CEN CWA 15045

WORKSHOP July 2004

AGREEMENT

ICS 35.240.60

English version

Multilingual catalogue strategies for eCommerce and eBusiness

This CEN Workshop Agreement has been drafted and approved by a Workshop of representatives of interested parties, the constitution of which is indicated in the foreword of this Workshop Agreement.

The formal process followed by the Workshop in the development of this Workshop Agreement has been endorsed by the National Members of CEN but neither the National Members of CEN nor the CEN Management Centre can be held accountable for the technical content of this CEN Workshop Agreement or possible conflicts with standards or legislation.

This CEN Workshop Agreement can in no way be held as being an official standard developed by CEN and its Members.

This CEN Workshop Agreement is publicly available as a reference document from the CEN Members National Standard Bodies.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

Management Centre: rue de Stassart, 36 B-1050 Brussels

© 2004 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved worldwide for CEN national Members.

Ref. No.:CWA 15045:2004 E 2 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Contents Contents 2 Foreword 10 Introduction 11 1 Scope 12 2 Normative references 13 3 Abbreviations, terms and definitions 14 3.1 Abbreviations 14 3.2 Terms and definitions 15 4 Survey of existing eCatalogues for eBusiness [W 1.1] 17 4.1 Methodology 17 4.1.1 Organizational information 18 4.1.2 Exchange and usage of eCatalogues 18 4.1.3 eCatalogue formats 19 4.1.4 eCatalogue content 19 4.1.5 System application 19 4.2 Survey of eCatalogues 20 4.2.1 Organizational information 20 4.2.1.1 Number of participants 20 4.2.1.2 Types of organizations 20 4.2.1.3 Number of employees 20 4.2.1.4 Industry sectors 21 4.2.1.5 Yearly turnover 21 4.2.1.6 Supply chain hierarchy 21 4.2.2 Usage of eCatalogues 22 4.2.2.1 Exchange of electronic data 22 4.2.2.2 Requests for exchanging electronic data 22 4.2.2.3 Departments involved in eCatalogues 23 4.2.2.4 Departments applying eCatalogues 23 4.2.2.5 Pushing factors for eCatalogues 24 4.2.2.6 Catalogue media 24 4.2.2.7 Standardization needs 25 4.2.3 eCatalogue formats 25 4.2.3.1 Number of catalogue formats in use 25 4.2.3.2 Proprietary eCatalogue formats 27 CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 3

4.2.3.3 Functional components of eCatalogues 28 4.2.3.4 Product information 29 4.2.3.5 Catalogue navigation schemes 30 4.2.3.6 Classification schemes 30 4.2.3.7 Number of languages for product catalogues 30 4.2.3.8 Number of languages for eCatalogues in the future 31 4.2.3.9 Transfer of multilingual product information in eCatalogues 31 4.2.4 Integration of eCatalogues 32 4.2.4.1 Systems to exchange electronic product information 32 4.3 Summary 33 5 Survey of organizations supporting eCatalogue development in eBusiness [W 1.2] 35 5.1 Specifications and standards 35 5.1.1 International de jure standards organizations 35 5.1.1.1 ISO 35 5.1.1.2 UN/CEFACT 36 5.1.2 Other (standards) bodies and open (industry) organizations 36 5.1.2.1 BME 36 5.1.2.2 CEN/ISSS 36 5.1.2.3 CIDX 37 5.1.2.4 CommerceNet 37 5.1.2.5 CRISTAL 37 5.1.2.6 EAN International 37 5.1.2.7 ECCMA 38 5.1.2.8 eCl@ss 38 5.1.2.9 EDIRA 38 5.1.2.10 LISA 39 5.1.2.11 NATO 39 5.1.2.12 OASIS 39 5.1.2.13 ONCE 40 5.1.2.14 Open Application Group 40 5.1.2.15 PIDX 40 5.1.2.16 RAPID 40 5.1.2.17 RosettaNet 41 5.1.2.18 UCC 41 5.1.2.19 UNDP 41 4 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

5.1.3 Other industry organizations 42 5.1.3.1 Ariba 42 5.1.3.2 Commerce One 42 5.1.3.3 Martsoft 42 5.1.3.4 SAP 42 5.1.3.5 Requisite Technology, Inc. 42 5.2 Providers of eCatalogue software 43 5.2.1 Typology of eCatalogue software 43 5.2.2 Geographic origin 44 6 State-of-the-art in eCatalogue research [W 1.2] 46 6.1 Literature survey 46 6.1.1 Characterization of eCatalogues 47 6.1.2 Content integration 47 6.1.3 Coverage of real-world business practice 49 6.1.4 Management issues 49 6.1.5 Database technology 50 6.1.6 Standards adoption 50 6.2 Organizations active in eCatalogue research 51 7 Analysis of existing eCatalogues [W 1.3] 52 7.1 Determination of the objects of investigation 52 7.1.1 Data types 54 7.1.2 Vocabulary 54 7.1.3 Documents 55 7.1.4 Processes 55 7.1.5 Framework 55 7.1.6 Metamodel 56 7.2 Definition of criteria for the analysis of eCatalogue standards 56 7.2.1 Standardization organization 56 7.2.2 Methodology used in the of standardization process 56 7.2.3 Content of eCatalogue standards 58 7.2.3.1 Comparison at process layer 58 7.2.3.2 Comparison at document layer 58 7.2.3.3 Comparison at vocabulary and data type layer 59 7.3 Analysis of eCatalogue standards (w/o classification systems) 60 7.3.1 Objects of investigation 60 7.3.2 Comparative analysis of the selected standards 60 CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 5

7.3.2.1 Standardization organization 60 7.3.2.2 Methodology used in the standardization process 61 7.3.2.3 Content of eCatalogue standards 61 7.4 Identification of deficits of eCatalogue standards and suggestion for solution of the identified problems 65 8 Analysis of the relation between (as well as application of) existing product classification schemes/product identification schemes and eCatalogues [W 1.4] 68 8.1 Introduction 68 8.2 Terms and definitions 68 8.3 Criteria for classification 70 8.3.1 Multilingual aspects of existing product classification/identification schemes 71 8.3.2 International character and authoritative nature 71 8.3.3 Speed of updating and change management 71 8.3.4 Diffusion of support software 71 8.3.5 Upward and downward compatibility of versions 71 8.3.6 Relation to terminology and ontologies 71 8.4 Overview of existing product classification/identification schemes 72 8.4.1 CPV – Common Procurement Vocabulary 72 8.4.2 eCl@ss 73 8.4.3 ECCMA Open Technical Dictionary (eOTD) 74 8.4.4 ETIM 75 8.4.5 IEC 61360 Component Data Dictionary 75 8.4.6 ISO 13584 compliant dictionaries 76 8.4.7 NATO Codification System (NCS) 76 8.4.8 proficl@ss 78 8.4.9 UNSPSC – Universal Standard Products and Services Classification 78 8.4.10 Comparison Table - Classificaiton/Identification schemes 79 8.5 Identification of problems 80 8.5.1 No common data model 80 8.5.2 Different semantic 81 8.5.3 No harmonized workflows 81 8.5.4 No common multilingual approach 81 8.6 Suggestion for solution to existing (and foreseen future) problems 81 8.6.1 Create common data model 81 8.6.2 Focus on terminology 82 6 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

8.6.3 Define workflow 82 9 Formulation of problems and recommendations for a systematic approach to implement highly interoperable eCatalogues at SME level [W 1.5] 83 9.1 Summary of issues raised in analysis sections 83 9.2 Interoperable eCatalogues 83 9.2.1 General requirements for interoperability 83 9.2.2 SMEs vs other organizations 83 9.2.3 Multilingual aspects 84 9.2.3.1 eCatalogue interface and eCatalogue content 84 9.2.3.2 Text maintenance and translation work 84 9.2.3.3 Standardized terminology and controlled language 84 9.2.3.4 Issues relating to culture-specific terminology 85 9.2.3.5 Issues relating to layout 85 9.2.3.6 Language settings and fallback 86 9.3 Recommendations 86 10 Plans and concepts for at standardization strategy [W 2] 88 10.1 Introduction 88 10.2 Terms and definitions 89 10.3 Summary of the level model of eBusiness standardization (cf. 7.1) 90 10.4 Summary of recommendations concerning the methodology used in the standardization process (cf. 7.2.2) 90 10.5 Requirements for a metamodel framework including metadata registries 91 10.5.1 Establishment of metamodels 91 10.5.2 Metadata definitions 92 10.6 Product classification and product identification 92 10.7 Systematic definition of central concepts within eCataloguing 93 10.8 Existing and further needed guidelines, standards and methodologies 93 10.9 Terminological concept modelling 94 10.9.1 Concept systems 94 10.9.1.1 Inheritance of feature specifications 95 10.9.1.2 Polyhierarchical structure 96 10.9.1.3 Subdivision criteria 96 10.9.2 Definitions 98 10.9.3 Subject classification in terminology work 99 10.10 Description of an existing metamodel for terminology databases 101 10.11 Example of a metadata registry for terminology databases 104 CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 7

10.12 Examples of work within the ebXML initiative 107 10.12.1 Types of ebXML documents 108 10.12.2 Business Process and Business Information Analysis Overview 110 10.12.3 OASIS/ebXML Registry Information Model v2.0 110 10.13 Conclusions 111 10.13.1 Cooperation 111 10.13.2 Systematic definition of central concepts 111 10.13.3 Establishment of metamodels 112 10.13.4 Metadata definitions 112 10.13.5 Subject classification 112 10.14 References 113 10.14.1 Standards 113 10.14.2 Books 113 10.14.3 Internet resources 113 11 Plans and concepts for pan-European implementation [W 3] 115 11.1 Objective and scope of W 3 115 11.2 Current situation 115 11.3 Preparation of eLearning material and training opportunities for SMEs and consultants 115 11.3.1 eLearning 116 11.3.1.1 Computer based training (CBT) 117 11.3.1.2 Web based training (WBT) 117 11.3.1.3 Web based virtual classrooms 117 11.3.2 Classroom courses 117 11.3.3 Implementation of training 117 11.3.4 Market overview – examples 118 11.3.4.1 European and international eLearning activities 118 11.3.4.2 Suppliers of eLearning infrastructure and tools 118 11.3.5 Glossary eLearning 119 11.4 Launch of a pan-European promotion and dissemination campaign 120 11.4.1 eCAT – Logo/CI 121 11.4.2 eCAT – Web Platform 121 11.4.3 eCAT – email Newsletter 121 11.4.4 eCAT series of conferences 122 11.4.5 Events 122 11.4.6 Publications and Promotion Material 122 8 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

11.4.6.1 Articles for magazines 122 11.4.6.2 Press releases 123 11.4.6.3 Promotion Material 123 11.5 Support of standardization/harmonization efforts in this connection in order to facilitate the preparation and application of multilingual eCatalogues 123 11.5.1 ISO/TC 37 – Terminology and other language resources 123 11.5.2 ISO 13584 – PLIB (ISO TC 184) 123 11.5.2.1 ISO 13584 – part 501 124 11.5.2.2 ISO 13584 – part 511 124 11.5.2.3 DIN Online Dictionary (www.DINsml.net) 124 11.5.3 IEC 61360 Online Dictionary 124 11.5.4 ebXML 125 11.5.5 GCI Global Commerce Initiative 125 11.6 Conclusion 126 12 Recommendations 127 13 Bibliography 128 14 (Annex) Providers of eCatalogue Software 130 15 (Annex) Standards organizations and other guidelines/regulations-setting organizations having a strong impact on SMEs (focussing on eBusiness requirements) 136 16 (Annex) Maintenance Agencies and Registration Authorities 138 17 (Annex) Terms in the context of ebXML 140 18 (Annex) Definitions and developments related to eBusiness 142 19 (Annex) Figures in chapter 7 145 20 (Annex) Report: Terminology for eCatalogues and Product Classification 156 20.1 Introduction 156 20.2 Scope 156 20.3 Normative References 156 20.4 General information about the terminology study 157 20.5 Concept systems 157 20.5.1 Concept systems: “Knowledge representation” 158 20.5.2 Concept system: “Modeling tools” 161 20.5.3 Concept system: “Terminology and related products” 162 20.5.4 Concept system: “Product catalogues” 163 20.5.5 Concept system: “Registries” 164 20.5.6 Levels in product classification systems 165 20.6 Terms and definitions 165 CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 9

20.6.1 Terms relating to ontologies and data models 166 20.6.2 Terms relating to classification systems 171 20.6.3 Terms relating to modeling tools 174 20.6.4 Terms relating to terminology and related products 175 20.6.5 Terms relating to product description and metadata 176 20.7 Alphabetical list of terms 178 20.8 Bibliography 180 10 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Foreword

The production of this CWA « Multilingual catalogue strategies for eCommerce and eBusiness” was accepted by the CEN Workshop eCAT at the plenary meeting held in Brussels on 28 March 2003.

The Workshop e CAT, which started in November 2002, addressed cataloguing and classification issues for eCommerce and eBusiness in a multilingual environment. The Workshop eCAT had over seventy members, representing industry, academia, standards consortia, trade associations active in ebusiness.

Five versions of the draft CWAs were released to Workshop e CAT members for comments. The final endorsement round took place from 13 January 2004 to 10 February 2004. The final draft CWA was approved at the eCAT Workshop plenary meeting held on 27 February in Cologne.

The comments received were all included in the final version of the CWA.

The present CWA received the support of various experts representing different organizations specialized in issues related to electronic catalogues. A list of experts who supported the contents of this document may be obtained from the CEN/ISSS Secretariat.

This CEN Workshop Agreement is publicly available as a reference document from the National Members of CEN: AENOR, AFNOR, BSI, CSNI, CYS, DIN, DS, ELOT, EVS, IBN, IPQ, IST, LVS, LST, MSA, MSZT, NEN, NSAI, ON, PKN, SEE, SIS, SIST, SFS, SN, SNV, SUTN and UNI.

Comments or suggestions from the users of the CEN Workshop Agreement are welcome and should be addressed to the CEN Management Centre.

CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 11

Introduction Multilingualism in the Union is often seen as an obstacle for the European economy in terms of competition and the opening up of new markets, but it also has political dimensions relating to consumer protection, freedom to move, etc. However, new economies have emerged in the wake of trying to overcome the language barriers, such as the language industries (incl. activities and the language technologies for making language resources and terminologies available at a large scale), where Europe has a leading edge thanks to the R&D programmes of the EU Commission. It has been recognized that products and services must be sold in the language of the target market. There are strong indications that eCommerce and eBusiness can only function well, if the virtual marketplaces and all their major elements (such as product classification schemes, user interfaces, product catalogues etc.) are multilingual from the outset. This, however, would create insurmountable financial barriers for SMEs, if they cannot benefit from synergies through a systematic approach to multilingual data, the methods for their management and the respective tools, as well as the integration of these data, methods and tools into the company’s whole ICT environment. The Management Group (MoU/MG) of the Memorandum of Understanding of the ITU, UN/ECE, ISO, IEC, CEN/ISSS and several other organizations, coordinating all standardization and harmonization efforts with respect to eCommerce and eBusiness, is convinced that eCommerce/eBusiness can only perform satisfactorily if it is multilingual and properly harmonized. That is the reason why the International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm), taking care of the Secretariat of ISO/TC 37 “Terminology and other language resources”, has been invited to join the MoU/MG. ISO/TC 37 has recently decided on a NWI (New Working Item) “Basic principles for multilingual product classification schemes for electronic commerce”. The real challenge is to establish “semantic interoperableity” of all kinds of eContent – first of all by means of fully integrated international multilingual product classification schemes and harmonized multilingual eCatalogue methods in terms of process chains into the whole information/knowledge management and data processing environment of enterprises. eCatalogues must be compatible or – what is more important – Interoperable with engineering systems (such as CAD/CAM, FIM, etc.) as well as with business software (such as ERP, etc.) and all kinds of information/knowledge management systems (including the human language technology (HLT) software supporting them). 12 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

1 Scope This document gives an overview and guidance in the usage of existing electronic product catalogues for eBusiness. On one hand an overview of relevant eCatalogue formats will be given on an quantitative level. On the other hand a qualitative comparison of existing catalogue formats has been done to show differences of the content in detail. In addition, this document will show future directions in eCatalogues and points out areas of standardization for eCatalogues. The document shall be used as guideline for future selection, implementation and usage of electronic product catalogues. This document is addressed to decision makers within organizations and companies as well as technically interested persons who want to get some knowledge about the technical differences between existing catalogue formats. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 13

2 Normative references The following International and European Standards are referenced in other parts of this document. Other standards of interest are listed in the Bibliography. ISO 639-1 : 2002 Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 1: Alpha-2 code. ISO 639-2 : 1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 2: Alpha-3 code. ISO 704 : 2000 Terminology work – Principles and methods. ISO 1087-1 : 2000 Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 1: Theory and application. ISO 1087-2 : 2000 Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 2: Computer applications. ISO 10303 Industrial automation systems and integration -- Product data representation and exchange (published in several parts from 1994). ISO/IEC 11581 Information technology – User system interfaces and symbols – Icon symbols and functions (published in several parts from 1999). ISO 12200 : 1999 Computer applications in terminology – Machine-readable terminology interchange format (MARTIF) – Negotiated interchange. ISO 12620 : 1999 Computer applications in terminology – Data categories. ISO/CD 13399 Cutting tool data representation and exchange (developed in several parts) ISO/IEC 15459-1 : 1999 Information technology – Unique identification of transport units – Part 1: General. ISO/IEC 15459-2 : 1999 Information technology – Unique identification of transport units – Part 2: Registration procedures. ISO 13584 Industrial automation systems and integration – Parts library (published in several parts from 1998). ISO 16642 : 2003 Computer applications in terminology – Terminological markup framework. IEC 61360 Standard data element types with associated classification schema for electric components (published in several parts from 1995). 14 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

3 Abbreviations, terms and definitions 3.1 Abbreviations A G A2A – application-to-application GCI – Global Commerce Initiative API – application programming interface GTIN – Global Trade Item Number B GUI – graphical user interface B2B – business-to-business H B2C – business-to-consumer HLT – human language technologies BME – Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, html – hypertext markup language Einkauf und Logistik e.V. http – hypertext transfer protocol C I CEN – European Committee for ICD – International Code Designator Standardization ICT – information and communication CWA – CEN Workshop Agreement technology cXML – commerce XML ID – identification D IEC – International Electrotechnical DTD – document type definition Commission E ISO – International Organization for Standardization EAI – enterprise application integration IT – information technology EAN – European Article Number ITU – International Telecommunication ebXML – electronic business XML Union eCAT – electronic product catalogue; in J this document eCAT will solely be used to refer to the CEN/ISSS JIT – just in time Workshop and this CWA M EDI – electronic data interchange MoU – memorandum of understanding EDIFACT – EDI for administration, MRO – maintenance, repair and commerce and transportation operations EPC – electronic product catalogue N ER – entity relationship NWI – new work item ERP – enterprise resource planning O F OAG – Open Applications Group FAQ – frequently asked questions OAGIS – Open Applications Group ftp – file transfer protocol Integration Specification OBI – open buying on the Internet CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 15

OCI – open catalogue interface UML – unified modelling language P UN/CEFACT – United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic pdf – portable document format Business R W RNDT – RosettaNet Technical Dictionary W3C – World Wide Consortium S WSDL – web services description SC – supply chain language SME – small or medium-sized enterprises X smtp – simple mail transfer protocol xCBL – XML Common Business Library soap – simple object access protocol XML – extensible markup language SW – software XSD – XML Schema Definition U UDDI – universal description, discovery and integration

3.2 Terms and definitions For the purpose of this document the following definitions apply. product lifecycle management PLM management of all information during product lifecycle which is generated in processes in the value chain through the extended enterprise [cf. clause 8.2] product data management management of product data by encoding information about products in numbering systems and describing products in database tables [cf. clause 8.2] product identification code code used to make an unambiguous identification of a product [cf. clause 8.2] product classification assigning each product to a product group corresponding to common attributes or application areas [cf. clause 8.2] terminology set of terms representing the system of concepts of a particular subject field [cf. clause 8.2] ontology study of categories of things that exist or may exist in some domain [cf. clause 8.2] 16 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 small or medium-sized enterprise SME organization which is smaller than a specified size as to number of employees or annual turnover [cf. clause 9.2.2] CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 17

4 Survey of existing eCatalogues for eBusiness [W 1.1] An investigation of existing eCatalogues in eBusiness was done within the first of three work packages of the Workshop considering the schemes, systems/tools and the way of their application. In the following section the results of work package W 1.1 are described in three subsections: • methodology applied for the survey, • the structure of the questionnaire used for the survey, and • the final results. The results of the survey are considered as an indication of the current trends at eCatalogues in Europe. 4.1 Methodology This survey on existing eCatalogues for eBusiness aims for developing a better understanding of the eCatalogue application in organizations in Europe. The major purpose of this research is to identify • the exchange and the usage of product catalogues, • the spread of existing eCatalogue formats and their functions, • the application of multilingual content within eCatalogues, and • the IT systems/tools applied to handle eCatalogues. The survey has been conducted in two different approaches: • online questionnaire and • telephone interviews. The most important part of the survey is the online questionnaire aiming for a profound analysis of eCatalogues in Europe and thus building the common basis for collecting the information by using the above-mentioned approaches. In order to receive some good responses, the online questionnaire had been promoted • by advertising at appropriate websites, such as the websites of the eCAT-Workshop, of the competence centre “eBusiness” of the Fraunhofer IAO, of some related projects, etc. • by mailings to contacts of the CEN and the Fraunhofer IAO, • by contacting the national purchasing associations in Europe and enquiring some support for promoting the survey. As a result, three purchasing associations have been willing to support the survey, i.e. Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft Einkauf und Logistik e.V. (BME, Germany), Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft Einkauf und Logistik in Österreich (BMÖ, Austria) and the Schweizerischer Verband für Materialwirtschaft und Einkauf (SVME, Switzerland). 18 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

The online questionnaire has been filled out directly by the participants or by some interviewers over the telephone. The telephone interviews have become necessary in order to improve the results of the survey. In order to get a significant feedback for the trend analysis, nearly 1500 telephone interviews have been made without any preferences on specific industry sectors. As a result of the online questionnaire and the telephone interviews, 251 organizations have participated at the survey. Thus, a response rate of approximately 16 % has been achieved regarding the telephone interviews. The results of the survey are presented in the next subsections with the following content structure: • organizational information, • exchange and usage of eCatalogues, • eCatalogue formats, • eCatalogue content, and • system applications. This structure is according to the structure of the questionnaire. Prior to presenting the final results of the survey, the content of the questionnaire is explained. 4.1.1 Organizational information At the beginning of the questionnaire some background information of the participants is collected in order to gather some statistical information about the participants. • Industry sector This criterion specifies the industry sector of an organization. • Turnover The annual turnover of the participating organizations provides information about the size of the organizations. • Supply chain hierarchy The position of the participants within the supply chain provides information about existing standardization efforts and where at the supply chain they are adopted, i.e. manufacturer, wholesaler, eMarketplace, retailer, and consumer. 4.1.2 Exchange and usage of eCatalogues • Electronic data exchange The information provides the number of organizations that exchange electronic data and have made some experience with this topic. • Requests for exchanging electronic data This question aims for identifying whether the motivation of applying electronic data exchange comes from outside of the organization or is located within the organization itself. • Departments involved When applying eCatalogues within an organization usually different departments participate in this process. The information gives insights into the main departments that CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 19 use eCatalogues. To take this aspect into account for later standardization efforts, the correlation between eCatalogues and departments is examined. • Medium of product catalogues This criterion serves to get information about the usage of different media when exchanging product information in eCommerce between business partners. • Importance of eCatalogue standards from the participants point of view Here the participants give estimation about how useful the eCatalogue standards are for their business activities. This information reveals the motivation for organizations to accept and implement eCatalogue standards. 4.1.3 eCatalogue formats • Amount of catalogue formats applied An important benchmark for the usage of eCatalogues is the number of different catalogues which have to be exchanged between business partners. The amount of different catalogues applied shows the potential for eCatalogues and eCatalogue standard formats. • eCatalogue standard formats applied The usage of certain catalogue formats within companies provides important information about the strength of the various standardized formats in the market and to certain extent about the functions needed by the users. • Usage of proprietary catalogue formats The criterion shows whether there exists some proprietary catalogue formats widely used that should be taken into account from a functional point of view when discussing the standardization of the existing catalogue formats. 4.1.4 eCatalogue content • Content areas supported by eCatalogue formats This criterion is regarded as an indicator for some functional features that are needed by certain users. It serves as the basic functional subset to define or evaluate eCatalogue formats. • Language support in eCatalogues These questions identify the need of the users for multilingual product catalogues and their potential application within the organizations. 4.1.5 System application • Supporting catalogue systems The integration of eCatalogues in an organization’s infrastructure is the most important criterion for their successful application. The information given at these questions shows the involved environment for eCatalogues in terms of IT systems. • Language support of different catalogue systems The support of different languages is not only a topic for eCatalogues but also for the associated catalogue systems. The ability of these systems to support multilingual product 20 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 data is regarded as an indicator for the integration capabilities of multilingual product catalogues. 4.2 Survey of eCatalogues The information collected at the survey is presented in this subsection. The section is structured according to the structure of the online questionnaire mentioned above. 4.2.1 Organizational information The question about the general information of the participants of the questionnaire was optional. The main questions focus on the country where an organization is located, the industry sector and the number of employees as well as the position within the supply chain.

