This paper describe s experience sgained from the implementatio nand evaluatio n of an XML-basedintegration system in a real case.The prototype was designed tosupport electronic data exchangein a supply chain. The purpose ofthe prototype was to study thepropertie s of the integrationsystem from both a developmen tand usage perspective . Inparticular , the study outlined howand in which circumstance s XMLfacilitates supply chainintegration . EDI provided a point ofcomparison . This information isuseful both for the developer s andusers of integration systems. The main objective of this study is to examine to what extent XML-basedintegration systems can support supplychain integration between companies. Theintegration systems represent an appliedtype of Internet technologies that is becomingpopular. Java and XML form a basic type ofthese technologies that is already in favour.In this paper, a prototype of the integrationsystem called the CommunicationApplication (CA) is used as a test bed forevaluating the benefits and costs of XML-based integration systems compared to EDI.The study also comprises experiments withsome implementation approaches to theprototype. In particular, the configurationthat is done solely with XML is divided intolayers and its functionality can be updateddynamically. The prototype has beenimplemented using Java. These featuresshould facilitate the maintenance of theprototype.