W3C, OASIS, and other major players in the industry to ensure that XML remains an open, non-proprietary, cross industry standard. IBM is enabling its entire product line to support XML where appropriate and helping to seed the industry with XML tools via its alphaWorks web site. And lastly, as described extensively in this paper, IBM is actively working with its customers around the world to help them implement e-business solutions that utilize XML through the IBM jStart program.
This paper has described examples of XML being used in four different ways by various organizations in multiple industries:
It is the author's belief that in 1999 the industry has only begun to realize the potential this technology can offer, especially in the business to business area. In 1999, organizations began to "dip their toe in the water" to determine how useful this technology will be for them. In 2000, everyone is "jumping in with both feet" and the number of companies using XML is growing exponentially. XML is clearly not a fad or a standard de jure; it has arrived and is here to stay.
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