XML in Enterprise Systems

The widespread use of the XML format for document representation and message exchange has influenced techniques for data integration in last years. A development of various XML languages, methods and tools gave rise to so called XML technology. Enterprise Information Integration (EII) requires an accurate, precise and complete understanding of the disparate data sources, the needs of the information consumers, and how these map to the business concepts of the enterprise. Any integration takes place in context of an Enterprise Information System (EIS). In the paper we explain various approaches to EII, its architectures as well as its association to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). We introduce basic features and issues of EII and justify why XML technology contributes to finding sufficiently powerful support for tools for enabling EII. In particular, a database approach to XML provides a universal solution enabling to construct tools for achieving EII. In the paper we present some features of the XML technology, mainly its database part, and show how it is usable in EII.