Derived from the global MSR/MEDOC vision
 
"MSR/MEDOC enables everybody - regardless of their tools and data management environment - to exchange information and work products online. Team members can retrieve, process and add information at any time and any location. MSR/MEDOC provides enabling technologies by applying internet standards such as XML in the distributed engineering process"
MSR/MEDOC applies the potential of XML as enabling technologies to the domain of embedded electronic systems (in particular the automotive). This results in vertical standards which are prerequisite for applying e-business approaches in the engineering process.
The gap between engineering data, database contents and document presentations can be overcome by establishing the XML based middle layer as shown in Document layer architecture
Figure 1: Document layer architecture