Methods superior to XML for logical data representation have existed for more than 20 years longer than XML.
XML is a throwback to obsolete hierarchical systems that have long been shown to be cumbersome, inadequate and error-prone in creating real world models.
In any case the technology tail is wagging the logic dog here. The problem is one of communication, logic and clear thinking, not technology.
The customers need to get together and define a common vocabulary and fact model. This model can then be mapped to the various different packages.
This is of course a huge amount of work. The vendors probably aren't interested unless you can force compatibility with the model onto them as a buying criteria, otherwise vendors will tend to see the best way to integrate as standardizing company wide on their system.
Vendors and analysts and consultants and systems integrators have been talking about standards, interoperability, and compatibility for well over a decade now. XML has been around for more than a decade as well.
ComputerWeekly’s Bill Goodwin reports from HR Tech Europe that even in this era of interoperability and standards, many HR system vendors have yet to develop compatible systems:
“Multinational enterprises often have hundreds of different HR systems, covering multiple countries and multiple HR functions, but struggle to get them to work together. Rob Visser, global head of HR-IT at financial services company ING, said suppliers should take the initiative to collaborate on developing common data standards. ‘I feel I am part of the vendor community, because a large amount of my budget is spent getting different vendors to work together,’ he said.”
The best analogy of the situation was offered by Gartner’s Thomas Otter, who likened integrating HR IT systems to “a vet sewing a tail back on a dog.” As he put it so well:
“Integration is easy if you know which is the dog and which is the tail. But you run into problems if you try to stitch two dogs together. The problem is that the vendors all think they are the dog.”
Thanks to Loraine Lawson for surfacing this report.
