Extensible markup language migration framework for Malaysian case logistics data exchange

Abstract

The process of effectively exchanging standardized format of data among logistics stakeholders and Customs Department plays a pivotal role in logistics industry today. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is widely used as a standard data exchange among logistics stakeholders in Malaysian logistics industry. Based on previous studies, EDI users had difficulties in reading and understanding the transaction message, and the cost of implementation and operation is high. Moreover, EDI groups the transaction messages into batches for transmission, which slows down the transmission and makes the data difficult to be transmitted. Consequently, these limitations have barred both the small and new companies to take part in the industry. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is an open standard and universal language, whereby its coding tags can be used to define specific domain or areas. On top of that, XML can be easily read, process and validate. It provides a mechanism for data exchange across platforms and applications at a low cost. With the advancement in the technology, the availability of XML and its benefits can overcome the problems associated with EDI. The result obtained from the preliminary survey indicated that there is a gap on the non-usage of XML as the standard data exchange among the Malaysian logistics stakeholders. Hence, the two main objectives of the research are to identify factors on non-usage of XML as standard data exchange and to propose a suitable XML migration framework that suits the current data exchange and business process. Case study is chosen as the appropriate method, due to its nature and suitability to undergo the research objectives. Four case studies were conducted and data were collected through interviews, observation and document analysis. The important findings acquired from this research are logistics stakeholders are unfamiliar with XML and the unavailability of migration framework from EDI to XML. These results support the proposed XML Migration Framework for Exchange of Logistics Data that will facilitate and assist logistics stakeholder to migrate from EDI to XML. The framework has been evaluated using expert evaluation. The contribution of this research practically highlights the migration components and benefits of XML migration, which are the reduction of implementation and operation costs, while eliminating part of the current data exchange process. In future, this research can be expanded to focus on schema development, network and security in order to support logistics operation as a whole.