4.2.1.1 Number of participants The number of participants is 251 over all industry sectors and organization types. Over 160 of 251 questionnaires have been answered by participants from Germany. These are about 64 % of all organizations that have been taken part in the online questionnaire. The other participants are based in Austria, Great Britain, Switzerland, Hungary, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Slovenia, and Finland. In some countries the telephone interviews turned out to be a quite difficult task since many organizations have not been so far in using eCatalogues yet. Therefore, in some countries there is a great potential for eCatalogues to develop.

4.2.1.2 Types of organizations The distinction between the different types of organizations shows that the topic of eCatalogues is mainly concerned by the enterprises and not the non-profit organizations. Approximately 96 % of the participants are enterprises, whereas only 4 % are non-profit organizations.

Figure 4-1: Types of organizations.

4.2.1.3 Number of employees In order to get a better understanding about the size of the organizations handling multilingual eCatalogues, figure 4-2 shows the distribution of the participants in terms of the number of employees. Over 86 % of the participants are small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) with less than 500 employees and only about 12 % are enterprises of greater size. 2 % of the participants have not answered the question. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 21

Figure 4-2: Number of employees.

4.2.1.4 Industry sectors The industry sector reflects the different business areas of the participants. The industry sectors showing the most interest in the eCatalogue topic are the trading and consumer goods sector (17 %), followed by mechanical engineering (15 %), software development (9 %), manufacturing industry (6 %), building industry (5 %), chemical and pharmaceutical industry (5 %). However, a great number of participants (28 %) have not answered the question. The remaining 15 % are split into automobile industry, consulting, energy industry, media and entertainment, public administration, telecommunication, and tourism.

4.2.1.5 Yearly turnover Beside the number of employees, the yearly turnover is another criterion to identify the size of an organization. In correspondence to the number of employees, figure 4-3 shows that almost 72 % of the organizations have got a yearly turnover of less than 50 million Euros. Only about 18 % obtain more than 50 million Euros a year.

Figure 4-3: Yearly turnover.

4.2.1.6 Supply chain hierarchy Relating to the position at the supply chain, the figure 4-4 shows that most of the participants are positioned at the manufacturer stage (47 %). The trading stage including the retailers and wholesalers represents 24 %. Approximately 23 % of the participants have not answered this question. 22 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Figure 4-4: Supply chain hierarchy.

4.2.2 Usage of eCatalogues The second part of the questionnaire focuses on the exchange and the usage of multilingual electronic product catalogues.

4.2.2.1 Exchange of electronic data Prior to examining closer the different formats and requirements of eCatalogues, some information about the exchange of electronic data is needed. Approximately 82 % of all participants that have taken part in the survey are exchanging electronic data in some way. Only 16 % of the organizations are not exchanging electronic data at all. The later is considered as a high number of companies within a business-to-business context.

Figure 4-5: Exchange of electronic data.

4.2.2.2 Requests for exchanging electronic data When having a closer look at the results in figure 4-6, it becomes obvious, that almost 15 % of the participants do not have any request for exchanging electronic data from their business partners and thus may not have any reason to exchange electronic data. This may be an explanation of the relatively high number of organizations that do not exchange any electronic data as shown in figure 4-5. Whether the reason is at the participants’ industry sector or at organization’s level could be subject of further research at this field. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 23

Figure 4-6: Request for electronic data exchange.

4.2.2.3 Departments involved in eCatalogues After examining the information about the departments of the participants that are involved at eCataloguing, it obviously shows that four different departments are involved in the process of the creation, the usage and the exchange of eCatalogues. Figure 4-7 shows that 73 % of the participants the purchasing departments are involved in eCatalogues, followed by the sales departments (70 %) and the marketing department with 45 %. The exchange of product catalogues by the development departments occurs less often. Several departments could be involved in eCatalogues within an organization, for example may be the sales department an intermediary between customer and the development department that creates the eCatalogues.

Figure 4-7: Departments involved in eCatalogues.

4.2.2.4 Departments applying eCatalogues Considering the aspect of the eCatalogue usage at certain departments, the situation is slightly different as shown in figure 4-8. The usage of electronic catalogues occurs mostly at the purchasing departments (31 %) followed by the sales department coming up to 27 %, the marketing department (16 %), and the development department (12 %). Thus the purchasing and sales departments are mainly involved when introducing eCatalogues and they can be regarded as the motor for innovation in this area. 24 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Figure 4-8: Departments applying eCatalogues.

4.2.2.5 Pushing factors for eCatalogues When investigating the driving forces for the introduction of eCatalogues, the customers are mentioned most often (55 %). The eBusiness strategy is for 42 % of the participating organizations the driving force when implementing eCatalogues, followed by the suppliers (35 %), whereas eMarketplaces are mentioned only by 14 %. This result indicates that eMarketplaces are just intermediary and in most cases they are not the driving forces. The participants could mention more than one pushing factor.

Figure 4-9: Pushing factors for eCatalogues.

4.2.2.6 Catalogue media Here, it is identified which medium is applied when distributing product information to customers. Figure 4-10 shows that the most popular medium is still paper which is used by 85 % of the participants, followed by electronic files (82 %) and CD-ROM (71 %). The result reveals that the usage of the electronic files as a medium for product catalogues has almost become as widely spread as paper. Many of the participants distribute their catalogues in more than one medium, which should be supported appropriately by a product data and catalogue management system. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 25

Figure 4-10: Catalogue media.

4.2.2.7 Standardization needs When looking at the estimation of the participants concerning the standardization needs for eCatalogues figure 4-11 shows that 68 % of the participants feel that a standardization of eCatalogues is needed and important. This result provides a good basis for increasing the application of standard formats in the future.

Figure 4-11: Standardization needs.

4.2.3 eCatalogue formats

4.2.3.1 Number of catalogue formats in use The information about the number of eCatalogue formats applied, more than 152 of the 251 interviewed companies (60 %) use less than five catalogue formats. Over 28 % of the participants apply more than five catalogue formats but less than 25. However, there are almost 4 % of the organizations which apply more than 25 different catalogue formats. The result shows that 78 % of the organizations provide more than one catalogue format to their business partners. Thus, the product data and catalogue systems applied have to meet the requirements accordingly. 26 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Figure 4-12: Number of catalogue formats applied.

In figure 4-13, the most well known product catalogue formats are EDIFACT (29 %), BMEcat (23 %), and Datanorm (22 %) followed by SAP B2B-OCI and XML-EDI (21 %). Beside these well known formats, more than 16 additional formats are known by the participants.

Figure 4-13: eCatalogue formats known.

When having a look at the results of the survey concerning the applied formats for eCatalogues in figure 4-14, a major difference can be recognized since BMEcat (18 %) is more often used than EDIFACT (16 %) when exchanging product information. According to the survey, the XML-based product catalogue format BMEcat is the eCatalogue format mostly applied. However, the high amount of organizations from German-speaking countries has taken into account when considering the result, since BMEcat is an initiative of the German purchasing council (BME) and widely spread over Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 27

Beside the above-mentioned formats the GAEB format turned out to be the format at seventh position in terms of the application. The GEAB format supports the description of construction services.

Figure 4-14: eCatalogue formats applied.

4.2.3.2 Proprietary eCatalogue formats Beside the known and applied standard eCatalogue formats, an interesting aspect is the usage of proprietary eCatalogue formats. Here 80 % of the participants claim to use eCatalogues featuring a proprietary format. Only 16 % of the participants apply solely standard eCatalogue formats.

Figure 4-15: Proprietary eCatalogue formats applied.

One of the main proprietary formats is based on the PDF format applied by over 63 % of the participants followed by Microsoft Excel (43 %). Other formats based on ASCII (23 %), XML (21 %), and Comma Separated Values (CSV) (16 %) are also used, however not as often as the previously listed formats. 28 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Figure 4-16: Proprietary formats applied.

4.2.3.3 Functional components of eCatalogues The different functions that are handled by the proprietary formats are given in figures 4-17 to 4-20. The interviews have shown that more than 73 % use price information within their product catalogue formats. Only 15 % do not use any price information.

Figure 4-17: Price information in proprietary formats.

When looking at logistic information within the proprietary eCatalogues, only 50 % of the participants use it within their product catalogues, whereas 37 % do not use this kind of information at all. This might be a result of the subject logistics and its emergence for just a short time within the context of eCatalogues in comparison to price information. Logistic information is often used within a different context and applications such as ERP systems. Mainly within the last 2 to 3 years the way of thinking about logistic information in the context of eCatalogues has been changed.

Figure 4-18: Logistic information in proprietary formats.

Since contractual information has been integrated in eCatalogue formats at a very early stage and thus had been a topic since, it is difficult to explain why this kind of information is applied at proprietary catalogue formats only of 32 % of the participants. An explanation might be that this information is typically maintained inside the ERP system and that the CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 29 export of this information cannot easily be conducted by the departments involved in the catalogue production within an organization.

Figure 4-19: Contract information in proprietary formats.

Figure 4-20 reflects the typical transactions fulfilled by catalogue systems. The transaction mostly applied is the article update transaction by 57 % of the participants followed by the complete catalogue update (56 %) and the price update transaction (53 %).

Figure 4-20: Transactions handled in proprietary formats.

4.2.3.4 Product information When examining the exchange of eCatalogues among organizations within the European Union, a great variety of different languages turns out to be a huge challenge. Addressing this problem, about 46 % of all companies interviewed need to exchange multilingual product information within the product catalogues. About 39 % of the participants mention, that they do not need to exchange multilingual product information. However, this amount may be a result of the high number of SME serving some national markets. Concerning this aspect, the number of companies that need and apply multilingual product information is expected to increase in the next years.

Figure 4-21: Multilingual eCatalogues. 30 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

4.2.3.5 Catalogue navigation schemes The catalogue navigation schemes provide a solution for guiding the users of an eCatalogue through the product range. This includes some different presentations of the product information depending on the customers. The catalogue navigation schemes are considered as proprietary in contrary to the standardized product classification schemes. Over 37 % of the participants claim that they do not need any navigation structure, whereas over 63 % need one or more.

Figure 4-22: Catalogue navigation schemes.

4.2.3.6 Classification schemes Beside the facilitation of finding products within the catalogues the classification schemes support the description of the products by a structure of product features. About 63 % of the participants classify their products in one or more classification schemes, whereas 37 % do not classify their products in any classification scheme.

Figure 4-23: Product classification schemes.

4.2.3.7 Number of languages for product catalogues The concern when exchanging product catalogues among organizations within Europe is the problem of handling different languages. Currently the majority of the participants (33 %) apply only one language for their eCatalogues. One reason may be that most of the catalogue standards do not support more than one language in a single catalogue. Based on the given formats most of the catalogues are created and sent only in one language. However, 53 % of the participants have got catalogues that include more than one language. This shows the great importance for standard eCatalogue formats supporting multilingual product content. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 31

Figure 4-24: Number of languages for product catalogues.

The languages that are mostly used in the eCatalogues are shown in figure 4-25.

Figure 4-25: Preferred languages for eCatalogues.

4.2.3.8 Number of languages for eCatalogues in the future The requirements for the application of more than one language in a product catalogue increases in the future. In figure 4-26, these aspects become obvious since the amount of participants who use only one language within one catalogue decreases to 25 %, whereas the application of catalogues including more than one language in the future increases to 62 %. About 21 % of the companies interviewed want more than 5 different languages at the eCatalogues, whereas 66 % of the participants do not need more than five languages within an eCatalogue. This amount correlates with the mostly preferred languages for eCatalogues German, English, French, Spanish, and Italian.

Figure 4-26: Number of languages within eCatalogues.

4.2.3.9 Transfer of multilingual product information in eCatalogues The previous questions only focus on the need for the usage of more than one language to describe the products. The next information identifies the necessity within organizations (from the viewpoint of an organization) to use more than one language within one single catalogue. The need of using multilingual eCatalogues is shown in figure 4-27 and 4-28. Figure 4-27 shows the current usage of more than one language within a single 32 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 eCatalogue, whereas figure 4-28 shows the future needs. Today only 26 % of the participants use more than one language within a single eCatalogue. In the future 53 % of the organizations aim for using multilingual eCatalogues. Organizations that do not need to use multilingual eCatalogues decrease from 66 % today to 43 % in the future.

Figure 4-27: Current usage of multilingual eCatalogues.

Figure 4-28: Future usage of multilingual eCatalogues.

In order to fulfil the requirements for multilingual eCatalogues, the product information has to be administrated at an appropriate system. Figure 4-29 shows that only 51 % of the participating organizations are prepared to hold product information in different languages. 46 % of the participants have to prepare on one hand their contents and on the other hand their systems to store the multilingual content.

Figure 4-29: Availability of multilingual product information.

4.2.4 Integration of eCatalogues One of the major aspects for the efficient usage of eCatalogues is the integration of product catalogues in the internal and external IT environment of the organization.

4.2.4.1 Systems to exchange electronic product information As shown in figure 4-30, over 32 % of the participating organizations create their eCatalogues with catalogue systems, over 26 % are members at eMarketplaces, approximately 19 % use an ERP or a shop systems, and 14 % apply eProcurement CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 33 systems. The catalogue systems and shop systems are used to create eCatalogues and to sell the products electronically. The eMarketplaces, eProcurement systems are mainly to purchase the products electronically. The ERP systems in some cases have got also some functionalities to purchase or/and sell products as well as several others that are not related to eCatalogues. The eProcurement systems face a strong competition of the eMarketplaces and ERP systems which might be a reason for their rare application.

Figure 4-30: System for eCatalogue integration.

4.3 Summary The result of the survey can be summarised in the following points: • still a high number of organizations (16 % of the participants) do not exchange any electronic data and mostly have not been requested to exchange electronic data; • in the case of applying eCatalogues, the purchasing and/or the sales department are involved, whereas the development department (information technology) often only supports these activities; • the driving forces for the application of eCatalogues are the customers (55 %), the eBusiness strategy (42 %) and the suppliers (35 %); • in terms of the media for product catalogues the traditional catalogues out of paper are still widely used (85 %), whereas most of the organizations create eCatalogues (82 %) and CD-ROM (71 %) as well; • 68 % of the organizations consider standardization of eCatalogues as important; • BMEcat is the mostly applied eCatalogue with 18 %; • 80 % claim to use proprietary catalogue formats; • beside the product data for description and identification, the catalogues include price information (73 %), logistic information (50 %), and contractual information (32 %); • only 46 % of the organizations apply product classification schemes; • currently over 46 % of the organizations use multilingual product information, whereas only 26 % use them in eCatalogues. Over 53 % plan to use multilingual eCatalogues in the future; 34 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

• in terms of supporting IT systems the catalogue systems are most often applied (32 %) when creating product catalogues, followed by the participation of organizations in eMarketplaces (26 %). CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 35

5 Survey of organizations supporting eCatalogue development in eBusiness [W 1.2] In this section, we will provide an overview of organizations involved in the development of standards for eCatalogues in eBusiness. This section will cover the following topics: • Organizations involved in the creation and/or maintenance of specifications and standards. This chapter only provides a listing of the various organizations and will list some of their products. Other chapters of this CWA will look in detail into the actual content of these specifications and standards. • Organizations developing software products supporting the creation, management and deployment of eCatalogues. 5.1 Specifications and standards In this subsection we provide a listing of various organizations involved in creating specifications and standards in a number of areas of relevance for eCatalogues: • eCatalogue vocabularies; • Classification systems; • Identification (numbering) systems; • Product information and description systems; • Terminology and multilinguality. Rather than presenting the organizations by area, this section will group the organizations in three groups, as some organizations are involved in several of these areas: • International de jure standards, organizations; • Other (standards) bodies, open industry groups, user groups or trade associations; • Commercial companies or closed consortia promoting proprietary specifications. Note that we will use the term vocabulary in a generic sense to cover XML document formats, EDI message definitions, and other formats. 5.1.1 International de jure standards organizations

5.1.1.1 ISO The International Organization for Standardization (http://www.iso.org/) is a network of national standards institutes from 140 countries working in partnership with international organizations, governments, industry, business and consumer representatives. It has active Technical Committees in a number of areas related to aspects of eCatalogues, including language standards and product lifecycle management. ISO Technical Committees relevant to language standards are TC 37 (Terminology and other language resources), ISO 639, ISO 12620, ISO 12200, ISO 704, and ISO 16642. ISO Technical Committees relevant to eCatalogues from the perspective of product data representation and exchange include ISO/TC 184/SC 4 (Industrial data): ISO 10303 and 36 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

ISO 13584, concerned with the representation and exchange of libraries of manufactured parts data. IEC/TC 3 (Information structures, documentation and graphical symbols): IEC 61360 Standard data element types with associated classification scheme for electric components, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31 (Automatic identification and data capture techniques): ISO/IEC 15495 standardizes a unique identification system for transport items that can be represented in bar codes, and a procedure for the allocation of unique identification numbers for transport units through approved issuing agencies.

5.1.1.2 UN/CEFACT UN/CEFACT (http://www.uncefact.org/) is the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, located in the Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE). The mission is to “improve the ability of business, trade and administrative organizations, from developed, developing and transitional economies, to exchange products and relevant services effectively – and so contribute to the growth of global commerce”. Its focus is on worldwide facilitation of international transactions, through the simplification and harmonization of procedures and information flows. eBusiness is an important instrument in this context. The best known deliverable of UN/CEFACT is the UN/EDIFACT framework for Electronic Data Interchange. UN/EDIFACT includes large libraries of data elements and business messages, including the PRICAT price/sales catalogue message. With OASIS, UN/CEFACT has created the ebXML framework for electronic business (http://www.ebxml.org/), and continues to be responsible for development of the ebXML business information and business process specifications. TBG1, “Purchasing”, has received eight Work Items including one item on Catalogues. 5.1.2 Other (standards) bodies and open (industry) organizations

5.1.2.1 BME One of the more well-known eCatalogue vocabularies developed in Europe, BMEcat, is named after the Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik e.V, the organization of procurement professionals in Germany (http://www.bme.de/). The specification is in fact developed by larger consortium, which apart from BME includes the Fraunhofer IAO, Stuttgart Competence Center Electronic Business and the Universität Essen bli – Beschaffung, Logistik und Informationsmanagement (also see section Organizations active in eCatalogue research) as technology partners, as well as a number of enterprises. BME offers a BME catalogue certification service via a specialized subsidiary, BMEnet GmbH (http://www.bmenet.de/).

5.1.2.2 CEN/ISSS CEN/ISSS (http://www.cenorm.be/isss/) was created in mid-1997 by CEN (European Committee for Standardization) as the focus for its ICT activities. The mission of CEN/ISSS is to “provide market players with a comprehensive and integrated range of standardization-oriented services and products, in order to contribute to the success of the Information Society in Europe”. CEN/ISSS is hosting the eCatalogue Workshop in the context of which this document is being prepared. Related activities within CEN/ISSS include a concluded Workshop, e-NOM “European Electronic Commerce for Product Nomenclature”. This Workshop was launched in April CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 37

2002, Brussels, and concluded its work on 2002-12-31. The final meeting was held on 2002-11-28 in Paris and approved the final text of the CWA (CWA 14698:2003 Part 1&2). CWA 14698 was sent at the beginning of 2003 to the GCI (Global Commerce Initiative) as European input on classification of non-food products.

5.1.2.3 CIDX Chemical Industry Data Exchange (http://www.cidx.org/) is a trade association and neutral standards body engaged in the development of supply chain standards for chemical companies and their trading partners. Products of the organization include standards, guidelines, support materials and communications and are developed by CIDX member volunteers. The mission is “to improve the ease, speed and cost of conducting business electronically between chemical companies and their trading partners”. The version 3.0 specifications of the Chem eStandards™ specifications includes XML messages for product catalogue updates and customer specific catalogue updates. With PIDX (see section 5.1.2.15) and RAPID (see section 5.1.2.16), CIDX launched an initiative to converge their eBusiness standards work in June 2002.

5.1.2.4 CommerceNet Since 1994, CommerceNet (http://www.commerce.net/) has been active as open, interoperable network linking many commerce communities through a common architectural framework, aiming at making it possible for companies to do business electronically through open Internet standards. It is well known for its association with initiatives like eCo (electronic commerce framework) and OBI (Open Buying on the Internet), a technical specification for the high-volume, low-amount purchase of non- strategic, indirect materials by large, distributed requisitioned populations, developed from 1996. Current activities of CommerceNet include pilots, an extension of eCo that takes advantage of web services, research and ventures. CommerceNet collaborates with various organizations, including ONCE.

5.1.2.5 CRISTAL CRISTAL (Communicating Reliable Information and Standards to Agriculture and Logistics; http://cristal.ecpa.be/) is an initiative of the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA, http://www.ecpa.be/). Based in Brussels, CRISTAL aims to establish a framework to enable electronic commerce within the European agrochemical industry. The aim of the project is “to develop standards and guidelines to help evolve and support the implementation of electronic commerce within the distribution chain of the European agrochemical industry.” CRISTAL is a similar initiative to the US RAPID organization (see section 5.1.2.16) CRISTAL standards were first published in 1998 and are based on EDIFACT and EANCOM.

5.1.2.6 EAN International EAN International (http://www.ean-int.org/) aims at developing a set of standards enabling the efficient management of global, multi-industry supply chains by uniquely identifying products, shipping units, assets, locations and services. It facilitates electronic commerce processes including full tracking and traceability. It was formed as EAN association in 1977 to develop a uniform and standard numbering system for Europe, analogously to the 38 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

North American Universal Product Code (UPC). It has a network of nearly a hundred Member Organizations in as many countries globally, supporting some 900,000 member companies. The mission of the organization is “to create Open, Global, Multisectoral Standards based on Best Business Practices, and by driving their implementation, play a leading role in Supply & Demand Chain Management improvement worldwide.” The EAN·UCC system is a series of standards designed to improve supply chain management. The system offers unique and unambiguous identification systems, such as the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), as well as representation systems for these identification systems, such as bar codes. EAN International has produced a series of XML eBusiness Standards. As of version 1.3, these include schemas for Global Data Synchronisation (GDS), and business messages for Catalogue Item Synchronisation and Data Synchronisation Data Model for Trade Item. Development and maintenance of the EAN·UCC system is done using the Global Standards Management Process (GSMP; http://www.MyGSMP.org/), which started in January 2002. GSMP provides a user-driven process where companies can submits requests for, or even actively support the development of solutions to particular issues. Industry sectors can provide input via a Global User Advisory Council as well as a Global Implementation Forum (GIF). The Global EAN Party Information Register, or GEPIR (http://www.gepir.org/), is a worldwide online facility to allow reverse searches from trade items to their brand owners. The search results in contact information, including (if provided by brand owner) email and web site address. The SINFOS system (http://www.sinfos.de/), developed for the German EAN Member Organization, allows searches for companies on GLN and for trade items using GTIN. EAN Finland is starting a project using this SINFOS system.

