Who''s Involved?

Presently, cXML involves over 40 software developers and merchandising companies. Some of the software firms, led by Ariba, include Poet Software, Vignette, Saqqara, Ironside Technologies, and webMethods. Suppliers include Barnes and Noble, BT Office Products, Office Depot, Staples, Chemdex, ComputerLiteracy.com, Cort Furniture Rental, and Harbinger.

cXML complements several other initiatives underway within the business-to-business procurement frontier. In my article Goods and Services At Web Speed, we examined the Open Buying on the Internet (OBI) protocol to standardize and secure the corporate purchasing model. In Etching A Digital Rosetta Stone, we looked at RosettaNet and its effort to define the lingua franca of the Internet. Where RosettaNet is focused on procuring computer equipment, parts, supplies, and accessories, cXML is concerned with defining the DTDs for non-production maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) goods and services. Where OBI defines the infrastructure under which exchanges take place between trading partners within the Trading Web, cXML defines the message content and format that traverses the network within the OBI framework.