Gregory Maciag: Standards Bring Repeated Savings

Friday, 21 March 2014

Standards Bring Repeated Savings

Version 2.0 of the Universal Business Language (UBL) was released in 2006. UBL V2.1 came out in November 2013.

Sounds like a long wait for an upgrade, right? Wrong. You may want your anti-virus software to be updating every few days, but standards are only updated as and when they need to be. The stability of UBL over these seven years is a mark of success.

UBL is an XML standard for objects like invoices and purchase orders. Danish public sector organizations have been using it for invoicing since 2005, continuing to save 100m euros in labor costs every year. UBL has a lot of traction in Europe and has also spawned the e-freight standard, which is getting global attention.

We hear less about XML these days because it's become part of the business background. Good standards do good work – unnoticed, uncelebrated – saving time and money year after year. OASIS

Posted on Friday, 21 March 2014 | Permalink

Comments

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:

Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Your Information

(Name is required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)

Name is required to post a comment

Please enter a valid email address

Invalid URL

New Book

My latest book presents the challenges members face when adopting industry standards as well as the opportunities that come as a result. It features my discussions with many people over many years and follows the foundation I set in my first book "The Business Information Revolution".

Industry standards are never adopted in a vacuum. They become part and parcel of all the trials and tribulations managers face in their day to day work. ACORD Standards are always part of a larger software development project that brings along people, priorities and politics. Adopting industry standards isn't simple, but the benefits far outweigh the problems of building and maintaining proprietary alternatives.

I trust that you will appreciate my frankness, identify with some of the challenges and learn from what others have done to pave the way.