5.1.2.7 ECCMA The ECCMA (Electronic Commerce Code Management Association) is an organization based in the United States (http://www.eccma.org/). Its Global Attribute Schema (EGAS) provides a dictionary of common descriptive terms used to describe the properties, characteristics or requirements of products, organizations or locations of supply. Its eCatalogue is based on the data provided by the NATO Codification System and is comprehensive, including some 16 million items with 32 million part numbers.

5.1.2.8 eCl@ss The eCl@ss consortium is a group of mainly German organizations. Its main product is a hierarchical classification system aimed at industrial buyers and supports engineers at development, planning and maintenance (http://www.eClass-online.com/). It is hosted by the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln (Cologne Institute for Business Research) and made available free of charge.

5.1.2.9 EDIRA The EDI/EC Registration Authorities Association (EDIRA) is a not-for-profit membership organization for the promotion of the International Code Designators (ICDs), initiated within the framework of the European Commission’s TEDIS Programme. ICDs identify organizations that issue business identifier codes to legal entities that are engaged in eCommerce. The prefix joined with the business identifier is a worldwide unique CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 39 identification. This allows the recipient of a business identifier to easily identify the issuing organization as well as any appropriate data validation and verification information. The concept of ICDs offers an abstraction layer or namespace mechanism beyond facilities like the EAN GEPIR. The EDIRA Top Level Service (TLS) is designed to provide a unique lookup of Business Identifiers, combining ICD and business identifier into a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that can be looked up on the web. It provides access to multiple Code Designator systems, including Dun & Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (D-U-N-S®).

5.1.2.10 LISA Founded in 1990, the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA; http://www.lisa.org/) is the premier professional organization for the globalization, internationalization, localization, and translation business communities. With more than 400 members from the high-tech and vertical market sectors, LISA is well known for its best practice guidelines for language technology standards and enterprise globalization.

5.1.2.11 NATO NATO is an example of a large user organization that has had to develop a classification system to support its logistics processing needs, the NATO Classification System (http://www.nato.int/structur/AC/135/).

5.1.2.12 OASIS OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org/) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of eBusiness standards. It was founded in 1993 as SGML Open. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and convergence. OASIS produces worldwide de facto standards for security, web services, XML conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. OASIS has more than 600 members in 100 countries around the world. OASIS and the United Nations jointly sponsor ebXML, a global framework for eBusiness data exchange (http://www.ebxml.org/). The OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee is closely linked to the ebXML framework. A subcommittee of the UBL Technical Committee, the Library Content (LC) subcommittee, aims to develop standard XML business library content by taking an existing library as a starting point and modifying it to incorporate the best features of other existing business and core component libraries. It aims at creating a Business Information Entity (BIE) catalogue, identifying the BIEs out of the xCBL Library and XML (XSD) Schemas for business document types. At the time of writing, the UBL LC TC is looking into developing business documents and BIEs for eCatalogues. In the area of multilingual data management, the OASIS XLIFF (eXtensible Localization Interchange File Format) TC aims to define, through XML vocabularies an extensible specification for the interchange of localization information. The specification will provide the ability to mark up and capture localizable data and interoperate with different processes or phases without loss of information. 40 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

5.1.2.13 ONCE The Open Network for Commerce Exchange (http://www.connect-once.org/) is a global, not-for-profit organization. It is devoted to the development and growth of business-to- business (B2B) electronic trade. Its members constitute an alliance of electronic trading networks, customers, supplies, services and technology providers in the world working to provide a global platform for interoperability. It was formerly known as the Global Trading Web Association (GTWA). Among other activities, it encourages industry standardization for business interoperability, technical standards, and the public policies impacting the future growth of global B2B commerce. Currently, ONCE committees are addressing four areas: Interoperability, Business Process or Service Syndication, Security and Market Education.

5.1.2.14 Open Application Group The Open Applications Group (http://www.openapplications.org/) is a non-profit consortium focusing on best practices and process based XML content for eBusiness and Application Integration. Its mission is to “define and encourage the adoption of a unifying standard for eBusiness and Application Software interoperability that reduces customer cost and time to deploy solutions”. The Open Application Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) is the largest collection of XML based content for business software interoperability in the world, and is aimed at both business-to-business (B2B) and application-to-application (A2A) integration. It is widely adopted and continues to be developed and extended. The OAGIS contains multiple Business Object Documents (BODs) related to eCatalogues. Its coverage of eCatalogue process models is one of the more complete ones.

5.1.2.15 PIDX The Petroleum Industry Data Exchange (PIDX; http://www.pidx.org/) is the committee on electronic business of the American Petroleum Institute (API). Its vision is “to achieve petroleum industry and enterprise-wide integration of business processes through seamless electronic business communication”. Its mission is “to influence the architecture and facilitate implementation of effective standards and processes for electronic business communications within the petroleum industry community”. PDIX Europe is a sub-committee of PIDX looking into European needs and requirements. PIDX standards include EDI and XML transactions for use in the petroleum industry. Current activities include the development of an extended classification nomenclature for oil and natural gas services, which takes the UNSPSC segment for Mining and Oil and Gas Services as a starting point. This is part of a project to promote standard processes for non-catalogue, configurable products and services using eBusiness technology. With CIDX (see section 5.1.2.3) and RAPID (see section 5.1.2.16), PIDX launched an initiative to converge their eBusiness standards work in June 2002.

5.1.2.16 RAPID RAPID (http://www.powerag.org/), an initiative similar to CRISTAL (see section 5.1.2.5) is the eCommerce standards organization for the crop protection, seed and fertilizer industries in the United States. It is a not-for-profit organization that develops and promotes commonly supported standards, transaction sets, directories, processes, and databases to enable electronic connectivity throughout the agriculture industry. Its mission CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 41 is “to enable the agricultural business to achieve the economic and stewardship benefits of electronic business”. RAPID develops and maintains the quality of commonly supported standards, processes, databases, pilots, and promotes electronic connectivity. With CIDX (see section 5.1.2.3) and PIDX (see section 5.1.2.15), RAPID launched an initiative to converge their eBusiness standards work in June 2002.

5.1.2.17 RosettaNet RosettaNet (http://www.rosettanet.org/) is a non-profit consortium of more than 400 of the world’s leading Information Technology (IT), Electronic Components (EC), Semiconductor Manufacturing (SM) and Solution Provider (SP) companies working to create, implement and promote open eBusiness process standards. Its mission is to “[drive] collaborative development and rapid deployment of Internet-based business standards, creating a common language and open eBusiness processes that provide measurable benefits and are vital to the evolution of the global, high-technology trading network.” It is a subsidiary of the UC Council. The RosettaNet specifications include industry standard dictionaries that provide unique identification of products. RosettaNet Partner Interface Processes (PIPs) are specialized system-to-system XML-based dialogs that define business processes between trading partners. The PIP segment “preparation for distribution” defines interface processes for buyers to include supplier catalogues into their own eCatalogues. RosettaNet uses D-U-N-S, GTIN, and UN/SPSC for company, product and class identification, respectively.

5.1.2.18 UCC The Uniform Code Council (http://www.uc-council.com/) is a Member Organization of an expanded EAN International, located in North America. It originates from collaboration between trade associations representing the two branches of the food distribution system, which resulted in the creation of the Universal Product Code (U.P.C) system in 1974. The UPC system is the foundation for bar code scanning, which has had a major input on many industries. The UC Council has initiated several initiatives related to eCatalogues. UCCnet (http://www.uccnet.org/) is an initiative to support electronic trading by allowing trading partners served by the UC Council to have synchronized EAN·UCC item information, as well as access to compliant business applications and services. It serves both peer to peer and eMarketplace based commerce. UCCnet operates a GLOBAL registry for companies to store product data, ensuring that trading partners have access to accurate, up-to-date industry-compliant trading information. This synchronized and standardized data enables companies to reduce the costs and delays associated with “dirty” supply chain information.

5.1.2.19 UNDP UNDP is the UN’s global development network, “advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.” The organization is involved in development projects in 166 countries, developing local capacity, drawing on UNDP staff and its range of partners. The UNSPSC (http://www.unspsc.org/) is a global standard for classification of products and services that is designed to facilitate electronic commerce, resulting in reduced organization’s costs, and improved supply chain efficiencies. It is available free of charge. 42 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

As of May 2003, the UC Council has taken on the operation of the UNSPSC on behalf of UNDP. 5.1.3 Other industry organizations

5.1.3.1 Ariba Ariba is known as the organization that has created and publishes the cXML specifications (http://www.cXML.org/). It is well known for its support for the PunchOut protocol concept, enabling access to remote supplier sites from a procurement site or system. The cXML specifications are made available on royalty-free basis, but it is stated that the organization may change the terms and conditions of the license agreement simply by posting an updated version on the web site.

5.1.3.2 Commerce One Commerce One (http://www.commerceone.com/) acquired, with the acquisition of Veo Systems, the intellectual property for XML Common Business Library (xCBL) specification. XCBL is a set of XML building blocks and a document framework that allows the creation of robust, reusable, XML documents to facilitate global trading. It is based on an analysis of existing eCommerce standards including Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and aims to support global eCommerce including multi-company supply chain automation, direct and indirect procurement, planning, auctions, and invoicing and payment in an international multi-currency environment. While xCBL is subject to license terms set by Commerce One (published on the xCBL site, http://www.xcbl.org/), these terms allow perpetual, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide right and license to use, publish, copy, modify and distribute the Specification. The xCBL specification is widely used and serves as input to the OASIS UBL specification, which does not yet offer equivalent functionality but is intended to supersede it in the future.

5.1.3.3 Martsoft Martsoft Inc. has designed the OCP and OCF specifications for eCatalogues. The Open Catalogue Protocol (OCP) is a protocol to exchange catalogue information encoded in the Open Catalogue Format (OCF; http://www.martsoft.com/ocf/).

5.1.3.4 SAP The SAP Markets Enterprise Buyer product can access external catalogue systems using an interface called OCI (Open Catalogue Interface) that offers a mechanism to connect to outbound catalogue systems similar to the cXML PunchOut concept. SAP software also supports other eCatalogue formats.

5.1.3.5 Requisite Technology, Inc. Requisite Technology provides widely used software for eCatalogues that uses the proprietary eCX-XML eCatalogue format, as well as many other eCatalogue formats. Use of the eCX-XML format is not exclusive to Requisite. It can also be used by, or in conjunction with SAP, Oracle or other products. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 43

5.2 Providers of eCatalogue software To support the creation, use, deployment and interchange of electronic catalogues, providers and users of electronic catalogues often resort to software products and services. The landscape of eCatalogue software is comprised of a variety of solutions, which often address very different aspects of the use of eCatalogues or support various types of business or technical functionality. In this section, we will provide an overview of these software systems. The questions we are asking are the following: • What types of eCatalogue systems can one distinguish? Where do the various products and solutions fit in this typology? • What is the geographic origin of the providers of these solutions? • Which existing eCatalogue standards and formats are supported? What needs and requirements do vendors see among their customers and prospects and what does this mean for future requirements? • How do these products handle a key requirement for the European market: multilinguality? The following four sub-sections are devoted to each of these questions. 5.2.1 Typology of eCatalogue software eCatalogues are machine-processable representations of business information, aimed at supporting electronic commerce. As such, the landscape of software systems support eCatalogues in some way or another is almost as diverse as the overall landscape for electronic commerce. A report by Giga information group (Rugullies, 2001; updates available commercially) distinguishes five categories of vendors of eCommerce solutions that are relevant in the context of eCatalogues. • Commerce software, provided by vendors that have their roots in sell-side business- to-consumer (B2C) eCommerce that are moving into business-to-business (B2B) eBusiness territory; • Web content management software, provided by vendors that view catalogue content management as a specific instance of more general content management functionality; • Channel management software is the corollary to B2C commerce software in the B2B space; • Catalogue aggregation service providers provide outsourced catalogue management and can make the aggregated catalogues available to market places; • Specialized B2B catalogue management software; The report relates these categories to a four-step process needed to produce an eCatalogue: • Extract data from the original format and aggregate in a catalogue system; this requires file format conversion or integration with a back-end system. • Transform catalogue data; this involves data cleansing, normalizing and categorization. • Syndicate product information; here the transformed data is published on the supplier web site, a marketplace, or transferred to a buy-side procurement system; 44 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

• Maintain the catalogue; The first three categories of product only include eCatalogue management as a component of a broader solution, but often do not provide full support for each of these four steps. The syndication process is often missing with commerce software and web content management systems. The B2B catalogue management software category offers the most complete range of support for catalogue creation, aggregation, distribution and syndication, both to web-based sell-side systems, intermediaries, as well as buy-side procurement systems operated in-house by large customers As in the general software industry, there is a trend towards consolidation, where smaller, specialized companies are increasingly partnering with, or being acquired by, larger companies, which are often usually more stable financially. Apart from these five general categories of software for catalogue management, two related types of software functionality are: • Data cleansing and normalization solutions; • Software for product configuration; The first software is often used at the stage of loading existing data into a catalogue management system. The second category refers to complex, configurable products (e.g. telecom routers, computers, automobiles) or services, where the number of different items may be limited but the ways to configure these items may be large and potentially huge. In our survey of 124 vendors, the distribution over these categories is as follows: Category Count Commerce Server 16 Web Content Management 12 Channel Management 8 Catalogue Aggregation Service 11 B2B Catalogue Management 24 Data extraction, transformation, cleansing 6 Product configuration software 2 So far unclassified 45

Note that the relative size of these companies (in terms of annual sales, number of employees and customers etc.) varies greatly. As the last row in the table indicates, we did not attempt to categorize the complete set of companies identified. 5.2.2 Geographic origin Apart from identifying the type of solution provided by a particular vendor, the geographic origin of the vendor has been identified. Note that this is a metric of limited use, as it does not show that a particular vendor may have subsidiaries in many countries, ranging from international sales organizations to product development and services being offered internationally. With this caveat, the following table presents the result for the companies surveyed so far. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 45

Geography Count North America 54 Denmark 2 Netherlands 4 France 14 Germany 36 Ireland 1 UK 2 Austria 1 Portugal 3 Spain 3 Switzerland 3 Israel 1

As earlier, this table only lists the number of companies headquartered in a country and does not reflect the differences in size, market share, turnover etc. of companies. The large number of German companies is due to the existence of an excellent directory of eCatalogue-related companies for this geography, http://www.katalogmanager.de/. 46 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

6 State-of-the-art in eCatalogue research [W 1.2] As a research topic, eCatalogues have received the attention of researchers working in a variety of areas. They have approached the subject with different research questions and from a variety of backgrounds. This section contains two subsections, the first of which (6.1) provides results of a literature survey on eCatalogue research and a second, shorter, one (6.2), which lists some organizations engaged in doing this research. 6.1 Literature survey In this section, we will survey a sample of research papers discussing electronic catalogues drawn from the international refereed computer and information science research literature that are accessible via the web. The overall research literature on eCatalogues can roughly be grouped in two areas, one approaching the topic from a computer and information science perspective, and the other from a business management point of view. In the second case, eCatalogues are usually only a secondary topic in discussions on more general procurement or eBusiness topics. For this reason this survey focuses on the first category. Our primary source of information for this survey has been the Digital Library of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM; http://www.acm.org/dl/). The ACM Digital Library is a leading on-line subscription-based resource for computer and information science research. It provides access to hundreds of thousands of very high quality articles and has excellent search facilities. The set of references retrieved from this site was expanded with: • Resources referenced by citations; • Web sites of participants in the CEN/ISSS/eCAT Workshop; • Additional conference web sites like the annual World Wide Web conference; • The Robin Cover XML bibliography (http://xml.coverpages.org/); • And pages retrieved using the Google search engine (http://www.google.com/). If closure under recursive citation link traversal is an indication, the overall resulting set seems to cover the more important research papers published in the research literature on eCatalogues. Some of the more relevant resources are listed in the bibliography of this CWA. A number of key research issues addressed in these documents are: • Characterization of eCatalogues • Content Integration • Coverage of real-world business practice • Management issues • Database technology • Standards adoption We will briefly discuss these items in the following subsections. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 47

6.1.1 Characterization of eCatalogues The papers in this category focus on defining eCatalogues and identifying the main issues and research topics associated with them, both from a technical point of view and from a business point of view. A good general introduction to the topic of eCatalogues is presented in the early paper by Sherif Danish, “Building database-driven electronic catalogues” (ACM SIGMOD Record December 1998, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/306101.306103). It starts out by distinguishing the following types of products, which vary greatly in the associated types of catalogue: • Component manufacturers. These provide many products, the attribute descriptions for which need to be standardized, with a need for central databases to share information. • System manufacturers. These provide fewer, but more complex, configurable products. There are no standards for configuration rules yet; instead, catalogues refer to web site configuration tools. Interchange with trading partners requires standardization of terminology and (XML) format. The data model for catalogues needs to be generic as product families differ in attributes. Data models need to support parametric search (search on attributes). The paper identifies multilingualism as an issue with products that are developed and sold in an international market. The mechanism proposed is to use numeric codes for attributes, with mappings to descriptive text for each language. External systems integration is needed in catalogue systems, for instance for VAT calculation or product availability checks. To facilitate such integration, component frameworks like COM are recommended as software architecture. Presentation to users (especially in a B2C context) can be customized using server pages technology. Content management and initial catalogue creation can be handled using file format conversion, e.g. an import from Excel (with one sheet per product family), or a direct integration with an ERP system. Once created, minor incremental updates can be handled manually using a web interface. As products are organized in categories that come with their appropriate attribute sets, catalogue search needs to be a two-step process: first find the product family, and then refine the search using attributes. Similar products can be compared using a pair-wise presentation of attribute values. Catalogue aggregation requires re-direction of searches to multiple remote web sites. The paper by Segev, Wan, and Beam on “Electronic catalogues: a technology overview and survey results” (Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Information and knowledge management December 1995, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/221270.221284) is an even earlier and somewhat dated paper. It seems to identify eCatalogues with general sell-side B2C commerce site functionality, which nowadays seems to be just one aspect or specific use case for eCatalogue systems and standards. 6.1.2 Content integration Stonebraker and Hellerstein introduced the concept of content integration in an article for ACM SIGMOD (2001; http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/375663.375739). It discusses catalogue integration as a special case of content integration, and as an issue that is prominent with the advent of the third generation of web usage, where the three generations of web usage are defined as: 48 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

• Web marketing: document publishing. • eCommerce: transaction processing, EAI. • eBusiness operations: B2B, marketplaces, exchanges, and procurement sites. The characteristic features of the third generation are: • Integration between enterprises; • Operational data must be integrated; • Structured and unstructured data must be easily integrated. Three vignettes of Third Generation Business Information integration are: • Integration for republishing: such as MRO supplier catalogue integration (catalogue management). • Integration of availability and pricing: service catalogue management • Integration for supply-chain management: forecasts, supply contracts Content integration is said to deal “with the cross-enterprise integration of items such as product catalogues, product descriptions, product availability, product fulfilment and related information for custom and MRO products for eBusiness purposes.” Content integration differs from several other types of integration. • As opposed to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), Content Integration also needs to cleanse, normalize and integrate into semantically useful cross-enterprise model. High-level data modelling, declarative languages, intelligent content integration are important issues. • As opposed to Data Integration (Data Warehousing), Content Integration needs to address cross-enterprise, operational data integration • As opposed to Content Management, it needs to look at cross-enterprise integration issues. The authors identify eight main defining characteristics of content integration, grouped in two categories: mapping and query processing. The issue of mapping is linked to access and transformation issues: • There are varying relations between information owner and integrator (technologies used range from EAI to web screen scraping) • Different content formats need to be addressed. Beyond format issues there are semantic issues like terminology. This raises a requirement for transformation tools (GUIs, scripting) that are easy to use, even for non-technical people. Standards for catalogue representation are useful in this context. • Multiple schemas and multiple taxonomies are a reality of life. Classification systems like UN/SPSC. Codes organized in hierarchies. New or custom taxonomies require mappings between taxonomies. • Requirements for custom syndication (e.g. personalization, custom pricing). “Supplier enablement” using common standards. The issue of query processing is discussed in section 6.1.5. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 49

6.1.3 Coverage of real-world business practice Electronic catalogues and the software systems and electronic processes that support them are electronic counterparts of paper artefacts and processes in the real world, so they need to be able to provide the same functionality as offered by paper catalogues and manual business processes. One aspect of this general issue is price modelling. Kelkar, Leukel and Schmitz discuss how electronic product catalogues based on XML address this issue. They identify six determining factors (such as territory, customer, and interval) and nine types of allowances and charges (such as relative percent basis, quantity scales, calculation order). They then evaluate 6 XML eCatalogue vocabularies with respect to this model and looks at vocabulary inter-translation issues. This evaluates shows that many features are not implemented in any of the XML vocabularies. An example is multi-stage discount systems. This paper also identifies representation of complex goods as a research topic. 6.1.4 Management issues In a paper “Managing electronic interchange of business documents”, Banerjee and Kumar (2002; http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/514236.514241) describe a framework to guide management decisions on electronic business document interchange applications. One table maps business and operational objectives to depth (of integration), breadth (coverage of trading partners) and diversity (of business documents). Other tables map infrastructure options (EDI, web forms, outsourced services, intermediaries etc.) to impact on skills, costs, required management support for the dominant large (DLTP) and other trading partners (OTP), and indicate impact on diversity, breadth and depth for DLTP and OTP. These tables allow managers to decide, based on input on business objectives, readiness of trading partners, existing systems, competitive and legal environment, technical factors, to select the most appropriate technical solution. An early paper by Baron Shaw and Bailey on “Web-based eCatalog systems in B2B procurement” (Communications of the ACM, May 2000, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/ 332833.332845) defines concept and role of eCatalogues in procurement. It analyses the (generic) procurement process and distinguishes direct materials procurement from MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) procurement. A centralized web-based procurement system (WBPS) communicating with suppliers using an Extranet can reduce complexity and costs. Case study analysis of factors involved in a move to a WBPS for MRO procurement, divided in various categories/dimensions: • Internal/external • Economic/social/legal/technological • Tangible/intangible/critical success/managerial issues. Five tangible factors are cycle time (can be reduced by 33 %), transaction cost (reducible by 25 %), error rate, inventory, item prices. Four intangible factors are business process integration, security, technology, and operations. The intangible factors were not found to be major impediments. A critical success factor is that conflicts may arise between stakeholders (user, procurement, supplier) in flexibility and control. This needs to be addressed before the project starts. The case study already had a high degree of EC, which may impact generalization of the model. There is no established formula for measuring net value. Projects should first make 50 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 an analysis to avoid problems like supplier reluctance, culture clash, systems incompatibility, hidden costs, security holes and processing bottlenecks. 6.1.5 Database technology Wang and Wang’s paper on “Web and business application: Optimizing relational store for eCatalog queries: a data mining approach” (Proceedings of the 17th symposium on Proceedings of the 2002 ACM symposium on applied computing March 2002; http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/508791.509015) addresses the issue of attributes/values in eCatalogues in a relational database. As many attributes in catalogues are only appropriate for certain types of products, a general schema would result in many nulls (sparse tables). The authors propose to use data mining to find groups of co-occurring attributes and to create a storage schema that best matches the data. In section 6.1.2, we mentioned an article by Stonebraker and Hellerstein that identifies a number of query processing-related issues: • Content is operational and highly volatile. Therefore, there is a need to fetch data on- demand (for current information) and fetch in advance (for performance, cached). Data warehouses assume fetch in advance and therefore cannot retrieve some data on demand. ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) systems often use batch processes, which are hard to interface with. • Catalogue systems must support ad hoc queries. With XML content, this uses XPath or Xquery. • Need to support information retrieval functionality (synonyms, fuzzy search). • High-availability, load balancing, and scalability. Most content should be available all of the time. So there is a need for an “adaptive, load-balancing federated query processor”. Abiteboul (1999) looks at XML data from a database management perspective. If an XML document (such as an eCatalogue) is composed as a view on (potentially) several existing databases, mechanisms are needed to avoid having to recomputed a complete view if just a portion of the data changes. If the eCatalogue is editable, mechanisms are needed to propagate modification back to the source data. Presentation issues arise when some (some of) the sources are temporarily unavailable. A similar discussion of implications of eCatalogues for database storage is given in Jhingran “Moving up the food chain: supporting eCommerce applications on databases” (ACM SIGMOD Record December 2000 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/369275.369287). 6.1.6 Standards adoption Several papers provide the rationale and design of specific standards and specifications for eCatalogues. These standards are described in other sections of this CWA. For instance, Meltzer and Glushko’s “XML and electronic commerce: enabling the network economy” (ACM SIGMOD Record December 1998, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/ 306101.306105) introduces CBL (the predecessor of the xCBL specification), originally designed by as a standard library for eBusiness by Veo Systems. Similarly, the BMEcat specification is discussed in various publications including Hümpel and Schmitz (2001). The papers referenced in section 6.1.3 discuss catalogue standards with respect to specific requirements. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 51

Other papers discuss issues with adoption of specific standards, such as migration. Sena Arpinar, Asuman Dogac’s paper on “Provision of market services for eCo compliant electronic marketplaces” (ACM SIGMOD Record September 2000, http://doi.acm.org/ 10.1145/362084.362098) discusses the adoption of the Common Business Library (CBL) eCatalogue with an existing eMarketplace. The CBL vocabulary is discussed in another section of the draft CWA. 6.2 Organizations active in eCatalogue research The articles discussed in the survey presented in section 6.1 have been authored by researchers in industry or academia (George Mason University, IBM Almaden, IBM Watson Research lab, Middle East Technical University, Politecnico di Milano, Rutgers University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Illinois, University of North Carolina) and by experts working for companies developing eCatalogue solutions and eBusiness products (Cohera, Saqqara, Veo Systems). Some of these papers have been authored by two active European research groups with a focus on standardization are: • Fraunhofer IAO; http://www.e-business.iao.fhg.de/ • University of Duisburg-Essen (Campus Essen); http://www.bli.uni-essen.de/ In addition to these organizations, research on eCatalogues, procurement and eBusiness standardization is done by a number of academic organizations: • The University of Edinburgh (UK), Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) and RWTH in Aachen (Germany) are setting up a European research network in the general area of Information Society Standards which is likely to have a heavy eBusiness focus. Web page forthcoming, temporary URL: http://www.ed.ac.uk/~ehja36/ • Donau University in Austria http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/; http://www.bmoe.at/ • Fachhochschule Darmstadt, Campus Dieburg, Fachbereich Wirtschaft, http://www.ifcc.de/ More general academic eProcurement oriented research: • UTIPS (Twente), http://www.sms.utwente.nl/frameset.asp?objectID=1141 • IPSD (Eindhoven), http://www.tm.tue.nl/ipsd/ • Groningen, http://www.griponpurchasing.com/ • Centre for Research in Strategic Purchasing and Supply, http://www.bath.ac.uk/crisps/home.htm 52 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

7 Analysis of existing eCatalogues [W 1.3] With the increasing use of eBusiness electronic product descriptions have gained central importance. The exchange of products descriptions are the base of inter-company processes along the whole product lifecycle. They are used for example to enable con- current engineering as well as during the information phase in purchasing processes. To tap the potential of eBusiness in this context the product description has to be specified and transferred in a standardized way. This is already done in some of the sketched areas and has a wide appliance particularly in the field of B2B eProcurement. Especially the use of XML has led to a wide variety of electronic product catalogues standards with different levels of market penetration and a big range of capabilities. The requirements on electronic product catalogues are based on different determinates, like involved software systems, range of represented products, underlying purchasing process and especially scenario of application (see figure 7-1). The scenario in which electronic product catalogues are used varies if an intermediary like a marketplace is involved and if the locations of the market participants are on a global base. The main challenge for the use of electronic product catalogues in a pan-European way is dealing with the different languages and pricing/taxes models.

