Founded in 1992, Altova is a key player in the software industry and the leader in XML development and data management tools. Our product suite, the Altova MissionKit, bines powerful enterprise software with usability features and easy-to-use interfaces that make it attractive to users with varying levels of technical ability.

Altova is the choice of over 3.5 million customers worldwide, and is an active member of the World Wide Web nsortium (W3C), the Object Management Group (OMG), and XBRL International.

In our most recent product release, we added support for working with XBRL across multiple tools in the Altova MissionKit tool suite to give anizations tackling XBRL pliance an affordable, easy-to-use solution for automating the way their financial data is captured, shared, reported, and analyzed.

1. XBRL is already aepted as the official standard for financial reporting. How do you (Altova) see the prospects for an XBRL mandate for financial reporting in the world and especially in the United States?

The SEC mandate in the United States has certainly given XBRL a lot of additional attention in recent months, but it is important to also note the growing number of XBRL projects worldwide – particularly programs in the herlands, Australia, Japan, and other untries. In order to ntinue to be suessful, all of these initiatives share a mon need for additional support from the anizations that are subject to financial reporting requirements. XBRL is beneficial on many levels – to regulatory agencies like the SEC and FDIC, to analysts, and very importantly, also to individual panies. Right now it seems that the rush to pliance may be overshadowing the crucial realization that XBRL can greatly increase internal reporting efficiency and rce sts.

It is still very early, but we firmly expect that over time more and more anizations will begin to see XBRL not only as a mandate, but also as a revolutionary solution to eliminating the errors and inauracies that have resulted from traditional aounting and financial reporting methods.

2. What are the main benefits of XBRL in your opinion? uld XBRL statements help to prevent some future financial crisis?

XBRL offers benefits at all levels of the financial reporting workflow, increasing speed, rcing sts, virtually eliminating the risk of human error, and allowing for machine validation and automation. Not only does XBRL give puters the ability to process financial data at a semantic level, but it also gives investors and regulatory agencies the potential to view and analyze this data in real-time. In short, XBRL offers a mechanism for truly realizing the value of financial data, and XBRL software provides the means through which to do this.

Does XBRL have the capability to avert a future financial crisis? That is difficult to predict, indeed. On one hand XBRL will definitely offer more transparency and oversight with respect to financial information. On the other hand however, human ingenuity has always managed to e up with new ideas or financial nstructs that difficult to grasp and ntrol, so there is no telling what financial wizards might be oking up next. In fact, if you look at the history of bubbles and busts in financial markets, the pattern is always one that is driven by greed and fear – two very human emotions that are fundamental to our nature. I doubt that XBRL will have any impact on ntrolling those emotions, so we should be prepared to deal with future market bubbles and busts, since they are an integral part of the system.

3. Altova has a long line of experience in development of various XML, database and UML tools. Since February 3rd, 2009, thanks to Altova, the XBRL world has been drastically changed. What are the XBRL tools from Altova and their specific applications for working with XBRL related documents?

There are three tools in the Altova MissionKit that support working with XBRL: XMLSpy, MapForce, and StyleVision.

4. Which sort of panies and professionals (xbrl filers, investors, portfolio managers, analysts) will benefit most from using Altova XBRL tools?

While our traditional target market of developers will definitely benefit from XBRL support in Altova MissionKit tools, the graphical, drag-and-drop interfaces and other usability features provided in XMLSpy, MapForce, and Stylevision make it aessible to a wide range of users, from aountants to analysts and beyond. To help increase aessibility across various audiences, we’ve also created a free XBRL Online Training urse to help technical users e up to speed on the aounting side of XBRL, and to make key XBRL ncepts more transferable for those with an aounting background – all while working with Altova MissionKit tools.

5. What is the first (or maybe the most important) step a pany should do in the process of implementation of XBRL?

In order to realize the benefits that XBRL can provide internally, it is vital that panies invest some time in restructuring current aounting and reporting infrastructure. Traditional aounting and reporting practices have been led by aountants, and this only makes sense. But now there is a technical dimension to financial reporting with software tools and technology standards, and it is very important that IT or development be involved in the decision-making process, at least at the early stages of adoption. XBRL implementation does not have to be plicated; it does not necessarily require new systems, expensive software tools, or even new hires. What it does require is a certain amount of financial and technical expertise that is easily attained through operation between aounting and IT or development departments.

6. What do you see as the risks in the process of introducing XBRL in the United States and is there a possibility that the whole process uld fail at some point?

It is unfortunate that the XBRL mandate by the SEC is currently being used as a bit of a political power play. If the XBRL introduction were to fail or is rolled back, then it would be as a result of a political gamble. And this would put the US at a serious disadvantage in the global marketplace, as XBRL adoption in other untries will ntinue.

In essence, the introduction of XBRL only aids transparency, so there is little fundamental risk associated with it. The fact that panies have to deal with a transition to XBRL amidst the worst financial crisis of the past 50 years is a bit of “bad timing” for sure, but those panies that are stable and positioned well to not only survive this crisis, but also thrive in the following revery, will be able to take advantage of some very unique benefits that XBRL brings to the table.

7. Liz Andrews posted an article “XBRL…so much more than pliance” at Altova blog recently. Do you think that most of panies don’t realize the real power of XBRL? How long do you think it’ll take for investors and analysts to realize the benefits of XBRL?

The United States XBRL mandate has e at a time when the public is looking for an enomic watchdog, and XBRL fits the bill. Because of this, there has been a lot of talk about the benefits of XBRL financial reporting to the general public (transparency, etc.) and even more effort to nvince aountants and reporting panies that the XBRL mandate will not disrupt the status quo.

The truth is that XBRL provides a multitude of benefits to anizations, but that some very simple adjustments may need to be made. It is simply just not enough to tag financial reports once they have been generated in the traditional manner… this only serves to obfuscate the process by adding another layer of potential human error on of a process that was already fundamentally flawed.

Altova has a long history of supporting only the most established and suessful technology standards, and XBRL has certainly found a place among them. It is not unmon for panies to be a little slow to realize the benefits of standards – we have seen the same with XML – but it is still early. Once the early adopters begin to publicize the benefits that they have experienced with XBRL implementation, others will follow.

8. At the end, let’s not talk about Altova as XBRL solution provider but as a pany which itself applies XBRL. Is Altova ready to fulfill financial reporting requirements? Do you plan to adopt XBRL to maximize the efficiency of your internal processes?

Altova is a private pany and is therefore not subject to external financial reporting requirements. However, we do have a project underway to look into how we can take financial data from SAP BusinessOne and work with it internally using XBRL. This has the potential to help us to automate our internal financial analysis and inter-pany reporting. Again, it is important to regnize that the benefits offered by XBRL resonate far beyond the need for pliance and data transparency to regulatory agencies.