XML uses documents as the transfer mechanism for data. Everything is "documented."

• Easier to track processes
• Creates a large body of data captured in ways that are standard to an industry or enterprise, thus enabling
  • Data mining
  • Long-term retrospective trend analyses
  • Business intelligence (BI)
• XML documents model financial and commercial data very well
  • We've been doing business with documents for thousands of years
  • The document orientation brings our existing legal and commercial frameworks onto the Internet