Supplier Buyer

Wholesale/ Market Place/ Catalog Data Hub

Supplier Buyer

Transfer of Catalog Data Access to Catalogs

Figure 7-1: eCatalogues in B2B scenarios.

7.1 Determination of the objects of investigation Standardized catalogue formats must not be seen as isolated from the higher context of standardization in eBusiness; therefore they are a specific component within this context. eBusiness standardization is a generic term for different standardizations in interorganizational and intraorganizational relationships. Here we limit the term eBusiness standard to those standards that explicitly address interorganizational business processes. Despite their high importance for eBusiness in general we do not cover technological standards that deal with core services and infrastructure aspects only; these standards are not specific for eCatalogues. To this group of standards belong for instance XML-based standards for describing, registering, calling and executing communication services, especially so called web services (e.g., web service standards like SOAP, UDDI, and WSDL). Contrary we focus on standards that are concerned with domain-specific aspects of business communication. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 53

The goal of the following discussion is to develop a scheme for structuring the different results from W 1.1 and W 1.2 (chapters 4–6) to select only the relevant eCatalogue standards for further analysis in this chapter (see figure 7-2). Results from Results from WP 1.1 WP 1.2

Model for structuring the results

Analysis in Analysis in WP 1.3 WP 1.4

Figure 7-2: Dividing up the results from W 1.1 and W 1.2.

Therefore we need a model to structure the field of eBusiness standardization. Since its object is business communication, we can fall back on general concepts and models of communication, which is defined as an exchange process of information between a sender and a receiver. The information is coded according to an accepted language and transferred over a communication medium. Many communications models have been developed both in social science as well as in information systems theory. They structure and explain communication processes. Many models describe communication by a set of different, hierarchical arranged levels. The building of levels is a common instrument to structure complex systems. Each level fulfils a defined task and provides corresponding services for higher levels. The most known model is the ISO/OSI reference model, though level models are seen in eCommerce and eBusiness also. They have in common that they assign applications and business rules to higher levels (e.g., eMarkets, auctions, negotiation processes), while the lower levels are confined to more technical aspects (e.g., internet protocols). When adopting characteristic features of level models to business communication we have to take into consideration that all relevant information is exchanged between business partners via paper-based or electronic messages respectively documents (exception: verbal business communication). Documents are a key concept in every kind of business communication. This concept includes requirements concerning obligation, deliverability, readability and storage. Document-orientation is a suitable foundation for the definition of a hierarchical level model. This can be done coming from two different directions. On the one hand the logical structure of business messages has to be formalized. On the other hand the role of messages in business process has to be determined. The result of this procedure is a level model that consists of the level data types, vocabulary, documents, processes, framework and metamodel. It is shown in figure 7-3 and fulfils a second task, since we can classify real-world eBusiness standards by assigning them to those levels that are covered by the respective standard. 54 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Meta Model

Framework ebXML

Processes

Documents EPC

Vocabulary Classification/ EAN Identification eCl@ss BMEcat

Schemes ebXML xCBL OBI Data Types

Figure 7-3: Level model of eBusiness standardization.

In the following we describe the levels and their relationships to other levels in a bottom-up sequence. Additionally, we point out those standardization objects that are relevant for the domain eCataloguing. Literature shows a couple of alternative approaches that either propose models for describing standards or develop a set of criteria for classifying eBusiness standards. The model-oriented approaches differ in number, subject and definition of levels. They have in common that they build a hierarchy that builds upon elementary constructs and leads to complete business processes. 7.1.1 Data types Data types are defined and standardized on the lowest level. They are used for typing atomic data elements. Data types are an essential requirement for every kind of electronic data processing. A data type determines the allowed values of a data element respectively the domain of values. The task of a data type is to code the information that has to be represented by a data element. The codification transforms the information into a defined representation. This concept is characteristic for all information systems and is implemented in programming languages and database systems. For these two areas different sets of data types are available. They differ in number of types and degree of specialization. 7.1.2 Vocabulary On the basis of data types a standard can specify typed data elements. Hence the second level of the level model holds the data element definitions of a standard. The set of permitted data element builds in accordance with the language metaphor the vocabulary. It contains these words that are known to business partners in a business communication und therefore can be utilized in a communication process. The vocabulary level is in most cases the core component of every document-oriented eBusiness standard. Developing a CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 55 business vocabulary is with regard to complexity and resources the most important domain-specific effort of a standardization project. 7.1.3 Documents The data elements and the implicitly or explicitly formulated data model form the basis for the definition of business documents that incorporate parts of the standardized vocabulary. The document is the central concept of each business communication: It is transferred from a sender to a receiver and contains a set of data. The task of the document level is to define permitted business documents. To be more accurate we have to speak of document types rather than documents, since a document is just an instantiation of a document type. Above its main function to combine related data to a logical unit, each document type possesses an intended purpose. This means that we can already draw a direct conclusion from the document type to the relationship between and role of the sender and receiver. For instance, the document type catalogue is only meaningful in a communication between the creator and the user of a catalogue. The purpose of this document type is providing product information of the sender to the receiver. 7.1.4 Processes The sequences of exchanged documents and the underlying business logic of a communication between two companies are described by the process level. Thus a standard at this level models the order of documents and defines if necessary the rules how the receiver has to give an answer following an incoming document. The standardization object process can be defined as a transaction or a sequence of transactions between two business partners. Subject of each transaction is the exchange of messages according to agreed document types. With the help of document sequences it is possible to support interorganizational procurement processes to a full extent. A specific sequence might be as follows: catalogue, request for availability information, order, order acknowledgement, delivery notification, invoice, and payment. 7.1.5 Framework The framework level covers those definitions that concern technical and thus domain- independent aspects of business communication. A framework defines a foundation for the communication and provides parallel to the lower levels additional services. All domain- dependent aspects are strictly left to the levels data types up to processes; they describe the business content and business logic. The higher aim of the framework level is to ensure a secure, dependable and structured exchange of business documents. One characteristic feature of framework services is a far-reaching independency from the content that has to be transferred and the logic that has to be kept. Rather supporting services are described, for example basic communication protocols (http, SMTP, and ftp), security issues (e.g., authentication, encryption) as well as the handling of messages (e.g., management of queues, notification and acknowledgment services). A main concept to reach the independency from business content and logic is expressed by the envelope metaphor. It says that very similar to a postal service the content of a message is kept in a sealed envelope which is the object that has to be transported. The transport requires a meaningful inscription only, which at least clearly specifies the sender and receiver (as an address) of each message, or gives references to them. In this metaphor, the framework level describes a physical distribution or delivery system and defines the rules which apply to this system. 56 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

So called framework standards or B2B frameworks (e.g., RosettaNet) indicate a close relation to the framework level. These standards cover at least the framework level, but also integrate further lower levels or even build an own level model to describe document- oriented business communication. In this interpretation B2B frameworks are holistic models that are sufficient to implement interorganizational components of eBusiness applications. 7.1.6 Metamodel The highest level is called metamodel level. It aims at providing a generic model that describes the other levels and their relationships. Hence its instances are specific level models, in their most extensive form these instances are framework standards. The number of standards that fulfil this sophisticated function of the metamodel level is very small. A prominent standard is the ebXML initiative which is not only a framework standard but also shows many features of a metamodel, since it provides generic concepts and tools for modelling eBusiness communication in an abstract way. 7.2 Definition of criteria for the analysis of eCatalogue standards Form the users’ point of view there are some factors which are relevant for choosing a standard. The most important one is the current market penetration and the future potential to reach a wide spread. The second factor is the quality of the standard itself in terms of the degree of coping the requirements from the practise and the support which is given in implementing the standard. Because these two aspects are not easily to be determined also the quality of the development process of a standard is taken into consideration. This leads to three main areas for the criteria of the analysis: the standardization organization, the methodology used in the standardization process and finally the content of the standard itself. Following these three groups of criteria are explained in more detail. 7.2.1 Standardization organization The organizational criteria address on the one hand the standardization organization as an entity or body that develops, publishes and maintains the standard and on the other hand the standardization process. Here we can rely on a wide range of mostly domain- independent criteria and consistent sets of criteria common to analysing standardization in general. For the users it is important on the one hand that the development of the standard is ensured for a relevant period of time and that the standardization body has the possibilities to bring the standard to a broad application especially on an international base. On the other hand there must be the possibility for the users to participate in the standardization process to bring their requirements into the standard. These questions lead to the criteria in this part of the analysis which are divided up in the following sections: standardization body, standardization process, release policy, legal aspects and services for users. 7.2.2 Methodology used in the of standardization process The methodology in eBusiness standardization can be subdivided in the general documentation and the formal specification. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 57

The task of documentation is to describe the content of a standard in such a manner that users of the standard can easily understand and finally implement the standard. To achieve this goal the documentation must provide the user with that kind of documentation that satisfies his needs. Especially the documents have to be structured according to the user’s knowledge level and different ways of working. The documentation can be differentiated between the levels of standardization. Parts of the documentation are often semi-formal and formal specifications in addition to verbal descriptions. The close relationship to the formal specification lies in describing the semantics of the standards, since semantics is hardly represented by formal languages so far. Here we understand semantics as the meaning of defined document types and data elements. Only if users know this meaning they are able to implement a standard correctly and effectively, because a common and equal understanding of the semantics and syntax is crucial to eBusiness communication as it is crucial to any communication. The main instruments for documenting the content of eBusiness standards are those instruments that are also applied in modelling data structures, since the core of documents are data elements, too. In view of the high complexity of catalogue data which results in extensive data models, it is suitable to introduce conceptual data models that show the general structure and its relationships. To do so, languages and notations such as extended ER models, UML and graphical representations of XML are used in practice. But these languages are not capable to describe all syntactical and especially no semantic aspects of data elements; hence the most important instrument of an eBusiness standard is a structured data dictionary. The task of a formal specification is to describe the content of a standard partly or completely by a formal specification language. This specification fulfils two important aims. Firstly, the use of a formal language can result in more exact and clear description in comparison to non-formal languages. The understanding of the standard’s content is facilitated and misinterpretations can be prevented or at least reduced. Secondly, a formal language that can be processed in information systems supports the implementation of a standard in software applications. According to the level model different specification languages can be used, some of them are specific for one level (e.g., process models); other languages cover two or more levels (e.g., data models). Most of the languages for the higher levels are non- or semi-formal; they differ in language concepts, they are less standardized and can also be counted as part of the documentation (see below). Contrary to this kind of heterogeneity, a limited number of so called XML schema languages are available for specifying document types, the vocabulary and data types. An XML schema language consists of language elements that can be used to model the syntax of XML documents or parts of these documents. The languages provide a set of modelling concepts (for example: user-defined data types, inheritance, default values), which are used to a greater or lesser extent by catalogue standards. At present common languages for the definition of business documents are the Document Type Definition (DTD) and the XML Schema (XSD) both published by the W3C. These two languages have different capabilities in specifying the standard. It is essential that these capabilities are used to define the standards formal specification because the detail level of this specification decides to what extent an automated processing of the standard can be realized and thus how easy it is to implement the standard. The criteria which are derived from these considerations are summarized in the following areas: general documentation, use of metamodels, formal specification. 58 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

7.2.3 Content of eCatalogue standards The content quality and capabilities of a catalogue standard can be assessed by asking whether the standard fulfils the requirements on catalogue data as it is exchange between companies. The main question is, which issues and concepts are described by the standard and if they are suitable for the needs of suppliers, intermediaries and buying organizations. According to the level model this question can be answered only by relating and modifying it to specific levels: First, is the level covered by the standard; second, what level-specific standardization objects are covered; third, is the coverage right and satisfying. Checking these content-oriented issues is a time-consuming task requiring a broad domain knowledge, especially for the vocabulary that calls for a detailed analysis of the syntax and semantic of all data elements.

7.2.3.1 Comparison at process layer When analysing the process layer the main question is how the eCatalogue is embedded in the whole eProcurement eSales process, respectively. This question can be looked at two detail levels. The more general one is to look apart from the eCatalogue data exchange which other transactions are supported by the standard and do these built up a complete process model. In this chapter we analyse in more detail which transaction within the content of catalogue data exchange are provided by the different standards. To do this we constructed a catalogue exchange model which consists of all catalogue transaction and their related documents (see figure 7-4).

Request for Catalogue

Catalogue Catalogue Recipient Catalogue Catalogue Creator Catalogue Request for Catalogue Update

Catalogue Update

Request for Price Update

Price Update

Catalogue Import Response

PunchOut

Figure 7-4: Catalogue Exchange Model.

7.2.3.2 Comparison at document layer At the document layer we analyse what features offers the standard in its catalogue document for realizing the requirements out of practice. The analysis is divided up into three parts “document information”, “product information” and “product relationship information” analogue to the structure of most of the eCatalogue standards. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 59

Document information In this area is examined what general information applicable to all products in the catalogue can be specified. This data has especially to be capable of providing the relevant information in the context of the scenarios in which the eCatalogue is used. We must consider that catalogue data does not mean the data of only one specific catalogue. Rather catalogue data in its whole represents the quantity of data from which catalogues can be created. The creation of specific catalogues refers to an important characteristic: Each catalogue possesses a validity, which can be determined by a set of parameters. Beside the customer, this is the validity period, the currency of prices and the language of all language-dependent data. In accordance with this multi-dependency concept each catalogue can be described and identified by a tuple of parameters. It has to be considered that also multi-supplier catalogues, catalogue documents with product data of several suppliers, as well as multi-vendor catalogues that contain customized data of several buyers, should be transferred. This means it is important if the eCatalogue can be used in a multi-lingual context or in multi-buyer or multi-supplier relationships for instance when marketplaces are involved. Furthermore the processing of default values and contracts is part of the analysis. Product information The most extensive part of the analysis is the examination of product information. How this information is modelled is vital for the use of the eCatalogue. Especially product models and price models are determining which products can be represented within the eCatalogue and due to legal restrictions like taxes in which countries these eCatalogues can be used. Besides the support of classification systems, which is analysed in W 1.4, the following areas are focused in this part: identifiers, description, product models, price models, order data, logistic data, multimedia attachments & references. Product relationship information The last part of the analysis at document layer deals with how relationships between different products are represented. There are three ways of structuring products which can be distinguished: classification systems, catalogue group systems and product references. The modelling of classification systems within eCatalogues is part of W 1.4 and due to this not handled here. Catalogue groups systems are hierarchical structures of product groups which allow an easy top down access to the products. It differs from classification systems by allowing that one product can be assigned to more than one product group and that therefore no attribute set can be specified for each group. To easily find related products in eProcurement systems or on sell sides often links between products are used. Sometimes these links are qualified to express in which relationship the two products are.

7.2.3.3 Comparison at vocabulary and data type layer Finally the vocabulary and data type layer are analysed. First it is looked at the modelling of the elements. Especially when implementing the eCatalogue standard in SW systems it is important to what degree the elements are of re-used in different parts of the eCatalogue. This can be achieved on two levels by either using modularisation or by using inheritance concepts known from object orientated approaches. The second part deals with the question to what extent other already existing standards are used to prevent re-modelling already solved problems. The main focus is the use of 60 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 language codes, currency codes, logistic standards, package units, order units and general data types. 7.3 Analysis of eCatalogue standards (w/o classification systems) In this part of W 1.3 the eCatalogues for the analysis are selected according to the introduced layer model and the criteria which were specified in the previous chapter are applied. Due to the large number of individual comparisons the tables with the results of the different chapters are partly shown only in the annex of this document. 7.3.1 Objects of investigation The table 7-1 in the annex assigns the results from W 1.1 and W 1.2 to the specified level model. Only the eBusiness standards are taken into consideration in the analysis in this chapter which cover the document layer and especially provide a specification for electronic product catalogues within a B2B eCommerce context. For instance STEP is not considered in this chapter because the focus of STEP is not providing an eCatalogue for eProcurement but for concurrent engineering. Taking eCatalogues throughout the whole supply chain into consideration could not be accomplished in this project but is an interesting field for further investigation. To finish the analysis within the given time frame, it was necessary to reduce the number of analysed catalogue standards. Therefore not all of the vertical standards proposed by W 1.1 and W 1.2 were taken into consideration. Also some standards, which are not maintained and advanced anymore, were left out of the analysis. Because the standards are introduced in the context of the standardization bodies in chapter 5, no further description of the background of the standards is given here. With reference to the level model the analysed standards can be divided up into three groups: The group of genuine catalogue standards contains those standards, whose origin is situated in the specification of catalogue documents for eProcurement. To this group belong for example BMEcat and cXML. Meanwhile cXML has expanded its scope to further business messages; BMEcat is supplemented by the transaction standard openTRANS. Transaction standards go a step further in standardizing a multiplicity of business messages; catalogue documents are just a part of it. Prominent members of this group are OAGIS and xCBL. The third group consists of eBusiness frameworks, which standardize a complete data and communication infrastructure. The most well-known frameworks are RosettaNet and ebXML. The latter does not standardize business documents and is therefore not part of the analysis of this chapter. 7.3.2 Comparative analysis of the selected standards

7.3.2.1 Standardization organization Standardization is equally provided by software companies, industry consortia and standards bodies as shown by table 7-2 in the annex. The catalogue standards of the software companies are based on the needs to exchange data between different software tools from the companies. Most of the standards bodies have a very well defined and transparent standardization process. The standardization process of the other standardization organization is for non-members often not transparent and not very well CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 61 documented. Except the EDIFACT based standards most of the standards documentation can be downloaded for free over the internet – in some cases a free registration is required. Participating in the standardization working groups is most of the time coupled with a membership and along with that with a membership fee. The support for users in implementing the standards varies very much.

7.3.2.2 Methodology used in the standardization process The tables 7-3 and 7-4 in the annex are showing the results of the analysis of this chapter. The documentation of the standards is most of the time very poor. There is no multi-lingual documentation or cultural adoption in any of the standards. cXML provided multi-lingual in prior specifications but does only support English versions of the current version. There is hardly any target group specific documentation. Especially helping beginners to get an introduction into the standard is a major problem when introducing the standard to the market. Most of the time, no real life examples are provided. Often even the element specification is ambiguous and hardly understandable thus can not be used as base for a correct implementation of the standard. An increasing amount of standards are using formal notations like UML to specify conceptual data or process models and thus provide a more precise specification. Some of the standardizing organizations are defining some principles for developing their standards, a few even built up an own methodology and metamodel to built their standards on. But there is no common methodology or metamodel used and therefore the comparison of different eCatalogue standards and the conversion between two standards is very difficult. The newer standards are all based on XML technology. These standards formerly used XML document type definitions (DTD) for their formal specification but are constantly changing to XML Schema (XSD). The capabilities of XSDs are most of the time hardly used. Therefore the validation of the XML documents is limited and the processing in back-end systems is complicated. Especially the missing support for referential integrity through keys or uniqueness constraints is a mayor obstacle when converting the XML data into relational databases.

7.3.2.3 Content of eCatalogue standards Comparison at process layer As table 7-5 shows most of the standards provide only message types to update a catalogue. The request-response-model is only supported by two standards. Only cXML supports the bilateral coordination process between sender and receiver by the possibility to specify the requirements on the catalogue from the receiver’s point of view Only one standard supports the import response message and helps to make the import processes easier. There is no continuous support for “PunchOut“-processes in the catalogues. cXML and OCI are specialized on this whereas BMEcat and cXML provide a full integration in their catalogues. 62 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

A 00 _ 00 _ R02 _ MG _

xCBL 4.0 BMEcat 1.2 draft BMEcat 2.0 preliminary catXML 0.21 CIDX 3.0 cXML 1.2009 4 DATANORM 1.3 EAN UCC eCX 3.0 EDIFACT Pricat 96 A EDIFACT Prodat 96 B OAGIS 8.0 OCI 3.0 RosettaNet 2A1 Request for catalogue + + + + New catalogue + + + + + + + + + + + + + Request for catalogue update + + + Update catalogue + + + + + + + + Request for price update + + Update prices + + + + Catalogue import response + + PunchOut + + +

+ = message is supported = message is not supported Table 7-5: Analysis at process layer.

