Tag, You're It! XML Supercharges the Net

When your company doubles in size in three years, you can get overloaded with data - if you're not prepared. Guidant (GDT), an Indianapolis medical device maker, has found a way to meet the challenge.

Its answer: Extensible Markup Language, or XML, a powerful tool for handling data on the Web. Guidant, which has seen its pacemaker and defibrillator division alone mushroom from $400 million in sales to $800 million in three years, thinks XML's data-tracking capabilities will go a long way toward solving its information management problems.

"XML helps us keep up with the increased product data using the same number of people," says Mark Rutkiewicz, Guidant's manager of documentation.

Guidant got turned on to XML by Arbortext, a Waltham, Mass-based vendor of electronic publishing software. Guidant plans to use Arbortext's Epic software to create a single, online version of its product literature. The XML-based software can quickly ferret out data from legacy systems and reformat the information for the Web. For Guidant, Epic provides a way to create a single data source for developing new documents. Arbortext contends the software can pay for itself in three to six months.

The concept behind XML is straightforward. Attach descriptive tags to individual bits of information - data about data. The tags make it both faster and easier to manipulate underlying data. For example, XML can make search engines work faster. There's a growing effort to use XML to build common standards for business-to-business online commerce. Even publishing tools can be bulked up with XML.

So far, the industry hasn't really embraced the technology. You can't get an XML-compliant browser from Netscape or Microsoft (MSFT), for instance. But early adopters of the technology are brimming with enthusiasm. If the kinks can be worked out, they say, the software can make a real difference.

It's already become clear that XML applications can be used to jazz up Web content. "You see sites with greater navigability, personalization and the ability to integrate media components a little bit more seamlessly," says Randall Hancock, senior VP at Mainspring Communications, a Cambridge, Mass., research firm.

In electronic publishing, asserts Arbortext CEO Bob Crowley, XML can provide a huge leap forward, saving time and money spent seeking out information and changing data from one format to another.

To date, some of the most dramatic benefits of XML can be seen with search tools. Discovery Communications (dossier), the Bethesda, Md., company that operates the Discovery Channel, as well as various other cable television networks and two affiliated retail chains, has taken advantage of XML to startling effect.

It used to take Discovery days to track down photos. The company would phone stock agencies, whose staff would manually fetch and mail the slides. The process created reams of paperwork. And a coordinated attempt to bring parts of the process online didn't help much. Discovery staff still had to slog through individual photo agency sites, each with their own passwords and protocols.

Now the entire photo retrieval process happens in a mere 45 seconds. To accomplish this minor miracle, Discovery uses an XML tool from WebMethods, a Fairfax, Va., software developer. The software gives Discovery the ability to hit one key and sift through a slew of sites rich in graphics and data.

Here's how it works: An intelligent search agent flies out to all of the sites that have been tagged with XML, logs on, navigates its way, culls images and information, and returns with a focused report, complete with relevant graphics and descriptions. From there, Discovery's staff can blow up any of the images to full size and compare them with others from alternative sources.

Pam Huling, director of photo services at Discovery Communications, says the company expects to save both time and money on designers this year.

Discovery's experience is no isolated example. XML is gluing together efficient supply chains across industries. Companies specializing in one type of product or service will have the ability to communicate with