European Committee for

Standardization

Product Description

And Classification

ePDC – September 14, 2004

INTERIM REPORT

Report of the Expert Group on B2B Internet trading platforms (6/2003)

• Related to e-catalogues, but not identical, is the complex issue of e-classification of products. In order to find any given product in any given B2B Internet trading platform, products need to be systematically classified. This is currently not the case. It is reported that there are more than forty different e-classification schemes used in Europe today; some of them are vertical, others are horizontal. Standardisation should ensure that such systems encompass all industries, are multilingual, sufficiently detailed and maintained over the years.

• It is the view of the Expert Group that European Standards Bodies should play a stronger role in developing and promoting common standards for e-cataloguing and product classification. European Standards Bodies are thus encouraged to further promote standardisation work at European level, with the view to supporting convergence of different communication standards and to further developing harmonised product classification schemes and e-catalogues.

A lot of classification systems!We have indexed at least 37 different classification schemes! (As of

Aug. 2003)

- UNSPSC (H) - eCl@ss (H)- HS (Harmonized System - H) - CPV (European Procurement - H)- CPC (UN Classif. – H) - NATO (Military Procurement – H)- NAICS (North American – H) - NACE (Economic Activities in the EU – H)- BEC (Broad Econ. Cat. – H) - eOTD (ECCMA – H)- CCIO (Commodities by Industr. Orig. – H) - COICOP (Ind. Consumption – H)- CN (Combined Nomenclature – H) - ISIC (Econom. Act. – H)- PRODCOM (Products of the EC – H) - CPA (Class. Prod. by Activity – H) - NIGP (Periscope – H) - RUS (Requisite – H)- GCI (Retail – V) - PIDX (Oil – V)- RNTD (Electronic comp. – V) - IEC (Electrical, Electronic – V)- GHS (Hazardeous Chem. – V) - Sanitary + Heating (V)- RAPID (Agrochemicals – V) - SEMI (Electronics – V)- CAMPUS (Plastics – V) - ICD-10 (Medical – V)- ATC (Anatomical Therapeutic – V) - PHC (Pharmaceutical – V)- Proficlass (Construction - V) - SNITEM (Medical Technology – V)- etc…

+ Environmental classifications (15 different?)

and we are sure there are many others…

H = Horizontal = covers all goods and serv. V = Vertical = industry specific

5

European Commission

eEuropeeEurope20052005

Enterprise Directorate General

Challenge 1To promote e-

business integration

Challenge 2To promote

cross- border e-business

Challenge 3To promote trust and confidence in

e-business

Objective 1.1.Transaction

protocols and standards (EDI/XML)

Objective 2.1.e-Procurement

standards (eCataloguing, eClassification)

Objective 3.1.eSignatures/ IT

Security standards

Objective 1.2.Sectoral

standardisation initiatives

Objective 2.2.e-Payment/ Invoicing standards

Objective 3.2.Open source

standardisation

Objective 4.2.Best practise

Objective 4.3.Awareness &

SMEs

Challenge 4To promote the use of standards in support of interoperable

e-business

Overall challengeTo promote interoperable e-

business

Objective 4.1.Sectoral/national interoperability

testbeds

Objective 4.2.Best practice

We have seen: all necessary standards to We have seen: all necessary standards to describe attributes/characteristicsdescribe attributes/characteristics are available are available (some parts are still in elaboration):(some parts are still in elaboration):

ISO 13584, ISO 11179, IEC 61360, DIN V 4002,ISO 13584, ISO 11179, IEC 61360, DIN V 4002,……

Good examplesGood examples of of classification schemesclassification schemes and and technical dictionariestechnical dictionaries exist: however they need exist: however they need either semantic refining, or compliance with either semantic refining, or compliance with ISO/IEC standards.ISO/IEC standards.

There are (too) There are (too) many classification schemesmany classification schemes

There is a definite There is a definite lack of terminology lack of terminology standardisationstandardisation for these schemes! for these schemes!

FACTSFACTS

Why is ISO 13584 used Why is ISO 13584 used so littleso little??

