Open Buying on the Internet and Extensible Markup Language: Recommendations onAdoption by the Federal Government

摘要

Over the past several years, federal government managers who oversee electroniccommerce (EC) have observed the emergence of Open Buying on the Internet (OBI) purchasing and Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology. It follows then, that those managers, sensitive to ways of doing business electronically, would want to know if OBI or XML would be more economical and efficient than the current ways the federal government purchases and finances those purchases. If using OBI or XML could result in operational economies and efficiencies, then the federal government, through its Electronic Commerce Program Office (ECPO), should develop a vision and plan its implementation strategy. Concurrent with that implementation planning, two other significant steps will have to be taken in order to optimize the chance of a successful technology insertion: (1) Plan to change the way the federal government does its purchasing and financing and (2) Obtain the funds necessary to support inserting the next generation of technology. Our report must address two fundamental questions: (1) Should the federal government adopt OBI as a way of improving purchasing and financial operations and (2) Should the federal government adopt XML as a way of improving purchasing and financial operations. To give a context to the questions, the ECPO developed a statement of work (SOW) that formed the basis of the order to Logistics Management Institute (LMI).