Using XML results in better Web site information from a variety of perspectives. The Webmaster benefits from the reduced effort required; users benefit from the more responsive service; and content providers benefit from the accuracy and timeliness of the information provided to the Web. As the Testbed participants discovered, XML offers a strategic advantage in this regard. One participant said, “It’s really the case that this is a forward-looking strategy.”

Since the Web has become the primary vehicle for organizations to get information to their users, the challenge is to provide as much information as possible, in ways that are most useful to those users. From a business and public service sense, it is important that the information be timely, accurate, and effective. It not only demonstrates professionalism and competence, but mitigates potential bad will or lawsuits. XML can aid in this strategy because it dramatically reduces the time required for maintenance of Web pages (due to enhanced consistency and reduced duplication), while eliminating error-prone and redundant tasks in the workflow.

The highly automated framework that XML brings to Web site management increases confidence in the accuracy of the site while freeing up staff to produce higher value products for the Web. Testbed members found this cascading benefit in their own projects: “I think the biggest advantage you’re going to have is freeing up a really talented person to do more complicated work than is being done right now.” Or as one participant remarked, “Our Web site is getting exactly what it was getting before, except a little more and a little better, and it’s cost us nothing and it’s requiring no time, really, and it’s saving hours every day.”

As Web sites continue to grow in importance, the public continues to become more savvy and demanding and increasingly expects high levels of service from them. When service does not live up to those expectations, the threat of alienating or losing these users increases. Because an XML-based Web site offers the opportunity to shift many of the time-consuming maintenance tasks to activities that improve the quality and responsiveness of the Web site, it can produce more consumer-oriented benefits. As one technical staff member said in regard to his project, “I don’t really think there’s a lot of resistance because everybody sees that it just opens a new avenue, because there are so many people out there that we really aren’t reaching, or we’re not reaching to the full extent. So by doing this project, it’s going to allow us to get those people in here.”