EDI software companies are here to stay. True, electronic data interchange is a technology that is half a century old. But even with the competition provided by XML, the 50-year-old system is simply so deeply entrenched in business transactions around the world–making migration cumbersome if not impossible.
When EDI replaced fax as the standard means of electronic communication among businesses and their partners, everyone thought that it was only a matter of time before the dominant technology would suffer the same fate. Luckily, vendors, suppliers, and business partners prefer to stick it out through thick and thin with a system that they’re used to. And who can blame them?
As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Logistics, invoicing, and payments processing everywhere just cannot afford any glitch brought about by new technology. So makers of the old technology can still afford to sleep soundly at night.