eWeek: Microsoft Adds XDocs to Office Family There is this quote from one of the beta testers of XDocs on the first page of the article; “The validation capability within XDocs enables us to check our data against criteria that we have set, improving the accuracy of data entry.” I don’t see how this would be a selling point for a product. We already have an easy to build form mechanism that allows us to validate against virtually any criteria imaginable, it’s called a Web page. In my current project, we are replacing a company’s legacy ERP system, which does everything from supply chain management to accounting, with a browser based system. ERP systems are form intensive, believe me, I should know as I have been developing an application module for the last two weeks that has hundreds of unique pieces of data related to a single item. So I am unable to grasp what sort of value this XDocs product delivers to Microsoft’s customer base. We already have tight Web/Database integration through several middleware products, you take your pick, and virtually all of them have solid XML support now. I just don’t get it. Why solve a problem that already has a fantastic solution? (Microsoft XDocs Page is here.)