21
Supply-Chain Integration
lThe use of XML as the data
format offers tremendous benefits to all the business components involved in the
supply-chain process:
1.cost reduction, common
data format, and increasing the possibility of partners from small and medium-size companies.
2.The XML data format need
not require proprietary software for processing and documents can
(after validation,
if necessary) automatically be stored in a database without much human
intervention.
lThus, XML provides a path
to seamlessly exchange of reusable business documents of different types, resulting
in frictionless E-Commerce across multiple trading communities.