Some parts of the hierarchical structure exist, Some parts of the hierarchical structure exist, attributes standards exist but attributes standards exist but no global no global documentdocument is proposed is proposed

Too many classification schemesToo many classification schemes; many are not ; many are not aligned towards the existing standardsaligned towards the existing standards

There is There is no global common standardno global common standard for for catalogues (catalogues ( eCAT) and for eCAT) and for classificationclassification

MultilingualityMultilinguality is a must in Europe is a must in Europe

The request for a global classification comes The request for a global classification comes from from everywhereeverywhere and and is is insistentinsistent

Product Description and Product Description and Classification ProjectClassification Project

(ePDC)(ePDC)

October 10th, 2003October 10th, 2003

Work Item 3 (W3):Work Item 3 (W3): (Months 1-6) (Months 1-6)

Decide on common architecture for technical Decide on common architecture for technical dictionaries according to pertaining standards like dictionaries according to pertaining standards like ISO 13584.ISO 13584.Work Item 2 (W2):Work Item 2 (W2): (Months 1-3) (Months 1-3)

Harmonize the terminology (terms and definitions)Harmonize the terminology (terms and definitions)

Participants to ePDCParticipants to ePDCCIDX (Chemical Industry Data eXchange – European contact: CIDX (Chemical Industry Data eXchange – European contact: Ludwigshafen, DE).Ludwigshafen, DE).eCl@ss e.V. (Cologne, DE). eCl@ss e.V. (Cologne, DE). TERMNET (Vienna, Austria).TERMNET (Vienna, Austria).ENSMA/pLIB (Poitiers, FR).ENSMA/pLIB (Poitiers, FR).EAN International (Brussels, BE)EAN International (Brussels, BE)UNSPSC (Lawrenceville, USA).UNSPSC (Lawrenceville, USA).ROSETTANET (Santa Ana, USA ).ROSETTANET (Santa Ana, USA ).SEMI (San Jose, USA - European contact: Brussels, BE).SEMI (San Jose, USA - European contact: Brussels, BE).PIDX (Petroleum Industry Data eXchange – Houston, USA).PIDX (Petroleum Industry Data eXchange – Houston, USA).IAO – Fraunhofer Institute (Stuttgart, DE).IAO – Fraunhofer Institute (Stuttgart, DE).ECC – European Content Club (Frankfurt, DE).ECC – European Content Club (Frankfurt, DE).PHOENIX EDH (Houston, USA).PHOENIX EDH (Houston, USA).KIS – Korea Information Service (Seoul, Korea).KIS – Korea Information Service (Seoul, Korea).PARADINE (Vienna, Austria).PARADINE (Vienna, Austria).REQUISITE (Westminster, USA).REQUISITE (Westminster, USA).MENZA (Lealholm, UK).MENZA (Lealholm, UK).CHINA NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STANDARDISATION (Beijing).CHINA NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STANDARDISATION (Beijing).EA-ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ASSOCIATION (Tokyo, Japan)EA-ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ASSOCIATION (Tokyo, Japan)SEMANTIC SCIENCES Corp. (Los Altos, USA) SEMANTIC SCIENCES Corp. (Los Altos, USA) Etc…Etc…

YEAR 1 (2003-10 / 2005-03)

10.2003 09.2004End first phase

12.2004 09.2005End second phase

W1

W2

W3

W4

W6

W5

W7

W9

W8

W10

SurveillanceTerminology

Architecture

Business rules

Toolset

Transition

Committee+repository

MigrationHarmonization

Segments

M1 – kick-off M2 M3M4

Work Item (W); Milestone (M)

W11

W12

W13

ISO Lib + Classes

ISO Hierarc

ISO Keyword

ePDC1

ePDC2

3 GENERAL DATA

1st Plenary meeting: Oct. 10, 2003 (Köln)3 Experts were nominated on Nov. 19, 2003: Jörg Leukel, Nikolaus Ondracek, Frans van BastenStart-up meeting of experts: Dec. 8 (Germany)First working meeting: Jan. 27, 2004 (Holland)Second meeting: Feb. 26, 2004 (Germany)2d Plenary meeting: Feb. 27, 2004 (Köln)Third meeting: April 2-3, 2004 (Austria)Fourth meeting: May 6, 2004 (Germany)Fifth meeting: June 9, 2004 (Germany)Sixth meeting: Aug. 27-28, 2004 (Germany)Seventh meeting: Sept. 13, 2004 (Germany)3d Plenary meeting: Sept. 14, 2004 (Köln)

3 GENERAL DATA (2)

• The 3 experts published an interim report on May 6,2004• The report was accepted by the European Commission

on July 5, 2004• A draft final report was sent to all participants in the ePDC workshop on Sept. 10, 2004• The final report is forseen for November 2004