Comparison at document layer Apart from the different methodology and metamodels also all eCatalogue standards use different semantics and therefore different data models. Combined with the often unambiguous documentation the comparison of the standards on the document layer is very difficult and can easily lead to interpretation errors. Due to the large number of individual comparisons the results of the analysis are shown in the consolidated table 7-6 in this chapter whereas the full table 7-7 is shown in the annex of this document. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 63

BMEcat 1.2 draft BMEcat 2.0 preliminary catXML 0.21 CIDX 3.0 cXML 1.2009 4 DATANORM 1.3 EAN UCC eCX 3.0 EDIFACT Pricat 96 A EDIFACT Prodat 96 B OAGIS 8.0 OCI 3.0 2A1_MG_R02_00_00A RosettaNet xCBL 4.0 document information document identification + + - - o o o - + o + - - + catalogue parties o + - o - o o + o o + - o o default values o + - - - - - o o - o - o + scenario support o + - o o - - - - - + - - o product information identification + + o + + + + - + o o + + + properties + + - o + - + + o - o - - o price model + + o + - + + o + + + - - + order data + + + o - + + - + + - - + o logistic data - + - + - - + - + + - - + - product configuration o + o - - - - o ------multimedia attachments + + o o o - - - - o + - - o product relationship information hierarchical structures + + o o o o o + o + + - - + product references + + - - - - o - - o - - o +

+ = good fulfilment of requirements o = minimal fulfilment of requirements - = poor or no fulfilment of requirements Table 7-6: Consolidated analysis at document layer.

There are general two approaches to use eCatalogues for data exchange in B2B eCommerce scenarios. The one side is to complete split up a catalogue for each scenario. This means that one catalogue is used only between one supplier and one buyer in a clearly defined context at a time and therefore the catalogue contains only one language, is from one supplier to one buyer, refers to one availability territory and contains only prices for one period of time in one currency. The other side is to integrate all views on the same catalogue in one file. This means that the catalogue may include data form many suppliers to many customers and covers multiple periods of time and different availability areas with the associated prices, currencies and languages. The latter approach is especially preferable when marketplaces are used because it can reduce the efforts for providing catalogues. The detailed table in the annex shows that the standards handle this in different ways. Besides an unambiguous product ID the possibility of defining the correct price is the main pre-condition for establishing the ordering process. Therefore the price models in the 64 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 catalogues must meet the requirements of the market. The characteristics of these price models are industry branch specific. This means to ensure a broad applicability of the catalogues there have to be powerful price models. In particular these models must be able to cope with the following aspects: quantity scales, allowances and charges, taxes, different price types like list prices vs. customer specific prices and additionally have to take into consideration the support of the various scenarios they are used in. More requirements are added if complex products have to be represented. The coverage of these requirements varies from hardly usable (cXML) to a nearly complete model (BMEcat 2.0), but no standard covers all requirements. As the price models the specification of order relevant information is essential for the product catalogue. The provided possibilities of the catalogue standards vary from only allowing the transfer of the order unit up to specifying all relevant fields. In the area of logistic information the different orientation with respect to the covered industry branches is most clearly. Especially the industry branches where the main intention of the use of eCatalogues is to make the order processing and product delivery more efficient are specifying a lot of logistic information while the other standards sometimes provide no possibilities in this area at all. Just the other way around is the possibility to reference to multi-media files like pictures or additionally product describing documents from the catalogue. The logistic orientated standards do not provide this kind of information while the standards which support the product selection process provide through this instrument some of their marketing information. There are general two different orientations the standards are setting their focus on. Besides providing data to enable the order processing, some of the standards are concentrating more on data to support the product selection process by providing a lot of marketing information (BMEcat 1.2, OAGIS, xCBL) while others concentrate on supporting the product distribution by setting the focal point on logistic data (EAN·UCC, Pricat, RosettaNet). The product models which the catalogue standards provide to represent the product data vary dependent on the focus of the standard. There are some standards that are tailored to special industry branches – in these standards often there is no clear distinction between domain independent data and data which is only relevant to one industry branch. In the horizontal standards most of the time the product models are showing a clear distinction between the domain independent data elements on the one hand and the integration of classification systems through a metamodel for properties which standardize domain specific attribute sets on the other hand. To realize this most of the catalogue standards allow the reference to classification systems, groups and properties, some even include data models to specify own classification systems within the catalogue. With the product models provided by most of the standards it is only possible to represent rather simple products like MRO products which can be described by a list of non- interdependent properties. There are only few standards which support more complex product models like additional order parameters. BMEcat 2.0 is the only standard which may provide enough capabilities to fully transfer configurations within the catalogue. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 65

Comparison at vocabulary and data type layer

A

BMEcat 1.2 draft BMEcat 2.0 preliminary catXML 0.21 CIDX 3.0 cXML 1.2009 4 DATANORM 1.3 EAN UCC eCX 3.0 EDIFACT Pricat 96 A EDIFACT Prodat 96 B OAGIS 8.0 OCI 3.0 RosettaNet 2A1 MG R02 00 00 xCBL 4.0 reference to international standards + + + + + + o + o - +

+ = yes o = partly - = no Table 7-8: Analysis at vocabulary and data type layer.

It can easily be seen that the use of enumeration types like country or currency codes are handled in different ways. BMEcat and OAGIS for instance do not define own enumeration types but reference on other already existing standards for instance of the ISO or UNECE. When looking at RosettaNet on the other hand it defines some enumeration types on their own without referencing to already existing standards. 7.4 Identification of deficits of eCatalogue standards and suggestion for solution of the identified problems Enable a more efficient catalogue processing One mayor obstacle on the way establishing an efficient catalogue creation process is the long period of time until a first successful catalogue has been transferred from the catalogue creator into the catalogue processing system of the buying company or the intermediary. The problems which arise on this way are based on several inadequacies of the underlying catalogue exchange formats. The first problem for the catalogue creators or the software companies which develop catalogue processing software like catalogue data management or eProcurement systems is that due to the poor documentation it is difficult to get to fully understand the standards. This arises from the fact that hardly any catalogue standard supports their users with documentation which is appropriate for their needs. Most of the times the standards provide only some kind of, often even ambiguous, reference documents. These documents are mostly not multilingual available and thus especially for beginners hard to understand. Additionally often no real live examples files are available. This makes the first catalogue creation time consuming and expensive, because the not correct catalogue is exchanged several times between the involved companies before a correct exchange process is established. The problems which come up from these circumstances could be reduced if more standards provide a precise formal specification. If a catalogue standard’s specification utilises the full capabilities of the advanced modelling techniques of XML schema the catalogue creators could easily use often freely available tools to validate their catalogues prior to the import process. Additionally it would be of great benefit if the catalogue 66 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 importing software would create a report which lists qualified all errors during the catalogue import process. This report would decrease the number of turn arounds between catalogue creator and catalogue processor. Even if the catalogue format is well known to all involved parties there have to be some coordination between catalogue creators and processors. Nearly all catalogue standards provide options in the way the catalogue is used. The agreements which have to be made cover the use of optional data elements, the fixing of enumerations like currencies or languages and even sometimes the restriction of domains like field length for descriptions. This process is today mostly handled on a non formal way through the exchange of some kind of guidelines. If all catalogue standards would provide a “request for catalogue” message it would be possible for the catalogue processing companies to formulate their needs in a formal way, which is free of interpretation spaces. All these enhancements could lead to straight and lean catalogue exchange process which could save time and money for all involved companies. Supporting different scenarios especially the use of market places Despite the fact that procurement develops towards the use of global marketplaces today’s electronic catalogues often are not very suitable for that kind of scenarios. There are special requirements which should be supported by the electronic catalogue standards used to make the exchange of product data easier for suppliers and buyers. When supporting one marketplace with product information the supplier often has to take into account buyer specific data especially prices. Therefore he has to transfer some kind of fixed base product data like the product description and additionally buyer-specific prices for each buyer on the marketplace. Especially when updating the data the efforts can be reduced if only the changed data can be transferred whereas the unchanged base data remains within the marketplace with a catalogue standard which distinguishes between public and private data by providing some kind of multi-buyer concept. This concept can only be used effectively if there is a rich price model to cope the different requirements of the different buyers in matters of different territory specific aspects e.g. tax models. On the other side marketplaces or catalogue hubs often provide catalogue aggregation services for buyers who want to import one catalogue which incorporates the catalogues of different suppliers. To establish this in an effective way the underlying catalogue standards should have the possibilities to deal with multi-supplier catalogues. Complex products and services So far the main object of catalogue-based transaction systems are standardized products of a limited specification and complexity. Among these products are primarily indirect goods that are not an immediate input factor for production processes and can not be attributed to manufactured final goods. A common term is MRO goods (maintenance, repair and operations). These indirect goods are characterized by a limited specification, low single values and high order frequencies as well as at the same time a low share in the procurement budget. Although they require a relevant amount of resources for procurement, order and stock receipt management. The described restrictions cause a limited area of application for eProcurement systems so far. By extending the capabilities of catalogue applications concerning product complexity, product models and product data exchange, eProcurement systems could reshape their role as tools for buying direct, complex or strategic goods especially also services as well. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 67

Therefore the eCatalogues need to broaden their product models in this direction. There are in general two different ways to integrate more complex products in the catalogue based procurement process. On the one hand the product can be handled on the suppliers sell side and be integrated through a so called PunchOut process. To fully use the possibilities of the PunchOut- concept it has to be assured that the products handled by these special processes are fully integrated in the catalogue along the “normal” products. Today there is no such integration in most of the catalogue standards. This results in the use of two procurement systems within the buying organizations – one system for dealing with the PunchOut-products and another one dealing with the “normal” products. This approach is not target-orientated because the cost reduction potentials through process simplification can not be achieved. On the other hand the complex products could be represented in the catalogues with a full description. Therefore the catalogue standard must provide product models that are capable of describing more complex products which may have to be configured. This product models must provide possibilities to describe the product structure and ensure that only valid products can be ordered through a validity concept like validity constraints. Additional the price model within the product catalogues have to be able to satisfy the requirements out of the configuration process. Extending the price models eCatalogues contain a variety of product information, essential is price information. Prices are used for buying decisions and following order transactions. While simple price models are often sufficient for the description of MRO goods, other goods and lines of business make higher demands. Speaking of suppliers and buyers, it is necessary to represent more complex price models in eCatalogues. For example, the industrial trade uses multi- staged discount systems along the trade levels. Further requirements are dynamic prices being calculated at the time of order and different types and forms of taxes according to legal conditions in the EU. Country specific requirements Further researches have to be done whether country specific requirements on electronic catalogues are fulfilled within today’s eCatalogue standards. An example for that is how products are handled in Germany which contains a relevant amount of metal which is traded via the stock exchange. To describe the highly stock dependent prices there is an industry special formula which most of the suppliers use to describe their prices. This leads to the fact that only guiding prices are transferred within the electronic catalogues. Not until price formulas are included in the eCatalogues which allow dynamic price calculation during ordering time these special products can be represented correctly within eCatalogues. 68 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

8 Analysis of the relation between (as well as application of) existing product classification schemes/product identification schemes and eCatalogues [W 1.4] This chapter contains an analysis of the relation between (as well as application of) existing product classification schemes/product identification schemes and eCatalogues. The focus in this chapter is on major product classification and product identification schemes and their relation to eCatalogues in virtual market places as well as in intra- company use, duly taking into account pan-European requirements. 8.1 Introduction Nowadays globalization leads to increasing stress of competition. Enterprises therefore take steps towards reduction of costs and rationalization. In the past a wide diversification of all economic activities was a good strategy to ensure the success of an enterprise in the future. Today these enterprises are restructured so that their activities focus on their core competences again. Therefore complex products are as a rule not developed and manufactured by a single firm. Many globally distributed companies with different core competences cooperate in the design and manufacturing of a product. The success of global product development depends among other things on an easy exchange of design knowledge. The amount of product information exchanged increases steadily. That is why it is imperative that product information is formally structured and documented in a way that it can be processed automatically by a computer. To be able to exchange formally structured product classification automatically between globally distributed enterprises, one standardized format for the information would represent an ideal world. But reality is different. During the past decades several solutions were initiated. Some again disappeared and some, like the NATO Codification System (NCS) are in use over the last 50 years. Integration in development, manufacturing, distribution up to recycling industries needs the capability to model, generate, exchange and manage intelligent electronic catalogues of pre-existing, newly developed and configured products. 8.2 Terms and definitions Product lifecycle management (PLM) CIMdata defines product lifecycle management as: • A strategic business approach that applies a consistent set of business solutions that support the collaborative creation, management, dissemination, and use of product definition information • Supporting the extended enterprise (customers, design and supply partners, etc.) • Spanning from concept to end of life of a product or plant • Integrating people, processes, business systems, and information CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 69

Product data management Product data management aims at handling all product-related information on the basis of an integrated product model (e.g. STEP). This model forms the basis for integrating different information arising during the product life-cycle. Contrary to PLM, PDM focuses on the early phases of a product life-cycle only, including product planning, design, construction, process planning and manufacturing. Product identification codes Identification codes are used to make an unambiguous identification of a product. In the past, products were identified by identification codes which allowed anticipating the characteristics of a product. Today a lot of identification codes have no special semantics; each time a new code for a product is needed, the code is simply incremented. The one- to-one correspondence between the code and the thing is very useful for recording and linking records of items and actions taken on the items (such as point-of-sale transactions, inventory management, and record keeping). Product classification The task of product classification is to assign each product to a product group (called “classification group” or short “class”) corresponding to common attributes or application areas. Mostly each product gets a classification code assigned to group similar things into common categories. The values of the classification codes are arbitrary, i.e. are not deduced from the products properties. With product classification, similar classification groups are members of a classification group. Similar classes are members of yet a more general classification group or family, and so on. Product classification is mainly used for identifying where expenditures are being made, and for searching and comparing offered products on electronic markets. Hence, product classification systems are heavily used in procurement. To augment the usability of product classification systems for more general purposes, some product classification systems define sets of attributes [properties] associated to classes (Jörg Leukel, Volker Schmitz, Frank-Dieter Dorloff: “Referenzmodell für den Austausch von Produktklassifikationssystemen im E-Business”, 2002). A set of attributes [properties] is assigned to a classification group [class] and contains therefore at least the set of the necessary product properties for this classification group [class]. In eCatalogues that claim to support a specific classification system each product has been augmented by the classification code and the set of group-dependent list of attributes/value pairs. Today, almost every day, a new, more or less sophisticated product classification appears (each with a different viewpoint, each with different classes and each associated with a different set of attributes) Mostly all currently available intra-company wide part management solutions structure their content in respect to similar company or domain specific hierarchical product classification methodologies. Changes in the classification structure, i.e. resulting from company takeover or project cooperation, needs a complete rework of all products to get the classification keys updated. Due to the huge amount of different products that are daily used and introduced, the goal of product classification can grow immensely complex. 70 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

A selection of parts on the basis of technical requirements is not possible using classification groups (for example “bolt with anti-twist device and head without eyebolt- bore”). A selection of objects in regard to a specific target is only possible for a limited amount of criteria. Parts can be collected and arranged in a classification system but not fully described. The primary focus of a classification system is to supply identification and structuring mechanism. Supporting the exchange of data within the product life cycle is not the target of a product classification system based on classification groups. Terminology Terminology is a set of terms representing the system of concepts of a particular subject field (according to ISO 1087). Increasingly, terminologies also include non-linguistic concept representations such as graphical symbols, formulae, etc. Terminologies are compiled according to terminographical methods and presented as dictionaries, databases, etc. Terminologies play a crucial role in education and all situations of professional and scholarly communication. Terminology science provides the methodology for the preparation, recording and processing (as well as re-use) of terminological data. Terminography supplies the tools for the efficient preparation and processing of terminological data which in turn are further processed into dictionaries, vocabularies, terminology databases, etc. Terminological knowledge engineering provides the tool to represent, manage and access knowledge of different degrees of complexity. Knowledge management cannot be efficient without a strong terminology component (comprising terminological data, methods and tools). The international responsibility for terminology on standardisation level is ISO TC 37 “Terminology and other language resources” (http://www.iso.org/iso/en/stdsdevelopment/ tc/tclist/TechnicalCommitteeDetailPage.TechnicalCommitteeDetail?COMMID=1459). Ontology John F. Sowa (http://users.bestweb.net/~sowa/ontology/) defines ontology as follows: The subject of ontology is the study of the categories of things that exist or may exist in some domain. The product of such a study, called ontology, is a catalogue of the types of things that are assumed to exist in a domain of interest D from the perspective of a person who uses a language L for the purpose of talking about D. The types in the ontology represent the predicates, word senses, or concept and relation types of the language L when used to discuss topics in the domain D. An uninterpreted logic, such as predicate calculus, conceptual graphs, or KIF, is ontologically neutral. It imposes no constraints on the subject matter or the way the subject may be characterized. By itself, logic says nothing about anything, but the combination of logic with an ontology provides a language that can express relationships about the entities in the domain of interest. 8.3 Criteria for classification The Criteria for classification can be various. With regard to the use of eCatalogues for eCommerce and eBusiness within the European Union and internationally several criteria were selected to review the existing solutions. Based on this survey problems can be identified and suggestions for useful future enhancements can be given. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 71

8.3.1 Multilingual aspects of existing product classification/identification schemes One of the important topics which differentiate the European Union from the United States is the language. Europe has more than ten official languages which are actively used (more to come) and therefore the multilingual aspect is one of the pan-European requirements in high focus. The multilingual aspects are also a wide field to look at. Given the scope of the project two criteria are being looked at: 1. the ability to support multilingual versions, and 2. which languages are supported in the referenced versions of the solutions. 8.3.2 International character and authoritative nature The focus of these criteria was to analyze solutions and find out who is supporting them and what the significance on the geographical area is. It starts from the fact who was initiating the solution and how it developed regarding support from companies, industry organizations and associations or legal authorities. Also the international character of the solutions today was questioned. 8.3.3 Speed of updating and change management In an ideal world classification systems as well as product identification codes are defined once and used without any changes. But real life is different. New products and industries create the necessity for changing and adapting the systems regularly. Also experiences in using the solutions may create the need for a change. These changes can reach from a simple typing error until a substantial change of structures and content. The research looks how the systems deal with changes and updates form the organizational perspective and the time scale. 8.3.4 Diffusion of support software The best theoretical data model is useless if nobody implements it; so it was questioned whether the solutions made it to the fingertips of the users. On the one hand it is important if the software vendors support the data formats for using the solutions. On the other hand companies need support in implementing these data models in their environment, meaning both systems and processes. 8.3.5 Upward and downward compatibility of versions For a potential user of a solution it is essential to know how to deal with new versions. The change from one version to the next can mean to simply run an upgrade procedure and be able to continue work. But it also can mean that heavy work (and therefore investments) is involved. For the users it also is interesting to know if there is a possibility to support previous versions. Customers or suppliers may have different versions of the standard but have to exchange data between their systems. 8.3.6 Relation to terminology and ontologies Classification and identification schemes deal with structural content as well as language dependent content. Therefore we have aspects regarding terminology and ontology to cover. 72 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

8.4 Overview of existing product classification/identification schemes The section below gives an overview of selected product classifications and product identification schemes. 8.4.1 CPV – Common Procurement Vocabulary The Common Procurement Vocabulary CPV (http://simap.eu.int/EN/pub/src/main5.htm) was created in 1996 by the European Community as a tool for improving transparency and efficiency in the field of public procurement. Use of standard terms in the CPV makes it easier for potential suppliers to identify the procurement contracts in which they are interested. The CPV also facilitates fast and accurate translation of contract notices for publication in the EC Official Journal, and makes it easier to establish procurement statistics. The Classification of Products by Activity (CPA) was chosen as a basis to build on. It was done so mainly because the CPA was a coherent nomenclature and was well adapted to the industrial structure of the European Community. However, it is supplier-oriented rather than purchaser-oriented. Consequently, many changes were needed. CPA codes have six digits. Two more digits were added in order to make codes more accurate. Note too that there is a ninth digit, in order to check if the eight others are correct. These codes and the definitions of products (goods and services) in all the languages of the European Union constitute the main vocabulary. The supplementary vocabulary is designed to help contracting entities describe the subject matter of contracts comprehensively. It includes a letter that defines the general field concerned (transports, textiles etc.) and four digits, the fourth one being a check-digit. Structure of the classification system 1. The CPV consists of a main vocabulary and a supplementary vocabulary. 2. The main vocabulary is based on a tree structure comprising codes of up to nine digits associated with a wording that describes the supplies, works or services forming the subject of the contract. The numerical code consists of 8 digits, subdivided as follows: • the first two digits identify the divisions; • the first three digits identify the groups; • the first four digits identify the classes; • the first five digits identify the categories. Each of the last three digits gives a greater degree of precision within each category. A ninth digit serves to verify the previous digits. 3. The supplementary vocabulary may be used to expand the description of the subject of a contract. The items are made up of an alphanumeric code with a corresponding wording allowing further details to be added regarding the specific nature or destination of the goods to be purchased. The alphanumeric code is made up of: • a first level comprising a letter corresponding to a section; CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 73

• a second level comprising four digits, the first three of which denote a subdivision and the last one being for verification purposes. The use of the CPV when drafting public procurement notices in the EU remains optional. Its use will become mandatory with the entry into force of the forthcoming public procurement legislative package which is now in discussion in the Council and the European Parliament. The CPV is available in 11 different languages (all current official EU languages) and therefore on a high level from the multilingual perspective. As it is used for public procurement within the EU it has also high authoritative nature but not outside the EU. It is a classification schema without any product attributes so it can only be used to classify types of products but it can not used for searching products based on product characteristics. The last change was from version 1998 to version 2003 (current version) and within this move several minor corrections have been made. A table of correspondence is supplied to be able to recognize the changes. Software support could not be verified. The new version of CPV entered into force on 2003-12-16. 8.4.2 eCl@ss The eCl@ss initiative (http://www.eClass-online.com/) started in 1997 out of the German Association of the Chemical Industry (VCI) with the goal to develop a common classification system. The classification should set a standard for information exchange between suppliers and their customers. eCl@ss is characterized by a four-level hierarchical classification system with a key-word register of about 19,000 words. eCl@ss maps market structure for industrial buyers and supports engineers at development, planning and maintenance. The user can access eCl@ss either via the hierarchy or over the key words. Also lists of attributes for the description of the products are available. Material Class Hierarchy The Material Class Hierarchy is a four level tree. It is the supporting structure to which keywords and attribute sets are attached. The nodes of the tree are collectively called “Material Classes”. The Material Classes on the different levels have different names: Each Material Class is associated with the following characteristic fields: Identifying Key Primary key that uniquely identifies a Material Class. Material Class Code Eight-digit code that describes the position of the corresponding material class in the hierarchy. It is a concatenation of the parent’s code and a two-digit code relative to the parent. Segments have a two-digit code relative to the root; Main Groups have a two-digit code relative to their parent Segment and a four-digit code relative to the root, and so on. Material Class codes are right-padded with zeroes if necessary. A Material Class code uniquely identifies a Material Class in a given version of eCl@ss. Identifying Name A collective term that describes the goods and services belonging to the corresponding material class. An Identifying Name uniquely identifies a Material Class in a given version of eCl@ss. 74 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Short Name A variant of the Identifying Name whose length is limited to 40 characters. If the Identifying Name does not exceed 40 characters it will also be used as the Short Name. A Short Name uniquely identifies a Material Class in a given version of eCl@ss. Definition A precise textual description of the goods and services belonging to the corresponding Material Class. eCl@ss Version Version of eCl@ss for which these values of the characteristic fields are valid.

