State-of-the-art in business document standards

With the raising significance of electronic commerce and e-government applications the need for standardized business documents has emerged. Today, a business partner seeking to implement a new electronic commerce solution may choose from a multitude of different standards. Most of the standards are domain-specific and thus heterogeneous, since standards are developed out of diverse needs, motivations, and backgrounds. What is still missing is a thorough overview of business document standard families. Furthermore, a classification helping a business partner to choose a specific standard, based on his preferences is needed. In this paper we present the key results of our business document survey, where we made a classification of business document standards using standard categories. For each category we introduce a representative standard example. Based on our research results, a clear and precise classification of different business document standardization approaches is provided. Through the classification, the distinctive advantages and disadvantages of each standard become clear. Thus, the decision which business document standard to use is eased.