Standardizing the New E-Business Platform: Learning From the EDI Experience

b s t r a c t It is sometimes assumed that the Internet provides a sufficient basis for conducting business electronically. However, for business relationships between companies more is required, since electronic forms of business are meant to automate large parts of the business processes involved. To enable the automation of business processes across company borders, a 'common language' and a common understanding regarding legal implications are required for information systems to automatically handle deliveries and purchases. Experiences with earlier forms of electronic business (Electronic Data Interchange/EDI) allow us to understand these requirements in great detail. Now, a new platform for conducting electronic business between companies is emerging (based on the XML standard) which promises to significantly lower the costs of automating business processes across company borders. In order to realize this potential, the basic XML platform needs to be extended to cover all functions addressed by EDI systems. How should this task be accomplished? Specifically, which types of organization should be involved with which parts of the standardization process? This paper addresses these questions by drawing on experiences from earlier EDI systems. is Visiting Professor for IT Management and IT and Organization at the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University. He is sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) on a long-term teaching assignment. His research focuses on the institutional requirements of developing inter-organizational systems and organizational change in the wake of implementing enterprise systems.