Identifying Names, Short Names, and Definitions must be provided for each supported language. The above statements about the uniqueness of Names hold for each language separately. The same Names may appear in different languages, either with the same meaning (“Hammer” in English and German) or with different meanings (“Container” in English and German). eCl@ss currently supports six different languages and intends to be a global classification system. So far it is mainly used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Heavy use outside the German-speaking countries could not be verified, as it was initiated from the chemical industry where it is used. It was also adopted and is in use in other industry segments. It is the best known European classification system within central Europe. Currently it is available in Version 5.0. The next version (5.1) is in preparation. Software support for eCl@ss is made available from a wide selection of suppliers. Also several consulting companies offer packages for implementing eCl@ss in organizations. 8.4.3 ECCMA Open Technical Dictionary (eOTD) The Electronic Commerce Code Management Association (ECCMA) (http://www.eccma.org/) is a new breed of standards organization focused on satisfying the needs of electronic commerce – the need for true international consensus in real time. ECCMA was formed in April of 1999 and has brought together experts from around the world and provides them a means of working together in the fair, open and fast environment of the Internet to build and maintain global, open standard dictionaries that are used to unambiguously label information. Mission of ECCMA To provide an open, transparent and efficient process for the development of open standards for content over the Internet. ECCMA Open Technical Dictionary is a standard for the identification, description and differentiation of individuals, organizations, locations, goods and services through the use of Attribute-Value pairs. The eOTD is a classification neutral and language independent dictionary of Standard Item Names, Standard Attribute Names and Standard Attribute Values. The eOTD is designed to support field interoperability, competitive sourcing, inventory rationalization and spend analysis. The EGAS is a dictionary of common descriptive terms used to describe the properties, characteristics or requirements of products, organizations or locations of supply. The CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 75

EGAS is used to build standardized catalogues and product specifications as well as to support enhanced search engines. The EGIS is a dictionary of names and definitions for common commercial concepts of products, organizations and locations. Also known as Standard Item Names (SIN), Approved Item Names (AIN), Product classes or Product families; a generic concept (good or service) that has a defined list (template) of attributes. As of February 2003 the eOTD includes over 60,000 Standard Item Names and 30,000 Standard Attribute Names, most with definitions and multilingual translations. The eOTD has as its base the 44,000 Approved Item Names (AIN) and the 27,000 Master Requirement Codes (MRC) from the Federal/NATO cataloguing system. The eOTD is an Open Standard; it can be used, copied, and distributed for free. 8.4.4 ETIM In December 1999 nine German electrical products wholesalers and buying joined together into the ETIM Deutschland e.V (http://www.etim.de/) pooling agreement. The goal is to introduce ETIM as a uniform standard for describing electro-technical products and to establish a central clearing centre to provide product data to the electrical sector in Germany – and gradually throughout Europe. At the European level, ETIM Deutschland e.V. has been working since the beginning of 2000 with the Dutch electro-technical industry association UNETO. The Electro-technical Information Model (ETIM) provides the basis for the development and standardization of a uniform standard for describing electro-technical products. This model for the classification and technical description of products was originally developed in the Netherlands by UNETO. Since August/September 2002 ETIM version 2.0 is available. For the dissemination of the data model ETIM involved several industry associations. There are also cooperation with eCl@ss and proficl@ss to align and to exchange content. The ETIM classification has a two level hierarchy where the first level is the product category and the second level is the product class. Attributes are assigned to the classes. There are no attributes assigned to categories. The only function of the categories is to group the classes. The classes itself represent products like “Dimmer” or “Infrared receiver”. Synonyms are only used for classes. The attributes have a “Name”, “Unit of Measurement”, “Format” and may also have a “list of valid values”. For data exchange ETIM uses the BMEcat format (http://www.bmecat.de/). The ETIM classification-model (in different formats) as well as the data exchange format with examples are available for download at the ETIM Homepage http://www.etim.de/html/ download.html). ETIM is available in German, English, and Dutch versions. Today the ETIM data model is used within the organizations which formed ETIM. These organizations represent about 90 % of the trade volume for electro technical products within Germany. As the data-exchange format is the XML-based BMEcat, it can be used on various systems. 8.4.5 IEC 61360 Component Data Dictionary The IEC 61360 database (http://domino.iec.ch/iec61360/iec61360.nsf/ WelcomeFrameset?OpenFrameset) contains the IEC reference collection of classes and associated characteristic properties (data element types or DETs) for electric/electronic components and materials used in electrotechnical equipment and systems. 76 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

The dictionary and database follow the methodology of Part 1 of IEC 61360 and the information model of Parts 2 and 5, and include: • a hierarchical classification of components in a classification tree • a set of characteristic properties (DETs) associated with each class that fully describe components belonging to a class. Within the classification hierarchy, sub- classes inherit properties from those classes above them in the tree • where relevant, conditions for which the property values are valid. IEC 61360 Part 2 is identical to ISO 13584 Part 42. The IEC 61360 Component Data Dictionary is available online and can be accessed free of charge. The database is currently available in English only. 8.4.6 ISO 13584 compliant dictionaries The ISO 13584 (http://www.iso.org/) standards series was first published in 1998. The responsible sub-committee (ISO/TC 184/SC 4) is also responsible for ISO 10303. Based on the description methodology several projects started to define Online Dictionaries for products. Some of it is: • ISO 13399 defines a dictionary for cutting tools and is based on the information model of ISO 13584 part 42. • In ISO 13584 Part 5xx normative dictionaries of classes and properties are defined. • DIN V 4002 series – Properties and reference hierarchy for product data exchange DIN V 4002 is a German work instruction for capturing information to build the Online Dictionary of the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) (http://www.DINsml.net/). • VDI 3805 – Product data exchange in the building services VDI (Association of Engineers) regulation 3805 defines a dictionary for products in the building industry The data model of the below IEC 61360 standard series (ISO 61360 part 2) is identical to ISO 13584 part 42. The general approach of ISO 13584 is to define an information model which allows the definition of any ontology. Some elements of this information model are classes and attributes (in ISO 13584 terminology called “property”). The dictionaries are multilingual. The use of ISO 13584 compliant data models increased continuously in the last years. Also well-known software vendors implemented the data model. 8.4.7 NATO Codification System (NCS) Over the last 50 years, the NATO codification system (NCS) (http://www.nato.int/structur/ AC/135) has been developed to support NATO logistic. It was very successful to define a common international understanding about items of supply, to reduce supplies of military forces, and to facilitate logistic data management. The NCS is based on two main ideas: • characterizing form, fit and function of each item of supply (IoS) by means of human readable and computer-sensible classification structures allowing to name items (approved item name: AIN) and to describe them by property values (Master Requirement Codes: MRCs); Item Identification Guides (IIGs) specify which CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 77

properties shall be used to characterize any item belonging to one AIN among a set of similar AINs; • identifying each IoS by an absolute identifier (NATO Stock Number: NSN), whoever is its manufacturer. Implementation of the NCS resulted in a complete computer technology for modelling, storing and exchanging item data. Moreover, all kinds of items used by NATO, this means most existing kinds of products, were modelled using this technology. NATO was a precursor. Only during the last ten years the requirement to systematically characterize product by names and properties emerged in the industry. The first reason was the need of components libraries for computer aided design systems, where the designer could search for component by fit and function. The latest, and not least reason, was the dramatic growth of eCommerce on technical products over the last period. NCS is designed to achieve high effectiveness in logistics support and to facilitate material data management. The System has been agreed by all signatories of the NATO Alliance for use in identifying equipment and supplies (http://www.nato.int/structur/AC/135/ ncs_guide/e_guide.htm) The principal objectives of the System are: • To increase the effectiveness of the logistic systems • To facilitate data handling • To minimize logistics costs of user nations • To increase efficiency in logistics operations To achieve these objectives the System provides for each “Item of Supply” to be assigned with: • A unique Item Name. • A unique classification. • A unique identification. • A unique NATO Stock Number. NATO Stock Number – NSN When it is established that an Item of Supply is unique, its identity is fixed through the assignment of its own NATO Stock Number (NSN). NSNs are issued by NCBs. The NSN is a 13 digit number and is divided into 3 parts: The first 4 digits are the NATO Supply Classification Code and relate the item to the group and class of similar items. The next 2 digits indicate the NCB assigning the NSN. The final 7 digits of a NSN are devoid of inherent significance. However, this number is assigned to one and to only one Item of Supply within the codifying country (http://www.nato.int/structur/AC/135/NCS/nsn/nsn.htm). Within the NCS the term MANUFACTURER covers the whole range of possible sources for technical data for items entering the supply systems of participating countries. NATO is interested to supply their Codification System also for the use outside the military environment. So far it seems not to be widely used outside the military environment. There are two basic languages, English and French, which are used per default. But any country can enter their supplies also in their local language. Therefore there are no limitations in language per definition. 78 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

The database includes about: • 16 million NATO Stock Numbers (NSNs) • 31 million Manufacturers or Vendor Reference (Part) Numbers • >1 million Manufacturers and Vendors (NCAGE, names and addresses) • 23 million User Registrations The data-base is available and continuously updated online. A CD-ROM/DVD version is delivered bi-monthly. The service will be charged for by NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency Codification Services Branch (LZ-C). Potential users have to register and may be rejected. If the regulations keep in place as they are today it is not expected that it will be used widely in the industry for purposes outside military use. 8.4.8 proficl@ss proficl@ss (http://www.proficlass.org/) is a German initiated sectoral spanning classification system for product data. Manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors developed the classification to create an industry standard. In the past proficl@ss had a focus on companies and organizations dealing with tools and machinery. The intention is to broaden the focus to various industry segments. In October 2003 version 2.0 of proficl@ss was released. In the proficl@ss data model the number of hierarchies is not limited. Currently it uses up to six levels. Also keywords are available to search the database. Partially a reference to the eCl@ss classification codes are delivered for classes. proficl@ss also works closely with ETIM. At the bottom level of the classes proficl@ss delivers product attributes. This attributes contain an “ID”, a “Name”, a “data type”, and a “unit”. Further there is a “sorting number” to define the display order of the attributes when displayed. For catalogue content a definition comes with each attribute which defines if this attribute must be entered a value in the catalogue. proficl@ss is a non-profit organization and the use of the data is free of charge. Today the database is available only in German language. It is used mainly within the organizations of the members of proficl@ss which is the German tools and machinery industry. New releases are available once a year. 8.4.9 UNSPSC – Universal Standard Products and Services Classification In May 2003 the Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC) (http://www.uc-council.org/) has been selected by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to serve as code manager of the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC) (http://www.unspsc.org/). The UNSPS was developed jointly by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and D&B (Dun & Bradstreet Corporation) in 1998. Before UCC became code manager there were two versions of the UNSPSC code. One from ECCMA and one from UNDP. The unification of the two code sets was completed with the March 2003 release of the “unified” UNSPSC code (ECCMA and UNDP versions harmonized). The initial unified code is listed on the www.unspsc.org web site as version 6.0315. There have been additional releases since the unified version was published in March 2003. The UNSPSC is a global standard for classification of products and services that is designed to facilitate electronic commerce, resulting in reduced organization’s costs, and improved supply chain efficiencies. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 79

The United Nations Standard Products and Services Code is a classification convention that is used to numerically identify products and services. It is an efficient, accurate and flexible classification system for achieving company-wide visibility of spend analysis, as well as, enabling procurement to deliver on cost- effectiveness demands and allowing full exploitation of electronic commerce capabilities. The UNSPSC code is available in several languages and used internationally. UNSPSC only delivers classes. Attributes are not available. The latest released version is V6.0801 which is currently only available in English language. Translation of V6 into different language is intended. UNSPSC is widely used internationally and therefore also supported by software vendors. The code can be used free of charge. Anybody can become member of UNSPSC. There are several types of memberships which are charged differently. As a member someone can request changes to the code. There are regular updates to the code every few month. The code can be downloaded at: (http://www.unspsc.org/ PagesForDownload.asp?PageID=4). 8.4.10 Comparison Table - Classificaiton/Identification schemes

8.4.1 8.4.2 8.4.3 8.4.4 8.4.5 8.4.6 8.4.7 8.4.8 8.4.9 CPV eCl@ss eOTD ETIM IEC 61360 ISO 13584 NATO proficl@ss UNSPSC Field interoperatibility, sourcing, inventory planning, Phases supported in the rationalization, engineering, product lifecycle management not answered not answered spend analysis all manufacturing all all eCatalogues all D, NL, CH, B, Geographical targets not answered not answered global E, P global global global D, A, NL, CH global electro- tools electro- mechanic, bearings, technical electronic welding, Industry segment targets not answered not answered all industry industry all almost all hose/tube all multilingual; further Supported languages1 multilingual minimum is: on demand Bulgarian x Chinese (simplified) x Chinese (traditional) x Czech x x x Danish x Dutch x x x x English x x x x x x x x Finnish x French x x x x x x German x x x x x x x x x

Greek x Hungarian x x Italian x x x x Japanese x Korean limited x Latvian x Lithuanian x Polish x x Portuguese x x x Russian Slovenian x x Slovakian x Spanish x x x x x x Swedish x

Hierarchy levels 4 no hierarchy 2 not limited not limited 2 not limited, 4

1 The translations in eOTD are being provided by the different countries 80 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

preference 4 up to 6 used

hierarchy class/commodi Hierarchy level 1 divisions segment category group ty class segment hierarchy class/commodi Hierarchy level 2 groups main group class class ty class family hierarchy class/commodi Hierarchy level 3 classes group ty class class hierarchy commodity class/commodi Hierarchy level 4 categories class ty class commodity hierarchy class/commodi Hierarchy level 5 ty class hierarchy class/commodi Hierarchy level 6 ty class Hierarchy level 7 Attributes2 no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no ISO 13584 Conformity to standards ISO 15926-4 IEC 61360 ISO 13584 No of classes 8239 15315 60605 1546 1000 723 3160 20498 No of attributes 5504 46863 3576 10000 30000 4560 no Synonyms no yes yes yes no yes yes no Attribute lists no yes yes yes yes yes yes no Online one major and continuously, less than one minor a plan is online bi-monthly on 4 planned for Speed of update once a year year 12 per year once a year continuous CD/DVD once a year 2004 Version referenced 1998 4.1 03/2004 2.0 continuously 2.0 6_11.01 8.4.1 8.4.2 8.4.3 8.4.4 8.4.5 8.4.6 8.4.7 8.4.8 8.4.9

8.5 Identification of problems The analysis of the existing product classification and identification systems showed that there is a wide range of systems out in the market. The majority of the companies have more than one system in use. In some cases more than 30 different systems are in use in one single corporation. Every year the companies spend an enormous amount of money in keeping the systems running next to each other. A lot of redundant work is performed to maintain the content. The selected and discussed systems in the analysis are ones which are well known and used within industry segments and/or regions. Up to now most of the systems were designed to serve needs of one specific business process (e.g. procurement). For future systems the approach needs to be extended to the entire product life cycle including the extended enterprise to suppliers and customers. Identified problems with the current solutions are: 8.5.1 No common data model Most of the solutions analysed are being built up on an own proprietary data model. There is no wide conformity to available standards so far. The different data models are not compatible and therefore content cannot be exchanged easily - a fact which is a problem especially for companies which have to support more than one system to fulfil the needs of their customers.

2 In ISO 13584/IEC 61360 the term attribute has a different meaning to the term attribute in this document. The ISO 13584/IEC 61360 corresponding term is “property”. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 81

8.5.2 Different semantic In a lot of systems terms are used without defining the specific meaning and context the terms are used. This causes misinterpretation and misunderstanding when using it. The same term used in another industry segment may have a different meaning. When opening the catalogue approach to wide industry segments this problem rises in importance. 8.5.3 No harmonized workflows For the companies using product classification and identification systems a lot of difficulties and problems occur when updates and changes are performed in the systems. Upward compatibility of versions is not committed in most of the systems. No common workflows for performing updates and changes exist. The processes to perform extensions and changes within the data-model as well as the content differ and are not very transparent to the user in many cases. 8.5.4 No common multilingual approach The support of multilingual versions differs widely in the analysed solutions. The market today forces the companies to internationally offer their products and services. This means multilingual offerings. Common activities which are on the way to be implemented are not seen so far in the solutions available today. 8.6 Suggestion for solution to existing (and foreseen future) problems The suggestions result out of the identified problems with the solutions available today. The interest of the companies using product classification and identification systems is, to reduce and finally avoid redundant work in developing and maintaining the systems and content. The demand for automated data-exchange and multilingual approaches increases. The suggestions are: 8.6.1 Create common data model Many problems and a lot of work today arise due to the fact that there is no common data model. A common data model would make it possible to exchange information between different systems. The intention should be to harmonize existing standards for product description and classification into a common system. The above mentioned standards ISO 13584 and IEC 61360 may be useful as a basis for a common metamodel. Currently an ISO/IEC Guide for specification of product properties and families is being developed. The exchange of data between the systems should be harmonized as well. The activities within the ebXML initiative (http://www.ebXML.org/) may be a good point to start the analyses. 82 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

8.6.2 Focus on terminology In the context of content there must be a higher focus on terminology. If the compatibility of systems increase and data exchange can be performed easier, it is essential to have exact definitions and therefore avoid misinterpretation. A common database of terms and definitions developed by product specialists together with language experts will bring benefits to all involved parties. Currently several activities in this area are active (e.g. IEC Component Data Dictionary http://domino.iec.ch/iec61360/ iec61360.nsf/ , DIN Online Dictionary http://www.DINsml.net/, …). 8.6.3 Define workflow Companies using data and systems have a need to work with reliable information which they can build their plans on. One identified problem in the existing solutions is the way the systems today deal with the processes of developing and extending their systems. It is necessary to develop a common and comprehensible workflow for processes like creating or changing structural elements like classes or attributes. The way of dealing with versions and revisions has to be defined as well as the process of creating and changing of translations. The use of stage codes is recommended. Also with this topic it is recommended to preferable use already existing standards (e.g. for stage codes see ISO Guide 69) instead creating new ones. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 83

9 Formulation of problems and recommendations for a systematic approach to implement highly interoperable eCatalogues at SME level [W 1.5] 9.1 Summary of issues raised in analysis sections Some central issues are summarized in clauses 7.4 (“Identification of deficits of eCatalogue standards and suggestions for solutions of the identified problems”), 8.5 (“Identification of problems”), and 8.6 (“Suggestion for solution to existing (and foreseen future) problems”). 9.2 Interoperable eCatalogues 9.2.1 General requirements for interoperability As eBusiness is based on global ICT infrastructures, which allow for marketing products and services from wherever in the world to anywhere else, the localisation of products and services (incl. documentation and any product information) becomes more and more a key success factor in marketing. eCatalogues and product classification systems, therefore, have to be multilingual from the outset in order to cope with these requirements. eBusiness largely consists of the handling, transfer and exchange of eContent about products and services. The respective data and data structures, therefore, must be “semantically interoperable”. This semantic interoperability has many facets: • Interoperability of different objects of eCatalogues. • Interoperability through the supply chain. • Interoperability of user interfaces. • Multilingual sides of interoperability. • Interoperability of classification schemes. 9.2.2 SMEs vs other organizations There are different definitions of “small or medium-sized enterprises”. The following definition seems to be used consistently by European organizations: An SME is an organization with (1) less than 250 full time equivalent employees, and (2) an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 40 million or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 27 million, and (3) not controlled by 25 % or more by a company which is not an SME. A slightly revised definition will probably be implemented as of 2005-01, see http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/library/enterprise-europe/issue8/articles/en/ enterprise04_en.htm. Other definitions are sometimes used in some countries, e.g. a Norwegian definition with a maximum requirement of 100 employees. For the purpose of eBusiness and eCatalogues a very large portion of the actors on the market are SMEs. It is doubtful that any of our considerations and recommendations needs to be adjusted for “SME level” (cf. title of W 1.5). 84 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

9.2.3 Multilingual aspects See also 8.3.1 (“Multilingual aspects of existing product classification/identification schemes”). By a multilingual eCatalogue is understood a catalogue and a catalogue system where all information, interfaces and operations for end users are available in more than one language (and typically more than two languages). Internal development and maintenance functions need not be available in more than one language. Multilingual considerations impact on eCatalogues on several levels:

9.2.3.1 eCatalogue interface and eCatalogue content eCatalogue software and interface on the one hand and its content on the other needs to be viewed entirely independently. It is the text maintenance and translation of the eCatalogue content that constitute by far the largest task. When eCatalogues are discussed in the following clauses, it is the content that is the object of discussion. eCatalogue software and interface needs to be internationalized and localized by means of the same methods and practices that are being utilized for other software. These methods and practices are not discussed in this document. Any eCatalogue interface should be localized to at least all languages and markets that are represented in its content.

9.2.3.2 Text maintenance and translation work Textual descriptions of products and services for eCatalogues are typically delivered together with the product from the producer. Texts are updated by the producer as needed. These texts are imported into or linked from the eCatalogues. Texts are delivered in one or several languages, but rarely in all languages needed for all markets. Translation of eCatalogue texts, based on the originals delivered by the producer, may be done at any point in the supply chain. Most eCatalogues contain much text. The maintenance of the text in its original language version(s) may be a large and complex task. The magnitude and complexity of the task increase drastically for multilingual eCatalogues. Multilingual eCatalogues commonly need textual descriptions of products and services in more languages than what is provided upstream in the supply chain. However, the earlier in the chain the translations are provided, the greater is the possibility to avoid duplications and increase text maintenance efficiency. Machine translation will most likely in some cases prove useful in the not too distant future, or in some cases even at present. It needs to be pointed out, however, that relatively few language pairs are included in current machine translation systems. Computer-assisted translation systems are, on the other hand, available for all languages, albeit to a varying degree of sophistication. The consistent use and exchange of translation memory will enhance text maintenance efficiency.

9.2.3.3 Standardized terminology and controlled language Highly standardized multilingual terminology is essential for successful multilingual eCatalogues. End users will encounter text from a variety of sources, in original language version as well as in translated form into different languages. There is a great danger for confusion unless the relevant terminology is established and adhered to throughout the supply chain. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 85

Most of the terminology work should probably be undertaken outside the organizational framework of the eCatalogue itself, although occasional terminology projects directly linked to eCatalogues may also be foreseen. Closely connected with standardized terminology is the use of controlled language in connection with eCatalogues. Controlled language is highly recommended, and almost a prerequisite, for successful machine translation. But it may be very useful even in human translation and text maintenance environments. Language may be “controlled” on any level. In this context controlled syntax and controlled vocabulary will be particularly relevant. The use of controlled language in eCatalogues is discussed in several papers, e.g. by Aarno Lehtola et al. (http://www.vtt.fi/tte/language/publications/emmsec99.pdf and http://ui4all.ics.forth.gr/UI4ALL-98/lehtola.pdf). See also 8.3.6 (“Relation to terminology and ontologies”).

9.2.3.4 Issues relating to culture-specific terminology Culture-specific terminology includes issues that need to be studied separately. Typical fields are: • terminology based on local legislation; • terminology relating to (public and private) administration; • terminology relating to the school system; • terminology relating to the welfare system; • terminology relating to taxation; • terminology relating to banking and monetary transactions. eCatalogues interrelate with some of these fields, and working solutions to the terminology issues need to be found. However, eCatalogues share these issues with practically all other multilingual applications. A joint effort to address these issues on a pan-European or international level is urgently needed.

9.2.3.5 Issues relating to layout As in any internationalization and localization project these issues need to be addressed in the context of multilingual eCatalogues. Issues are in particular related to space, syntax and morphology, and format: Texts in different languages have different size. This is particularly noticeable in e.g. table headings and function buttons. Any system needs to be flexible enough to handle varying- length texts. Objects are sometimes combined in a way that is influenced by the syntactic or morphological structure of a particular language. One typical example among many is treating plural endings of nouns as a separate object. The use of this technique may cause severe problems in a multilingual environment. The third issue typically relates to textual objects that are treated as figures. That may e.g. be a flashing red “new” inside a yellow star. The use of this technique should be kept to a minimum in a multilingual environment, and all such objects need to be available in all relevant languages. 86 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Closely related to this from a technical point of view is the use of icons. Internationalization and localization of icons needs to be studied separately. Cf. in this respect work carried out in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 35: ISO/IEC 11581 (published in several parts).

