1. North Coast Surety 1 Welcome to Bid List Connection Slide Show presentation to explain how XML works, in English. The technological complexities are not part of this presentation, and the viewer should recognize the issue has been simplified for a basic understanding. This is part I of a three part series. To view the slide show the press the left mouse button or the arrows keys on your keyboard to proceed through the slides.

2. North Coast Surety 2 Owner Contractor Surety Agent Surety Company Making Project Data Manageable The purpose of XML is to make data manageable so that it can be communicated between trading partners. XML is designed to accommodate the communication requirements of the bid process as project information is passed along, and processed, by various different parties.

3. North Coast Surety 3 01-301704 | List of Bid Items | Special Provisions | Roadway To Be Constructed With Asphalt Concrete Over Asphalt Treated Permeable Base And Aggregate Base And, Subbase And, Concrete Box Girder Bridge To Be Constructed. 01-Men-101-9.1/14.8 * Date Advertised 4/2/2001 Bids Opening in Sacramento * Bids Open 5/22/2001 Estimate: $15,478,000 In Mendocino County Near Hopland From 0.2 Km South Of Pieta Creek Bridge To Russian River Bridge. 300 Working Days * 10% DBE * Cost per set: Bidders: $38, Non-Bidders: $31. Making Project Data Manageable When an owner publishes project information, whether on the internet or a trade publication, it is in effect a series of data that can be separated into individual fields. The sample is a project advertised on the Caltrans website.

4. North Coast Surety 4 01-301704 | List of Bid Items | Special Provisions Roadway To Be Constructed With Asphalt Concrete Over Asphalt Treated Permeable Base And Aggregate Base And, Subbase And, Concrete Box Girder Bridge To Be Constructed. 01-Men-101-9.1/14.8 * Date Advertised 4/2/2001 Bids Opening in Sacramento * Bids Open 5/22/2001 Estimate: $15,478,000 In Mendocino County Near Hopland From 0.2 Km South Of Pieta Creek Bridge To Russian River Bridge. 300 Working Days * 10% DBE * Cost per set: Bidders: $38, Non-Bidders: $31. Bid date = 05/22/2001 Making Project Data Manageable The objective of XML is to put a “tag” on each individual segment of data. Tags that are recognized by various different applications. The adoption of uniformly recognized tags are referred to as standards. The first step is to segment the data. SAMPLE IMAGE ONLY

5. North Coast Surety 5 Bid Date 05/22/01 XML Tag for Bid Date Making Project Data Manageable With XML each segment of data has a standardized tag.

6. North Coast Surety 6 Bid Date Making Project Data Manageable The XML tag is placed before and at the end of the data.

7. North Coast Surety 7 Start:aecXML Highway 1 Tunnel 04-12345 052201 Caltrans 10000000 365 1000 04-12345BB www.caltrans.gov/projects/04-12345 www.caltrans.gov/projects/04-12345/bidbond End:aecXML Making Project Data Manageable Combined with the rest of the data segments the group of XML tagged data elements make up the projects information

8. North Coast Surety 8 Start:aecXML Highway 1 Tunnel 04-12345 082501 Caltrans 10000000 365 1000 04-12345BB www.caltrans.gov/projects/04-12345 www.caltrans.gov/projects/04-12345/bidbond End:aecXML Making Project Data Manageable The XML tag tells any application that imports the data exactly what data is between the tag. Therefore all an application needs to know about importing a file is what XML standard is being used. It can then put the data into the proper field within the application.

9. North Coast Surety 9 Contractor’s Bid Log Surety Company Surety Agent Making Project Data Manageable Each application can import the data, and properly place it within the application without regard to original sequence, or how the exporting application utilized the data. 05/22/01

10. North Coast Surety 10 Owner Contractor Surety Agent Surety Company Making Project Data Manageable While the data that makes up the totality of a project may be considerable, the basic information that is processed during the bidding process lends itself very well to XML. With the adoption of the acordXML standard by the members of the Surety Association of America, and the use of those standards by various applications, the efficiency can be realized, while not be constrained to any one application or provider.