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Internet
accounting solutions fall into several broad categories:
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Native webledgers (eLedger,
NetLedger, Intacct,
etc.)
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Hosted ERP systems (e.g. SAP,
Peoplesoft, etc.)
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Local
accounting applications - LAN or standalone ledgers,
conducting business by exchanging transactions
with remote 3rd parties. Examples: EDI, QBXML.
Every system today is a replication
system. This must end.
Whenever the database and transaction processing
logic are both on a managed host or ASP on the internet, modern
architectures can eliminate redundant data stores. There are innumerable software
products which reduce reconciliation costs but they do not eliminate the root of the
problem.
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A single
transaction repository on a secure host, would provide a final
point of reference for all parties to each transaction,
globally.
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A hosted
accounting system co-located with one of the trading partners
involved in the duplicate stores would eliminate redundancy
incrementally. For example if your
bank hosted a webledger, one class of redundancy would
disappear. If you hosted a webledger for your trading
partners, you and they would always be in perfect synch on
Accounts Receivable and Payable.
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A properly designed webledger
eliminates redundancy with respect to all transactions between
all companies on that host.
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Transaction peering arrangements
between well-designed webledgers eliminate redundancy between
all companies on both hosts. ArapXML or other standard XML
languages support this architecture.
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