Press
Release ECE/TRADE/99/18
Geneva, 12 November 1999
UN/EDIFACT:
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR STRUCTURED DATA AND INTERNET WILL
FACILITATE BUSINESS EXCHANGES FOR ALL USERS
From 20
to 24 September 1999, around 200 experts in electronic business from national, regional
and international organizations and the private sector met in Canberra at the
Business-to-Business E-commerce Conference for UN/EDIFACT to facilitate global
business-to-business exchanges. At the Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce Open Day,
organized by Tradegate ECA, Senator Richard Alston, Australia’s Minister for
Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, stated that "…the work of
UN/CEFACT -- United Nations Centre for the Facilitation of Procedures and
Practices for Administration, Commerce and Transport -- and the UN/EDIFACT
Working Group -- this Working Group develops the essential tools for automated
electronic business. These tools form the foundation of business-to-business electronic
commerce, are used in a wide range of industries from automotive to retail, and have been
implemented by hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide -- on new
technologies fits hand-in-hand with the Government’s strategy for Australian business
in the information economy". He noted that while the statistics show that small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are finding their way into the supply chain and join this
huge installed user base, there remains a continuing challenge to promote the positives of
e-commerce to all businesses.
The Chair of the UN/EDIFACT Working Group,
Mr. Barry Keogh informed the Conference that the major developments and growth in
electronic commerce were currently in business-to-business transactions based on
UN/EDIFACT, which is used by half a million companies worldwide. The UN/EDIFACT Working
Group intends to promote e-business for all users through the convergence of the
continuous development of the international business language for structured data,
UN/EDIFACT, and the possibilities offered by the Internet technologies to facilitate all
web-based business transactions.
The next meeting of the Working Group
takes place in Paris in March 2000. Further information can be found at the following web
address: http://www.unece.org/cefact/.
Highlights of the
meeting
XML announcement: Mr. Ray Walker, Chair, UN/CEFACT Steering Group, and Mr. Bill Smith, President,
Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), announced
that UN/CEFACT and OASIS had joined forces to initiate a worldwide project to standardize
XML business specifications.
"To be effective for global business,
it is vital that XML specifications be based on a common framework," explained Bill
Smith. As Senator Alston noted, "many often competing efforts are under way to
develop XML specifications for global business exchanges. Clearly without some initiative
to bring these efforts together, there could be considerable confusion and duplication
among users and, as a result, the opportunities that XML offers to the market will not be
maximized".
Ray Walker said that this was good news,
"especially for small and medium-sized companies, developing countries, and economies
in transition" and that it would in the long term contribute to the growth of
world trade.
Simpler electronic business: Following the decision taken at the Atlanta meeting in March 1999 towards simpler
electronic business with UN/EDIFACT, the Canberra meeting progressed the work items to
simplify the use of business data exchange and business processes. The Working Group
adopted the Unified Modelling Language (UML), based on Object Oriented technology, for
modelling purposes of the business processes and data. The Implementation and
Harmonization Working Group reported on the progress concerning Simple EDI. The Object
Oriented EDI Working Group held its first meeting and two projects were established to
validate the concept and information dissemination among the EDI user community: the cargo
insurance project and the travel tourism and leisure reservation project.
Business domains
highlights
Purchasing - The Group examined the implications of the use of Simple
EDI for trade messages. The new methodology is expected to accommodate 80% of business
requirements provided that the appropriate business practices are given a stringent
review.
Transport - The continued growth in
the adoption of UN/EDIFACT messages by the international transport industry was further
boosted at this meeting. An example of such growth are the 3,000 implementations of the
container bayplan (BAPLIE) message. This has been achieved in a very short time as a
result of the implementation guidelines provided by the International Transport
Implementation Guidelines Group (ITIGG) and the Worldwide User Group for Shipping Lines
and Container Terminals (SMDG). These groups are dedicated to providing globally
harmonized guidelines for UN/EDIFACT messages. The bayplan messages cover over 100 million
container-moves per annum, representing 95% of the total global container trade. Today,
the principal ports around the world are receiving on average 80% of dangerous cargo
notifications by EDI messages.
Finance - The Group acknowledged the need to further encourage inter-sectoral activities in
order to provide seamless message-processing between the various sectors of the market. In
this respect, and with the aim of achieving end-to-end straight-through processing, the
Finance Working Group acknowledged with pleasure all current projects aiming at ensuring
interoperability between different systems.
Insurance – Following the Atlanta meeting, the Working Group undertook an XML pilot study to
familiarize itself with the use of XML and understand the implications and issues within
the global insurance community. The study was concluded successfully within six months.
The deliverables were a document table definition (DTD) for cargo insurance transactions;
advice of shipment and evidence of coverage; and a document outlining outstanding
technical issues and providing a methodology for future XML development.
Healthcare - Progress was reported on the following messages:
| MEDHIC |
Healthcare Funding Information request/response. The message
was recast in Canberra, based on comments received. It was aligned with MEDRUC and MEDAUT. |
| IHCEBI |
Interactive Health Care Eligibility request. The message was
reviewed and its documentation will be submitted. |
| IHCEBR |
Interactive Health Care Eligibility response. The functionality
of this proposed message will be incorporated into the IHCEBI. |
| MEDAUT |
Medical Authorization message. The suggestion was made and
accepted to leave MEDAUT as it is, with work later. |
| MEDRUC |
Resource Usage / Cost message. Modifications to the MEDRUC have
been submitted for implementation. |
| MEDDIS |
Discharge Summary Letter message. The message was distributed
and discussed for the Medical Discharge summary. |
| IPPOAD |
Insurance Policy Administration message. A business need was
identified in Australia for a message to convey information about covered parties and
claims history between insurers. The IPPOAD will be evaluated for this functionality. |
Accounting,
Auditing, Registration and Financial Information Services – The
Group discussed the ebXML announcement, especially because of an announcement made in
August 1999 by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) on their
XFRML project. XFRML will be the instrument in use to forward financial reports in the
United States in XML language. In some respects there is certain duplication with the
message INFENT. The Accounting and Audit Group had a fruitful meeting with Mr. Kevin
Lewis, Director at the Australian Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Environmental
Management and Safety - The Environmental Management and Safety Group held its
first meeting in Canberra, under the leadership of the US Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and the Chinese Taipei Environmental Protection Administration (CT EPA). Also
participating were representatives of Philippine and Australian environmental agencies,
and of the United States Department of Treasury’s International Trade Data System
(ITDS). The Group prepared the initial draft of a workplan and met with the Customs Group
to discuss areas of mutual interest. Under the proposed workplan the Group will focus
initially on developing an internationally harmonized model of the business processes
associated with import and export of environmentally regulated products and hazardous
waste, including customs documentation and clearance. The Group will base its UN/EDIFACT
messaging on this model. The Group also proposes to assess the adequacy of current EDI
standards for material safety data sheets.
Joint Technical
Assessment – The D.99B directory was released for publication. The
directory contains 189 United Nations Standard Messages for increasing different business
sectors. Forty-nine new messages are currently in development.
For further information, please
contact:
Mr. Jean Kubler
UN/EDIFACT Administrator
Trade Division/ Trade Facilitation
Section
United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10
Tel: +41 22 917 2774
Fax: +41 22 917 0037
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.unece.org/cefact/