9.2.3.6 Language settings and fallback Each user of an eCatalogue system needs to be able to select language as part of a user profile setting. As in all such language setting, language coding as specified in ISO 639 needs to be utilized. eCatalogues consist of a large number of individual objects originating from different sources. In a multilingual eCatalogue system some of these objects will, occasionally or regularly, not be available in all of the languages of the system. Some objects will be composite, consisting of two or more individual objects, some of which in turn may be unavailable in the user’s primary language. The users will doubtlessly be interested in the object even though it is unavailable in his/her primary language. The needs and preferences of each individual user will be different in this respect. A user with Catalan as his/her primary language may, for instance, choose to view objects in Spanish if they are unavailable in Catalan, and in French if they are also unavailable in Spanish. A Norwegian user may typically choose Danish, Swedish, and English as fallback languages, in that order. In the language setting of the user profile default fallback settings should be proposed, with an option for each individual user to deviate from the default in his/her profile. 9.3 Recommendations In the course of development from eContent to mContent (to be applied in eBusiness, eGovernment, eLearning, eHealth, and all other areas), eCatalogue data (and metadata) will have to be extended towards - attributes (in data modelling), product properties and characteristics, etc. - other kinds of data collections, such as attribute libraries, authority data (especially codes for various types of harmonized data), all kinds of pick lists, etc. so that the content flow across different systems and data models is not impeded. This will require a systematic approach to the maintenance of: - metadata/data categories - certain types of data: authority data, attributes, values, etc. - data structures/datamodels and metamodels - data dictionaries - ontologies - etc. in the form of • maintenance agencies (for data structures, data models, etc.; XML schemas, metamodel(s), etc. – whenever there is need for a high degree of authority and high stability over time) • registration authorities (for metadata, data categories, data elements, etc.; types of attributes, etc. of which o for some a high degree of consistency over time can be required (with strict registration procedures) or CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 87

o for others a lower degree of consistency over time is required (with flexible registration procedures) • data repositories for codes (such as country, language, currency codes), for words (and word elements, terms, term elements, etc.) and for attributes, values, etc. – of which o for some a high degree of consistency over time is required (with strict registration procedures: e.g. alpha-2 and alpha-3 language codes) o for others a lower degree of consistency over time is required (with flexible registration procedures: e.g. codes for dialects and other variants of languages). These maintenance agencies, registration authorities and data repositories can – and even should – have a decentralized way of operating, in order to be most efficient. This would also allow for net-based distributed cooperative development of data for these registries/repositories, if the necessary workflow management methods and systems are in place. 88 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

10 Plans and concepts for at standardization strategy [W 2] The aim of this chapter is to draw plans and concepts for • formulation of requirements for a metamodel framework in order to ensure interoperability even of heterogeneous and otherwise incompatible systems; • investigation of existing and required metadata registries; • identification of existing and further needed guidelines, standards, methodologies etc., which should be integrated or to which interfaces need to be established. 10.1 Introduction The chapters 4–5 and 7–8 of this report give detailed information on the following topics: existing eCatalogues for eBusiness (W 1.1 – chapter 4), organizations supporting eCatalogue development in eBusiness (W 1.2 – chapter 5), existing eCatalogues (W 1.3 – chapter 7) and existing product classification schemes/product identification schemes (W 1.4 – chapter 8). Chapter 6 (W 1.2) contains a literature survey on eCatalogue research and a list of some organizations engaged in doing this research. The first part of this chapter (section 10.3–10.6) is based on the conclusions of the above chapters, and reference is made to these chapters for details. Of special interest here are the conclusions and recommendations of chapter 7 and 8. Since a new project “Global multilingual product description and classification for eCommerce and eBusiness” (ePDC), was adopted in the eCAT Workshop 2003-10-10, chapter 10 will only contain very brief and preliminary conclusions concerning classification and product description. Section 10.3 below summarizes the level model of eBusiness standardization described in section 7.1. In section 10.4 important aspects of the methodology to be used in eBusiness standardization are briefly mentioned (cf. section 7.2). Section 10.5 outlines the requirements for a metamodel framework (including metadata registries) and concludes which levels will be of special interest when initializing a further standardization process within the framework of CEN and ISO. Section 10.6 briefly mentions some conclusions concerning product classification and product identification (cf. chapter 8). The second part (section 10.7–10.11) gives recommendations concerning further guidelines, standards and methodologies. In Section 10.7 it is recommended that a thorough analysis of central concepts within eCataloguing is carried out and that these concepts are systematized and defined on the basis of principles used for terminological concept modelling. It is strongly recommended that the preparation of systematic definitions of central concepts should be the first activity among other future standardization activities. Furthermore, it is important to have in mind that expressions are used differently within subject fields and this must be considered when formulating definitions. Section 10.8 will give an overview of guidelines, standards and methodologies, which may be used, and each of these will be further described in sections 10.9–10.11. The third part of chapter 10 (section 10.12) will give an example of an existing standardization initiative (ebXML). CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 89

Finally the conclusion in section 10.13 will give recommendations concerning establishing metamodels and metadata definitions for eCataloguing. 10.2 Terms and definitions Definitions from ISO 1087-1 : 2000 Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 1: Theory and application (internal numbering): 3.2.4 characteristic abstraction of a property of an object (3.1.1) or of a set of objects (3.1.1)

NOTE Characteristics are used for describing concepts (3.2.1).

3.2.11 concept system system of concepts set of concepts (3.2.1) structured according to the relations between them

Definitions from ISO/IEC 11179-3 : 2003 (ISO JTC 1/SC 32): Information technology – Data management and interchange – Metadata registries (MdR) Part 3: Registry metamodel (internal numbering): 3.2.5 conceptual data model A data model that describes how relevant information is structured in the real world. 3.2.13 information model A high level description of the organization of information in a manner that reflects its structure. It takes the form of logical groupings of entities and levels of sub-entities, without showing any relationships between entities other than the hierarchies of sub-entities. 3.1.10 metadata Data that defines and describes other data. 3.2.19 metadata registry A system for managing structured metadata describing the semantic content of shareable data and metadata.

Definitions from ISO 16642 : 2003 Computer applications in terminology – Terminological markup framework (internal numbering): 3.3 data category registry DCR data category specification used as a normative reference for the description of a Terminological Markup Lanugage Note: ISO 12620 is a typical DCR in the context of the present standard 3.4 data category specification DCS 90 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 component of a TML’s specification that constrains its informational content, e.g., by specifying which data categories are allowed and how each data category can be used 10.3 Summary of the level model of eBusiness standardization (cf. 7.1) Chapter 7 (W 1.3) presents a level model of eBusiness standardization, which describes six levels: data types, vocabulary, documents, processes, framework and metamodel. The following is a summary of section 7.1. Data types are defined and standardized on the lowest level. They are used for typing atomic data elements (7.1.1). The second level of the level model holds the data element definitions of a standard (7.1.2). The set of permitted data element builds the vocabulary. Section 7.1.2 emphasizes that the vocabulary level is in most cases the core component of every document-oriented eBusiness standard. Developing a business vocabulary is with regard to complexity and resources the most important domain-specific effort of a standardization project. The third level is the document level (7.1.3). The document is the central concept of each business communication, and the task of the document level is to define permitted business document types. The data elements and the implicitly or explicitly formulated data model form the basis for the definition of business documents that incorporate parts of the standardized vocabulary. The sequences of exchanged documents and the underlying business logic of a communication between two companies are described by the process level (7.1.4). A specific sequence might be as follows: catalogue, request for availability information, order, order acknowledgement, delivery notification, invoice, and payment. The framework level (7.1.5) covers those definitions that concern technical and thus domain-independent aspects of business communication. Supporting services are described, for example basic communication protocols (http, smtp, and ftp), security issues (e.g., authentication, encryption) as well as the handling of messages (e.g., management of queues, notification and acknowledgment services). So called framework standards or B2B frameworks (e.g., RosettaNet) cover at least the framework level, but also integrate further lower levels or even build an own level model to describe document-oriented business communication. In this interpretation B2B frameworks are holistic models that are sufficient to implement interorganizational components of eBusiness applications. The highest level (7.1.6), the metamodel level, aims at providing a generic model that describes the other levels and their relationships. In section 7.1.6 it is mentioned that the number of standards that fulfil the function of the metamodel level is very small. A prominent standard is the ebXML initiative, which provides generic concepts and tools for modelling eBusiness communication in an abstract way. 10.4 Summary of recommendations concerning the methodology used in the standardization process (cf. 7.2.2) According to section 7.2.2 the methodology in eBusiness standardization can be subdivided in the general documentation and the formal specification. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 91

The task of documentation is to describe the content of a standard in such a manner that users of the standard can easily understand and finally implement the standard. The documentation can be differentiated between the levels of standardization. Parts of the documentation are often semi-formal and formal specifications in addition to verbal descriptions. The main instruments for documenting the content of eBusiness standards are those instruments that are also applied in modelling data structures, i.e. conceptual data models that show the data elements and their relationships. To do so, languages and notations such as the EER model (the extended ER model), UML (Unified Modelling Language) and graphical representations of XML are used in practice. But these languages are not capable to describe all syntactical and especially no semantic aspects of data elements. The task of a formal specification is to describe the content of a standard partly or completely by a formal specification language. This specification fulfils two important aims. Firstly, the use of a formal language can result in more exact and clear description in comparison to non-formal languages. Secondly, a formal language that can be processed in information systems supports the implementation of a standard in software applications. Section 7.2.2 mentions that at present common languages for the definition of the structure of business documents are the Document Type Definition (DTD) and the XML Schema Definition (XSD) both published by the W3C. These two languages have different capabilities in specifying a standard. The XML schema language provides a set of modelling concepts (for example: user-defined data types, inheritance, default values), which are used to a greater or lesser extent by catalogue standards. 10.5 Requirements for a metamodel framework including metadata registries Section 7.1.2 (the Vocabulary level) talks about data elements definitions. It does not mention metadata, however here we understand that this level comprises the definition of data categories for a metadata registry. The term vocabulary is used differently in the literature. Sometimes it is referred to as a set of named elements and attributes (in the form of either informal prose, a DTD or a schema). Carlson (2001:92) says: “For our purposes vocabulary will have a meaning closer to that of ontology”. On the basis of the above summary it may be concluded that the following two levels should be given very high priority in a future standardization in eCataloguing: • metamodels • metadata definitions. It should also be considered whether it would be feasible and possible to establish not only (high level) metamodels, but also conceptual data models or information models for sub areas of eCataloguing, e.g. catalogue content, order management, money, trading parties and contact information. 10.5.1 Establishment of metamodels The establishment of metamodels comprises two steps: • definition of principles for metamodels to be used in eCataloguing • definition of high-level metamodels for eCataloguing. 92 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Metamodels comprise both models concerning the definition of the content (document level) and the processes (process level). It is recommended that the establishment of metamodels be based on a standard language as for example UML (Unified Modelling Language). In UML metamodels concerning the definition of the content are established by using the techniques of Class Diagrams, whereas metamodels for processes are established by means of UML Use Case Diagrams. It should be considered whether the use of Use Case Diagrams is feasible. In order to be able to establish metamodels it is necessary to systematise and define the concepts that underlie the classes that are going to be part of the metamodel, and thereby to obtain a common understanding of the concepts. This means that it is necessary to establish a concept system, which is based on the characteristics of the concepts in question. A concept system is sometimes also referred to as a concept model, which should not be mixed up with a conceptual data model. Sometimes concept models (concept systems) are represented by means of UML. Section 10.9 below describes methods for the establishment of terminological concept systems, and section 10.10 and 10.11 will go more into detail with the methods for and problems in establishing metamodels, using examples from standardisation of terminology. In order to ensure full interoperability all eCataloguing systems should ideally be based not only on the same metamodel, but also on the same conceptual data model or the same information model. 10.5.2 Metadata definitions Work on metadata falls in two activities: • the systematisation and definition of data categories • the definition of a (meta)model for a data category registry. It is strongly recommended to establish a systematic overview (a taxonomy) as a basis for the definitions of the data categories. Section 10.10 to 10.13 will go more into detail with the advantages of systematisation of metadata. In order to obtain compatibility between metadata registries, all systems for the registration of metadata should ideally be based on the same conceptual data model, but if this is not possible, they should at least be based on a common metamodel for a data category registry. 10.6 Product classification and product identification Section 8.6 of this report, Suggestions for solutions to existing (and foreseen future) problems, gives two recommendations: 1) the establishment of a common data model, which would make it possible to exchange information between different systems (The intention should be to harmonize existing standards for product description and classification into a common system.) 2) a higher focus on terminology, since it is essential to have exact definitions in order to avoid misinterpretation. (A common database of terms and definitions developed by product specialists together with language experts will bring benefits to all involved parties.) Since a new project “Global multilingual product description and classification for eCommerce and eBusiness” (ePDC), was adopted in the eCAT Workshop 2003-10-10, this section will not go into more detail concerning classification and product description. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 93

10.7 Systematic definition of central concepts within eCataloguing When reading texts concerning eBusiness and the modelling of this domain it becomes obvious, that in order to make sure that we talk about the same concepts the concepts within the domain it self need to be defined. How do we for instance define the following concepts: • dictionary, vocabulary, registry • hierarchy, classification, thesaurus, ontology, taxonomy, concept system • property, characteristic, feature, attribute • conceptual model, information model, metamodel • metadata, metadata registry • framework It is crucial initially to agree upon the definition of these (several other) concepts as a basis for all other standardization within the eBusiness area. It is strongly recommended that the principles of terminology work, which are found in the standards of ISO/TC 37 (cf. section 10.8) and in other literature on terminology (cf. section 10.16), be used when defining central concepts. In section 10.9 below some methods for terminological concept modelling will be briefly introduced. 10.8 Existing and further needed guidelines, standards and methodologies Within the field of terminology the ISO/TC 37 (Terminology and other language resources) has published standards for terminology and other language resources. These standards comprise: • standards concerning principles of terminology work, which should be used in the work of defining central concepts and in the systematisation and definition of data categories: ISO 704 : 2000 Terminology work – Principles and methods. ISO 1087-1 : 2000 Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 1: Theory and application. (comprising definitions of central concepts of terminology work) • standards concerning the definition of (meta)models and data categories in terminological data collections: ISO 16642 : 2003 Computer applications in terminology – Terminological markup framework. ISO/WD 12620-1 : 2003 Data Category Registry for ISO TC37. ISO 12620 : 1999 Computer applications in terminology – Data categories. ISO 12620-2 : 2003 Terminology and other language resources — Data Categories — Part 2: Data Categories for Terminology Resources. Preliminary draft for the revision of ISO 12620:1999 94 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

The standards of ISO/TC 37 on data categories has been inspired by the following standard: ISO/IEC 11179-3: 2003 (ISO JTC 1/SC 32) Information technology – Data management and interchange – Metadata registries (MdR) Part 3: Registry metamodel. Another relevant standard on data categories is the following: Danish Standard, DS 2394-1:1998, Collections of Lexical data – description of data categories and data structure – Part 1: Taxonomy for the classification of information types. With a view to principles for developing (meta)models for eBusiness many relevant papers and books exist. Among these one should mention: David Carlson: Modeling XML Applications With UML. Practical e-Business Applications, Addison Wesley, 2001 This book contains chapters on for example: Generating XML Schemas from the UML, Vocabulary Transformation, B2B Portal Presentation and eBusiness Architecture. Among other relevant papers are: - Will Provost: UML for W3C XML Schema Design, 2002-08-07 http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/08/07/wxs_uml.html - Rational Software White Paper: Migrating from XML DTD to XML-Schema using UML http://www.rational.com/media/whitepapers/TP189draft.pdf 10.9 Terminological concept modelling 10.9.1 Concept systems For a systematic overview of the concepts within a certain domain the concepts must be defined in relation to other concepts. Based on an analysis of the characteristics of the concept the single concept can be distinguished from other concepts and be placed in a concept system. A concept system within a specific subject area corresponds to a domain specific ontology. The advantages of a systematization of concepts are: • overview of the concepts of a specific subject area • making the relations between concepts explicit • better understanding of the concepts • basis for writing consistent definitions • basis for establishing relationships between equivalent concepts The number of relation types between concepts is multiple. A relation can be for instance generic, partitive, material, temporal or one of a number of other relation types. The examples in the following describe generic relations only. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 95

Figure 10-1: A terminological concept system for Printers.

In the example above it appears that a solid-font printer is a type of impact printer which is again a type of printer. All concepts are supplied with a systematic numeric notation.

10.9.1.1 Inheritance of feature specifications The backbone of concept modelling is constituted by characteristics for example modelled by formal feature specifications, i.e. attribute-value pairs. When making an analysis of a concept the terminologist will always look at the nearest superordinate concept and distinguish the concept from this and from any coordinate concepts by at least one feature specification. 96 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Figure 10-2: Characteristic features and inheritance.

The principle of inheritance says that a concept automatically inherits all the feature specifications of its superordinate concepts.

10.9.1.2 Polyhierarchical structure As it appears in figure 10-2 a concept may have more than one nearest superordinate concept. This is the case when the concept has feature specifications in common with two superordinate concepts.

10.9.1.3 Subdivision criteria In terminology work, subdivision criteria are used to group sister concepts in a concept system according to the features that characterize them. Such a criterion should be used in the differentia specifica of the definition. For example the subordinate concepts to printer are grouped by the subdividing criteria: character transfer, speed and output. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 97

Figure 10-3: Subdivision criteria.

The principles of applying feature specifications to concepts can be summarized in figure 10-4. A primary feature specification can be assigned directly to a concept if it is the topmost occurrence in the concept system of the specification in question. All other occurrences of that specification will be inherited as a concept automatically inherits all the feature specifications of its superordinate concepts. The feature specification on solid-font printer “FONT: solid” is a primary feature specification, whereas “CHARACTER TRANSFER: impact” is inherited from the concept impact printer and thus it is not a primary feature specification. 98 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Figure 10-4: Subdivision criteria with explanations.

In some cases sister concepts may be distinguished by more than one dimension, and in order to write proper definitions the user must make a choice between them. The term “subdivision criterion” is used to refer to the dimension to be used in the definitions of those immediate sub concepts where the subdivision criterion is included in the feature structure. In figure 10-4 the values of the attributes NOICE and COPY are dependant on the value of the attribute CHARACTER TRANSFER. CHARACTER TRANSFER is therefore chosen to be the subdivision criterion. 10.9.2 Definitions The best way of making definitions is to use the analytical method. This means to analyze the concepts in the concept system and write the definition on the basis of the feature specification of nearest superordinate concept and the delimiting features of the concept itself. If we take a look at the concept impact printer and its superordinate concept printer we can quite easily make a definition of impact printer: printer that transfers characters from the printer to the paper by impact The attribute character transfer means “way of transferring characters from printer to paper”, and the value impact means “striking the paper”. The definition above presupposes, that “by impact” is defined somewhere else in the terminological data collection. An alternative to this definition is: CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 99

printer that transfers characters from the printer to the paper by some type of printing mechanism striking the paper 10.9.3 Subject classification in terminology work Concepts in terminological data collections (terminology databases) are normally classified according to a subject classification. In terminology work a general subject classification with few levels is applied, since the purpose of this classification is to select broader groups of concepts and to distinguish between homographs. Figure 10-5 presents an extract from the DANTERM term base classification. Another example of a term base classification is Lenochs classification used in Eurodicautom. Q Agriculture, Fishing

Q0000 agriculture, fishing, general

Q0300 agriculture, fishing, economics

Q0400 farm buildings, structures and installations

Q1500 agricultural machines tractors and motors Q2000 soil analyses machines, implements and equipment

Q2100 soil cultivation machines, implements and equipment Q2200 fertilization machines, implements and equipment

Figure 10-5: Extract from the DANTERM term base classification.

In terminology work a more detailed division of the concepts is often necessary, and within each subject field the concepts can be arranged in one or more concept systems in which each concept has a position. Figure 10-6 shows an extract from a concept system for ploughs and in figure 10-7 an extract from the Universal Decimal Classification is shown for comparison. 100 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Figure 10-6: Concept system for ploughs.

In a subject classification such as the Universal Decimal Classification, which is a used to classify books in libraries, each position in the classification corresponds to a group of concepts cf. figure 10-7.

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63 Agriculture and related sciences and techniques.

631 Agriculture in general Details from 62-1/-9

631.3 Agricultural machines, implements and equipment

631.31 Soil cultivation machines and implements 631.312 Ploughs Special auxiliary subdivisions: 631.312.02 Components of ploughs Each position = Principal divisions: class 631.312.2 Animal-drawn ploughs with shares corresponding to a group of 631.312.3 Ploughing machines. Ploughs with concepts movable tools. Rotary ploughs. Gyrotillers. Spading machines etc. 631.312.4 Tractor ploughs with shares …

631.313 Harrows

Figure 10-7: Extract from the Universal Decimal Classification.

10.10 Description of an existing metamodel for terminology databases As an inspiration to the work of defining metamodels for eCataloguing we refer to the work that has been made within terminology. As is the case within eBusiness terminological data are collected, managed and stored in a wide variety of systems. Terminological data collections are based on various data models and consist of different sets of data categories. Also terminological data need to be shared and reused in a number of different applications. ISO/TC 37/SC 3 has published a standard within this area: ISO 16642 – Computer applications in terminology – Terminological markup framework. The object of this ISO standard is to create a metamodel to facilitate the exchange of terminological data and to create “an integrated approach to be used in analysing existing terminological data collections and in designing new ones”. The metamodel is an abstract conceptual data model that “describes the basic hierarchy of information levels to which any TML (Terminological Markup Language) shall conform”. The terminological metamodel is based on guidelines concerning the methods and principles of terminology management involving the production of terminological entries as described in ISO 704. One of the most important characteristics of a terminological entry – compared to a lexicographical entry – is its concept orientation. A terminological entry treats one concept in a given language and, in the case of multilingual terminological entries, one or more totally or partially equivalent concepts in (an)other language(s), whereas a lexicographical entry contains one lemma [the base form of a single lexical unit] and one or more definitions (representing different meanings) in one or more languages (cf. ISO16642). 102 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

A terminological data collection comprises global information about the collection and a number of entries. Each entry performs three functions: • It describes one concept or two or more totally or partially equivalent concepts in one or more languages; • It lists the terms that designate the concepts; • It describes the terms themselves. Each entry can have multiple language sections, and each language section can have multiple term sections. Each data element in an entry can be associated with various kinds of descriptive and administrative information. In addition, there are various other resources that are not part of any one entry, but that can be linked to one or more entries. Such resources include bibliographic references, descriptions of ontologies, and binary data such as images that illustrate concepts. The terminological metamodel is described through seven instances from the Structural Node class3, cf. figure 10-8. These instances of Structural Levels implement the “association” relation with constraints on cardinality.

Figure 10-8: The terminological metamodel

3 Structural Node: a class containing one attribute (LevelName) that identifies objects of this type in the context of a given Linguistic Resource (LR) format (e.g. TE/Terminological Entry for the representation of TermBanks);

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The metamodel makes it possible to establish data models, directed toward real-world applications by selecting a structure based on the metamodel and restricted to certain data categories and data category values applied to the entry, language section, term section, and term component section as object classes of the metamodel. A DCR is a set of data category specifications. Each data category specification shall be configured in response to the real-world needs of some user group and consists of a list of data categories from the DCR (e.g. ISO 12620) and constraints on each of those data categories. Constraints include restrictions on the values each data category can take. A data category is an elementary descriptor used in a linguistic description or annotation scheme. The DCS describes the set of data categories that can be used within a given TML. The DCS can comprise both a subset of the DCRref’s and the addition of any idiosyncratic data categories needed for a specific application. The Dialectal Specification (Dialect) includes the various elements needed to describe a given TML as an XML document. These elements comprise expansion trees and data category instantiation styles, together with their corresponding vocabularies. Any information structure that corresponds to such conditions has a canonical expression as an XML document using the GMT (Generic Mapping Tool) representation.

Figure 10-9: Designing a TML in ISO 166424.

