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 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 ProducerProcessor / Store Exporter Importing Country Authority CERTIFICATION Transport Arrival Product information Consignment information Certificate Approved Certificate viewed and updated on eCert website eCert

The Value of Standards Effectiveness Implement solutions faster Scalable Interoperability Enable collaboration, traceability Consistency Manage the risk Sustainable

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

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 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 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 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/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/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 Belarussia nSingle Window Chinese Single Window Chinese Single Window INTTRA GTNexu s AETP GS1 Sberbank HSBC International Supply Chain - example International Supply Chain - example The international supply chain is a complex federation of bi-lateral information chains BUY REPOR T PAY SHI P

Legal Interoperability Legislative Alignment Organizational Interoperability Organization/Proces s Alignment Semantic Interoperability Semantic Alignment Technical Interoperability Interaction & Transport Political Context Requirements for Interoperability International Laws WTO/UN recommendations agreed business processes agreed components agreed documents agreed syntax Trade Agreements Requirements for Trade Facilitation agreed messaging protocol Trade Facilitation Recommendations Role of UN/CEFACT Define common semantics new focus on trust and authentication new focus on trust and authentication