Vitria Technology has announced the availability of Value Chain Markup Language (VCML) as a new business collaboration standard. Sample XML Schemas, DTDs, and instance documents may be downloaded from the project web site. The Value Chain Markup Language is "a comprehensive set of XML-based, industry-specific vocabularies (defined words and meanings) and documents such as purchase orders, invoices, etc. required to conduct business over the Internet. VCML schemas support over 100,000 pre-built vocabulary structures and over 4,000 pre-built, complete documents. VCML provides a standard set of vocabularies, transactions, elements, and guidelines that power value chain collaboration within and across vertical industries using a common syntax and semantics. VCML supports the North American, European, and Asian direct material procurement standards (including ANSI X12 and EDIFACT transaction sets in all current versions). Support is also included for industry-specific standards including aerospace, automotive, banking and finance, education, energy, government, healthcare, insurance, petrochemical, retail, telecommunication, and transportation industry-specific EDI documents."

From the FAQ document: "VCML's markup has its roots in the rich, agreed-to semantics of EDI systems. VCML can be tailored to specific industries based on business demands and document usages for conducting daily operational tasks to support value chain collaboration. The method by which VCML is generated and stored is unique in that a business dictionary of terms is utilized to systematically define document structures and validations. VCML is created, updated, and supported for use as an open approach for companies needing integrated XML-ized vocabularies for value chain collaboration... Because VCML provides a common XML-based vocabulary for e-business collaboration for use today that leverages legacy systems, the adoption of VCML is a sound interim step in moving from standards such as EDI toward emerging B2B standards such as ebXML. We have a commitment to grow and adapt VCML to ebXML and other standards. We have members participating in ebXML working groups. Based upon our work with these groups and our understanding of where ebXML is headed, you will see future versions of VCML being adapted to ebXML."