Standards in the world of E-business

Harm Jan van Burg

Ministry of Finance The Netherlands

UN/CEFACT Vice Chair for international cooperation

Framework for InteroperabilityFramework for Interoperability

• eBusiness is all about information exchange

• The ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged• Interoperability

• Requires mutual agreement on several levels• Standards help with this

example:eCert

example:eCert

Producer Processor / Store

Exporter

Importing Country

Authority

CERTIFICATION

Transport Arrival

Product information Consignment

information

Certificate Approved

Certificate viewed and updated on

eCert websiteeCert

The Value of StandardsThe Value of Standards

• Effectiveness• Implement solutions faster• Scalable

• Interoperability• Enable collaboration, traceability

• Consistency• Manage the risk • Sustainable

The Cost of StandardsThe Cost of Standards

• Complexity• Learning curve

• Inflexibility• Conformance limits innovation

• Dependency• External control

• Customization• One size does not fit all

A. No Standards• Who wins?

C. Coordinated Standards• Bridging communities of use• Common semantics• Federated approach

The Options Before UsThe Options Before Us

B. One Standard• Who decides?• What do they decide?• When do they decide?

Achieving standards for Trade and Trade facilitation

Achieving standards for Trade and Trade facilitation

• In 20 years time…• eBusiness will be ubiquitous• Collaborative business processes will be

integrated• Organizations won’t know or care what standards

are used to make this work

• How will we get there from here?• We can engineer evolution

• If we understand how it works• … and coordinate on the standards needed

The Need for TrustThe Need for Trust

• One of the challenges with this is Trust. • When businesses seek to develop or

improve their international supply chains, their primary consideration is trust in the complete trade system.

Trust in Trade SystemsTrust in Trade Systems

• Business collaboration is all about trust in the complete trade system• trust in the security, reliability and authenticity

of the processes and partners• trust in the quality of data (interoperability)

• These are established by agreement• aka Contracts, Trading Partner Agreements

Collaboration agreements need standards

Collaboration agreements need standards

• Standards are fundamental to establishing agreements on business.

• Using standards creates certainty… • and certainty enables trust.

• Using standards promotes interoperability• Sharing information across communities

• ‘open’ standards provide for independent governance • long term sustainability

The Need for UN/CEFACTThe Need for UN/CEFACT

• Changes to retail banking brought by digital technology: • made possible by an agreed framework of

global standards. • creating the trust required for the electronic

exchange of financial information. • UN/CEFACT is trying to create the

equivalent framework for international trade

UN/CEFACTUN/CEFACT

• UN/CEFACT is working with Member States, standards-development organizations, and business to coordinate a framework of open standards that will create a secure, reliable and authenticated environment for international trade in the digital economy.

SUPPLIER BUYER

PROCUREMENT

FINANCIAL

REGULATORY

LOGISTICS

BelarussianSingle Window

ChineseSingle

Window

INTTRAGTNexus

AETPGS1

SberbankHSBC

International Supply Chain- exampleInternational Supply Chain- example

The international supply chain is a complex federation of bi-lateral information chains

BUY

REPORT

PAY

SHIP

Legal Interoperability

Legislative Alignment

Organizational Interoperability

Organization/Process Alignment

Semantic Interoperability

Semantic Alignment

Technical Interoperability

Interaction & Transport

Political Context

Requirements forInteroperability

International Laws

WTO/UN recommendations

agreed business processes

agreed components

agreed documents

agreed syntax

Trade Agreements

Requirements for Trade Facilitation

agreed messaging protocol

Trade FacilitationRecommendations

Role of UN/CEFACTRole of UN/CEFACT

Definecommon semantics

new focus on trust and authentication