07 April 2010

It is time for XII and XUS to "eat their own dog food"

It is a great expression: "eating your own dog food". It conveys that wonderful idea that if it is good enough for others, it should be good enough for you. It is also a litmus test of the validity of a concept or idea. Imagine if Oracle used SAP for its internal and external reporting, supply chain management, etc. Imagine if doctors refused to take the drugs  they prescribe.

Imagine saying that something is easy and will improve transparency, yet then not using it yourself. Wow, imagine already being required to provide all that information in another format, lets say an IRS Form 990, yet not even bothering to provide the same information in the standard that you create. Not even to prove that you can.

Come on guys, we keep telling the markets that XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) will deliver significant business reporting benefits to the creators of the reports, and to the consumers of the reports in XBRL. How long will it be before the markets question the validity of our assertions that this will improve business reporting efficiency, effectiveness, quality and speed, if two of the key groups advocating for XBRL do not (cannot?) even do it themselves?

The last time XII produced their financial statement in XBRL was for the 2004 results. So, did XII find it too difficult? I hope not; it is their standard. XBRL US inc has never published their results in XBRL. And doing it once, they can both look forward to an easy second, third etc round of XBRL creation, needing to do little more than change the contexts and the numbers next time.

Isn't it time that XBRL International (XII) and XBRL US inc (XUS) actually ate their own dog food?

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