Universal Business Language: Checkup Time for an XML Vision.

The article presents information related to Universal Business Language (UBL), which provides a royalty-free set of XML-based business documents, and the areas of development in it. The business documents provided by UBL includes purchase orders for e-commerce invoicing and ordering. The UBL was crafted by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. Its original goal was to fuel global e-commerce by simplifying paper-heavy processes. UBL 1.0 became an OASIS standard in November 2004 and UBL 2.0 appeared in December 2006. UBL's founders say that it will play an increasing role for governmental agency IT groups trying to cut the costs of paper-based processes.