All XML formats conforming to this standard are based on (1) the metamodel, (2) subsets of data category specifications that are essentially derived from ISO 12620, and (3) XML DTDs or XML schemas. Database applications for terminological data conforming to this standard must be based on (1) the metamodel, (2) data category specifications that are essentially derived from ISO 12620, and (3) data models defined by means of entity relationship diagrams. The terminological metamodel in ISO 16642 is a very general high-level model. It is probably a better solution to define more specific metamodels, but this may cause

4 Proposal for the revision of ISO 12620-1, Laurent Romary, August 2003

104 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 problems, especially when a given metamodel is going to be based on or to be compatible with data models of already existing applications. 10.11 Example of a metadata registry for terminology databases ISO 12620:2003-2 Terminology and other language resources — Data Categories — Part 2: Data Categories for Terminology Resources is a preliminary draft for the revision of ISO 12620:1999 Computer applications in terminology – Data categories. ISO 12620-2:2003 specifies data categories for recording terminological information in computerized environments and for the interchange and retrieval of terminological information independent of the local software applications or hardware environments in which these data categories are used. It is not the purpose of the standard to specify actual data categories or a mandatory base set of data categories to be used in local database applications. Provided that the values of the data associated with these categories are harmonized according to the relevant data category definitions and other specifications of the standard mapping routines can be employed to convert application data categories to the universal categories specified in the standard. Precise representation of data categories or their relationships in individual interchange formats are not specified. Through the documentation of a data category the owner of data documents should be able to unambiguously interpret the content of the data category and to determine its function within the structure of the data model used in a given environment. The specification shall permit the user to differentiate the content of the data category from the content of other data categories used within the terminological data collection and the data categories used by interchange partners. If a data category required in a local application is not found in the standard, a work group can decide to introduce a new category. This category shall be based on a well- established and documented concept in the field treated by the application in question. This practice will allow new categories to be added to the master list and will serve to prevent the proliferation of redundant data category specifications throughout the terminology community. Each data category specification consists of a set of attributes for instance definition, subject field, explanation, example conceptual domain etc. These are designed to uniquely identify and define a data category and to provide data modelling information for that data category, along with useful examples and tips on using individual data categories. ISO 12620, Part 1 specifies the attributes to be used in defining data category specifications in conformance with ISO/IEC 11179, Part 3. (cf. 10.8). Figure 10-10 gives an example of data categories and definitions from ISO 12620-2:2003. ISO 12620 Name Definition abbreviated form A linking element used to identify a relation between any abbreviated form of for a term and its full or expanded form. abbreviation for A linking element used to identify a relation between an abbreviation and its full or expanded form. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 105

ISO 12620 Name Definition acronym for A linking element used to identify a relation between an acronym and its full or expanded form. adjective class A categorization of an adjective indicating whether it pertains to a single object or to a class of objects. common adjective An adjective pertaining to a generic class of objects. proper adjective An adjective formed on the base of a proper noun. administrative The status of a term with respect to its assignment to an administrative level status within a certain working environment. standardized term A term that has been standardized by a standardizing body. (admin status) preferred term A term rated according to the scale of a term acceptability rating as the (admin status) primary term for a given concept. … definition A representation of a concept by a descriptive statement which serves to differentiate it from related concepts. definition type The characterization of a definition according to a set of theoretical or pragmatic types. intensional A definition which describes the intension of a concept by stating the definition superordinate concept and the delimiting characteristics. extensional A description of a concept by enumerating all of its subordinate concepts definition under one criterion of subdivision. partitive definition A definition based on the enumeration of the concepts that refer to the main parts of an object covered by a superordinate concept in a partitive relation. translated A definition that has been translated from another language. definition Figure 10-10: Extract from ISO 12620:2003 – The data category registry.

As it appears from this example the data categories are listed in alphabetical order. However, subordinate categories belonging to a superordinate category are listed immediately after the superordinate category (marked with yellow). The earlier version, ISO 12620:1999 Computer applications in terminology – Data categories, however, listed the data categories in groups, as can be seen from figure 10- 11. 106 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Annex A (normative): Data categories A.1 term A.2 term-related information A.3 equivalence A.4 subject field A.5 concept-related description A.6 concept relation A.7 conceptual structures A.8 note A.9 documentary language A.10 administrative information Figure 10-11: Data category grouping from ISO 12620:1999

In section 6.2 of ISO 12620:1999 the typology of data categories is explained further:

The data category specifications in Annex A are divided into three major groups: data categories for terms and term-related information, descriptive data, and administrative data. The groups are further subdivided into ten sub-groups. Term and term-related data categories: Subgroup 1 consists of the data category term and contains a term or other information treated as if it were a term (e.g., phraseological units and standard text). Subgroup 2 specifies data categories for term-related information. Subgroup 3 specifies data categories for information relating to equivalence between or among terms assigned to the same or very similar concepts. Descriptive data categories: Subgroup 4 specifies data categories for the classification of concepts into subject fields and subfields, along with other classification-related information. Subgroup 5 specifies data categories for concept-related description, i.e., different kinds of definitions, explanations and contextual material provided to define or otherwise determine the subject field and concept to which a term is assigned. Subgroup 6 specifies data categories for indicating relations between pairs of concepts. Subgroup 7 specifies data categories used to express the position of concepts within concept systems. Subgroup 8 specifies the data category note. This category stands alone because it can be associated with any one of the other categories and therefore cannot be subordinated to any other specific subgroup. Administrative data categories: Subgroup 9 specifies data categories for documentary languages and thesauri. Subgroup 10 specifies data categories for all other strictly administrative information. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 107

This grouping of data categories in ISO 12620:1999 formed a step towards a proper taxonomy of data categories. A proper taxonomy gives a better overview than an alphabetical list, and if the definitions of the categories are based on a systematic hierarchy, it is easier to inhere to the principles of definitions as found in ISO 1087-1. One example of a taxonomy for lexical data categories is the Danish Standard, DS 2394- 1:1998, Collections of Lexical data – description of data categories and data structure – Part 1: Taxonomy for the classification of information types, which comprises the following main groups: • etymological information • grammatical information • graphical information • phonetic information • semantic information • usage • administrative information • language • structural information Figure 10-12 shows the categories and subcategories of grammatical information. Main group Category Subcategory grammatical information part of speech gender information on inflection stem paradigm information inflected form word formation syntax syntactic frame (valency) specification of syntactic frame specification of auxiliary verb syntactic function Figure 10-12: Categories and subcategories of grammatical information from DS 2394-1:1998. 10.12 Examples of work within the ebXML initiative The description in this section is based on the following documents: - Understanding ebXML, UDDI and XML/edi http://www.xmlglobal.com/downloads/ebXML_understanding.doc - ebXML Registry http://www.ebxml.org/ebusinessxmlregistry.pdf 108 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

- OASIS/ebXML Registry Information Model v2.0 http://www.ebxml.org/specs/ebrim2.pdf (latest approved standard) http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/regrep/documents/2.5/specs/ebrim-2.5.pdf (latest version) - Business Process and Business Information Analysis Overview v1.0 http://www.ebxml.org/specs/bpOVER.doc Electronic Business XML (ebXML, www.ebXML.org) is an international initiative established by UN/CEFACT (the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, www.uncefact.org) and OASIS (the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, www.oasis-open.org). The focus of the ebXML initiative is to develop a single global electronic market based on an open public XML-based infrastructure enabling the global use of electronic business information in an interoperable, secure and consistent manner by all parties. A primary objective of ebXML is to lower the barrier of entry to electronic business in order to facilitate trade, particularly with respect to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) and developing nations. The goal is to provide an open technical framework to enable XML to be utilized in a consistent and uniform manner for the exchange of Electronic Business data in application to application, application to person and person to application environments. 10.12.1 Types of ebXML documents There are four types of ebXML documents: • Technical Specifications • Technical Reports • Reference Materials • White Papers They include ebXML specifications on the following topics: 1. requirements 2. business process and information metamodel 3. core components 4. registry and repository 5. trading partner information 6. messaging services The documents may be classified according to their area of application. For convenience, an identifier has been allocated to each of these documents: • eb ebXML specification • bp business process modelling • cc core components • sec security architecture • qr quality review In order to facilitate classification, the ebXML documentation can be split into the four categories: • business processes, • content, CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 109

• services, and • reference 1 Business Processes Documents The documents to assist in modelling electronic commerce processes are: • [bpOVER] Business process and business information analysis overview • [ebBPSS] ebXML business process specification schema • [bpPATT] eCommerce and simple negotiation patterns • [bpWS] business process analysis worksheet and guidelines • [bpPROC] ebXML catalogue of common business processes These documents would be used by analysts or by domain experts. 2 Content Documents The documents to assist in identifying reusable components to compose the relevant exchanges are: • [ccOVER] core component and business process document overview • [ebCCD&A] ebXML methodology: core components discovery and analysis • [ebCCDOC] ebXML specification – document assembly & context rules • [ebCCNAM] ebXML convention – naming convention for core components • [ebCNTXT] ebXML concept – context and re-usability of core components • [ccCTLG] the initial core components catalogue • [ccDRIV] initial catalogue of context drivers These documents would be used by analysts or by domain experts. 3 Services Documents The documents to assist in creating, assembling and deploying the software services that actually execute the business processes are: • [ebMS] ebXML message service specification • [ebCPP] ebXML collaboration-protocol profile and agreement specification • [ebRS] ebXML registry services specification • [ebRIM] ebXML registry information model These documents would be mainly useful to software designers, developers and service providers. 4 Reference Documents This material presents the overall concepts of ebXML. As well as providing reference material for other ebXML specifications, these documents would also be useful to managers and decision makers in an evaluation of and ebXML strategy. These documents are: • [qrROAD] ebXML documentation roadmap (this document) • [ebREQ] ebXML requirements specification 110 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

• [ebGLOSS] ebXML glossary • [ebTA] ebXML technical architecture specification • [bpOVER] business process and business information analysis overview • [ccOVER] core component and business process document overview • [secRISK] ebXML technical architecture risk assessment 10.12.2 Business Process and Business Information Analysis Overview The goal of this document (http://www.ebxml.org/specs/bpOVER.doc) is to describe the analysis process in such a way that the audience will have a general understanding of how to conduct business process and documentation definition and identification, within the ebXML framework, and how that relates to the overall development of electronic business relationships with other enterprises. To facilitate the exchange of information and products/services, ebXML provides an infrastructure for data communication interoperability, a semantic framework for commercial interoperability, and a mechanism that allows enterprises to find, establish a relationship, and conduct business with each other. Data communication interoperability is ensured by a standard message transport mechanism with a well-defined interface, packaging rules, and a predictable delivery model, as well as an interface to handle incoming and outgoing messages at either end. Commercial interoperability is provided by means of a specification schema for defining business processes and a core components and context model for defining Business Documents. ebXML recommends a methodology and provides a set of worksheets and guidelines for creating those models. A business library (catalogue) of business process and information models promotes business efficiency by encouraging reuse of business processes or parts of predefined business processes. In order for the actual conduct of business to take place, ebXML provides a shared repository where businesses can discover each other’s business offering by means of partner profile information, a process for establishing an agreement to do business (Collaboration Protocol Agreement, or CPA), and a shared repository for company profiles, business-process-specifications, and relevant business messages. 10.12.3 OASIS/ebXML Registry Information Model v2.0 A central document is the Technical Specification: OASIS/ebXML Registry Information Model v2.0 (http://www.ebxml.org/specs/ebrim2.pdf). The following description is based on this document. UML diagrams are used as a way to concisely describe concepts. They are not intended to convey any specific implementation or methodology requirements. The term “repository item” is used to refer to an object that resides in a repository for storage and safekeeping (e.g., an XML document or a DTD). Every repository item is described in the Registry by a RegistryObject instance. The term “RegistryEntry” is used to refer to an object that provides metadata about a repository item. The Registry Information Model provides a blueprint or high-level schema for the ebXML Registry. Its primary value is for implementers of ebXML Registries. It provides these CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 111 implementers with information on the type of metadata that is stored in the Registry as well as the relationships among metadata Classes. The Registry information model: • Defines what types of objects are stored in the Registry • Defines how stored objects are organized in the Registry • Is based on ebXML metamodels from various working groups. The information model is not modelling actual repository items. Implementers of the ebXML Registry MAY use the information model to determine which Classes to include in their Registry Implementation and what attributes and methods these Classes may have. They MAY also use it to determine what sort of database schema their Registry Implementation may need. Information model classes are defined primarily in terms of the attributes they carry. These attributes provide state information on instances of these classes. Implementations of a registry often map class attributes to attributes in an XML store or columns in a relational store. 10.13 Conclusions This section gives recommendations concerning plans and concepts for a standardization strategy in the field of eCataloguing. 10.13.1 Cooperation It is recommended that there should be a close cooperation with the organisations that are described in chapter 5 Survey of organizations supporting eCatalogue development in eBusiness (W 1.2) and in chapter 7 Analysis of existing eCatalogues (W 1.3) as well as with other invited experts. It is also recommended to carry out the standardization efforts in close cooperation with ISO/TC 37, especially with a view to • preparing systematic definitions of central concepts within the area of eCataloguing • establishing the concept models that form the first step in the creation of metamodels • developing principles for classification and product identification. 10.13.2 Systematic definition of central concepts One very important activity in any standardization process is to systematise and define the central concepts of the area in question. In this process the principles of terminology work published in the standards of ISO/TC 37 and in other literature should be used. This means that one should establish concept systems, which are based on the characteristics of the concepts, and which give information on the relations between the concepts. The elaboration of definitions should be based on such concept systems and concept characteristics, which may be given in the form of feature specifications. It should be noted that even if the same designations are used in several subject areas the concepts behind are not always the same, and therefore the definitions should be different. This means that a definition found in a standard is not necessarily correct in a standard of another subject area. 112 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

10.13.3 Establishment of metamodels • The establishment of metamodels comprises two steps: • definition of principles for metamodels to be used in eCataloguing • definition of high-level metamodels for eCataloguing. In order to be able to establish metamodels it is necessary to systematise and define the concepts that underlie the classes that are going to be part of the metamodel. Here again the terminological working method (establishing concept systems and elaborating definitions) should be used. In order to ensure full interoperability all eCataloguing systems should be based on the same conceptual data model or the same information model. It is recommended that metamodels are defined in the form of UML models. It is important to note, that a concept system (also often referred to as a concept model) differs from conceptual data models. In some cases concept models are presented in the form of UML models. This is of course possible as long as one is aware of the differences between concept models and data models. The concepts in a concept system are described by means of feature specifications, which give semantic information in the form of attribute-value pairs. In contrast to this the attributes of the classes in a UML data model give information on attributes and data types, i.e. information on which kind of information may be given about a class in a given database or other system. It is true that a high level metamodel has some similarities with concept models. However, metamodels primarily reflect the overall structure of possible data collections, whereas concept models reflect concept relations and concept content. 10.13.4 Metadata definitions Work on metadata falls in two activities: • the systematisation and definition of data categories • the definition of a (meta)model for a data category registry. It is strongly recommended to establish a systematic overview (a taxonomy) as a basis for the definitions of the data categories. Much work has already been done by some of the organizations described in this report with a view to defining models, cf. chapter 5, chapter 7 and section 10.12 concerning the ebXML initiative. 10.13.5 Subject classification As already mentioned in the introduction to this chapter, section 10.1, a new project “Global multilingual product description and classification for eCommerce and eBusiness” (ePDC), was adopted in the eCAT Workshop 2003-10-10. Therefore this chapter will only contain very brief and preliminary conclusions concerning classification and product description. The project plan (version 8) gives the following summary of proposed CWA documents: 1) Dictionary of Terminology for Product Classification Components 2) Description of the references models and data model of the classification (architecture) 3) The Attribute Library CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 113

4) Product Classes with sets of Attributes 5) Hierarchies (optional) 6) Synonyms and Keywords (optional) As can be seen from this list the project will focus on terminology and develop data models as suggested in chapter 8 of this report. It is recommended that this project is carried out in close collaboration with ISO/TC 37. This Technical Committee has adopted a working item ISO/PWI 22274 “Basic principles and requirements of multilingual product classification for electronic commerce”, which is closely related to the ePDC project. 10.14 References 10.14.1 Standards Danish Standard, DS 2394-1:1998, Collections of Lexical data – description of data categories and data structure – Part 1: Taxonomy for the classification of information types. ISO 704 : 2000 Terminology work – Principles and methods. ISO 1087-1 : 2000 Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 1: Theory and application. ISO 16642 : 2003 Computer applications in terminology – Terminological markup framework. ISO 12620 : 1999 Computer applications in terminology – Data categories. ISO/WD 12620-1 : 2003 Data Category Registry for ISO TC37. ISO 12620-2 : 2003 Terminology and other language resources — Data Categories — Part 2: Data Categories for Terminology Resources. Preliminary draft for the revision of ISO 12620:1999 ISO/IEC 11179-3 : 2003 (ISO JTC 1/SC 32): Information technology – Data management and interchange – Metadata registries (MdR) Part 3: Registry metamodel. 10.14.2 Books Carlson, David: Modeling XML Applications With UML. Practical e-Business Applications, Addison Wesley, 2001 10.14.3 Internet resources - Business Process and Business Information Analysis Overview v1.0 http://www.ebxml.org/specs/bpOVER.doc - ebXML Registry http://www.ebxml.org/ebusinessxmlregistry.pdf - OASIS/ebXML Registry Information Model v2.0 http://www.ebxml.org/specs/ebrim2.pdf (latest approved standard) http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/regrep/documents/2.5/specs/ebrim-2.5.pdf (latest version) - Provost, Will: UML for W3C XML Schema Design, August 07, 2002 http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/08/07/wxs_uml.html 114 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

- Rational Software White Paper: Migrating from XML DTD to XML-Schema using UML http://www.rational.com/media/whitepapers/TP189draft.pdf - Understanding ebXML, UDDI and XML/edi http://www.xmlglobal.com/downloads/ebXML_understanding.doc CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 115

11 Plans and concepts for pan-European implementation [W 3] 11.1 Objective and scope of W 3 W 3 will show plans and concepts for a successful pan-European implementation of multilingual catalogue strategies for eCommerce and eBusiness. This includes: the preparation of eLearning material and training opportunities for SMEs and consultants, the launch of a pan-European promotion and dissemination campaign, and the support of standardization/harmonization efforts in this connection in order to facilitate the preparation and application of multilingual eCatalogues. 11.2 Current situation The use of eCatalogues specifically brings new business opportunities to SMEs. They can enter the same market place as the big players and offer their products and services. The target of the ISSS WS/eCAT to get standardization throughout eCatalgoues supports this opportunity through common technology and easier implementation. To be able to go for the given opportunities the SME’s must be able to adopt these technologies for their use. This creates the need for information, training and support. To fulfil this need it is necessary to use modern media and communication methods. 11.3 Preparation of eLearning material and training opportunities for SMEs and consultants To focus on the target groups to prepare eLearning material and trainings for we look at four groups: • Persons/companies using eCatalgoues • Persons/companies creating eCatalogues • Consultants implementing eCatalogue solutions • Trainers Each of these groups has a specific need for training which will be discussed in more detail below. • Persons/Companies using eCatalogues The users of the eCatalogues are the actual target group. From the business perspective none of the catalogues will make sense if the users will not accept it and do not start to use it. Therefore this is the group which, at the end, will prove if the whole project will be a success or a failure. The difficulty with this group is that this is no homogenous group we are facing. We have all different levels of knowledge. Starting with a newcomer up to a professional ITC user with years of experience. Development of material and packages for different user levels will be necessary. • Persons/Companies creating eCatalogues Persons creating eCatalogues usually are well trained ITC experts. Their duty is to design, develop and maintain eCatalogues. They need clear guidelines for 116 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

designing, developing, implementing and maintaining eCatalogues. Nevertheless also entry level material has to be developed. Many SME’s do not have the budget to employ a specialist to do this job. So basic training material has to be developed to guide these people from the scratch to a basic eCatalogue for their business. • Consultants implementing eCatalogue solutions Many companies which intend to implement eCatalgoue solutions involve external consultants in the process. These consultants work on the conceptual approach as well as the implementation. The need information how eCatalogues can be implemented into the companies business processes. Their focus lies on the processes of the inbound and also outbound supply chain management of their clients. • Trainers The eCAT initiative will spread all over Europe. This creates demand on high quality training in several languages. Concepts have to be developed to create courseware for trainers and training partners to enable them to train their customers. 11.3.1 eLearning Nowadays the importance of eLearning increases rapidly. This is driven by several factors. New technologies are probably the drivers in many cases. On the one hand there are better and cheaper products like computers which are accessible to a larger group of people. On the other hand we have the Web which nowadays is powerful enough to run online-trainings via broadband connections and which is affordable. Well designed, authored and effectively implemented eLearning will bring benefits like: • Increase efficiency Time required for training will be reduced. It’s self-paced, so trainees can quickly move through material with which they are already familiar. And because it can be delivered at the desk, staff doesn’t have to spend time travelling to get the benefit of training. • Reduce direct costs Using training venues, and getting the trainees to them, costs money. If using eLearning instead, immediate savings can be made. • Reduce knowledge costs eLearning will help to deliver the same content to everyone, in a much shorter time. • Increase flexibility A good eLearning infrastructure opens a fast and efficient channel for training staff. Materials can be updated quickly, or new ones deployed as training needs change. And the materials are continually available, so staff can access and use them at a time of their choosing. • Eliminate discrimination People with long distances to the next training centres and physically disabled persons can join eLearning courses eLearning courses for three different usages shall be developed: CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 117

11.3.1.1 Computer based training (CBT) Computer based training (CBT) courses allow self-directed and self-paced courses. The software is installed locally on the computer. The user is able to perform the training sessions at any time and any place. Training material delivered on CD-ROM, DVD or can be downloaded from the web. For running the course no internet-connection is necessary.

11.3.1.2 Web based training (WBT) Web-based training (WBT) is an innovative approach to distance learning in which computer-based training (CBT) is transformed by the technologies and methodologies of the World Wide Web, the Internet, and intranets. Web-based training presents live content, as fresh as the moment and modified at will, in a structure allowing self-directed, self- paced instruction. To run web-based training courses a broad-band internet-connection is necessary at the time the training is going on. Limitations may occur with the quality of the internet connection.

11.3.1.3 Web based virtual classrooms Web-based virtual classrooms are training sessions where the participants join the training via the web but the course is led interactively by a trainer. This means on the one hand, that there are fixed times to join course. On the other hand the participants can actively discuss issues with the trainer. Joining the course is independent from the participant’s location even though a powerful internet connection has to be in place. Also there may be the need to install specific software plug ins for communicating with the trainer and join the course. 11.3.2 Classroom courses For most of the topics also course modules for trainer led courses have to be developed. The course modules shall include the following: • Course outline • Instructions for the trainer • Presentation material • Examples • documentation • Course questionnaire 11.3.3 Implementation of training For implementing training courses in the European countries the available training infrastructure and initiated initiatives shall be researched and contacted. As the European Community, CEN and also national Institutions and Organizations have already successful training initiatives working, these infrastructure and expertise should be used to successfully implement these trainings. These activities should both include private and public training and education activities. Also a franchise or partner program with developed modules can be initiated. To ensure high quality in training a certification program for trainers and training partners/organizations shall be setup. This certification can include: • Trainers as persons 118 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

• Training – Network Partner 11.3.4 Market overview – examples Various eLearning initiatives, products and services are available on the market. This chapter shall present some of the available initiatives and companies offering products and services for eLearning and training activities. THIS SELECTION NEITHER INTENDS TO BE COMPREHENSIVE NOT IT INTENDS TO MAKE ANY PREFERENCES ON PRODUCTS, SERVICES OR INITIATIVES!

11.3.4.1 European and international eLearning activities • CEN ISSS WS Learning Technologies http://www2.ni.din.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=5306 • CEN ISSS WS ICT-Skills http://www.uninfo.polito.it/WS_ICT-Skills/default.htm • eQual http://linux.infoterm.org/termnet-e/equal/equalintro.html • Donau-University Krems – eCampus http://ecampus.donau-uni.ac.at/index.jsp • UNESCO eLearning Portal http://www.unesco.org/education/portal/e_learning/index.shtml • elearningeuropa.info http://www.elearningeuropa.info/ • eLearning Results – Research and Unified Learning Technologies Summit http://www.elearningresults.com/ • University of Idaho http://www.uidaho.edu/eo/distglan.html • WorldWideLearn http://www.worldwidelearn.com/ • Instructional Technology Council http://144.162.197.250/ • The Global Distance Learning Channel http://www.tgdlc.org/ • eLearners.com http://www.elearners.com/ • SME-Net http://www.sme-net.org/

11.3.4.2 Suppliers of eLearning infrastructure and tools • CM Group http://www.cmgroup.ca/ • Hyperwave AG http://www.hyperwave.com/ CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 119

• WebCT, Inc http://www.webct.com/ • WebEx Communications, Inc http://www.webex.com/ 11.3.5 Glossary eLearning • Broadband Communications channel with high capacity, enabling quick, easy access to information and eLearning systems. • Digital Divide (e-exclusion) Risk that certain people and social groups may be excluded from the Information Society. • Digital Literacy Equivalent expression to “computer literacy”, meaning to acquire the minimal capacity required to use digital systems, from the user’s viewpoint. • Digital Rights Protection of intellectual property or copyrights applied to “electronic products” such as software, multimedia applications, content in digital format, etc. • eAccessibility Concept embracing the rights and ability of people with disabilities to gain greater integration into the Information Society and economy through using ICTs. Has been described as “on-line access ramps”. • eCommerce Process of buying and selling products and services over the web. • eInclusion Overcoming the “digital divide”. Refers to efforts made and systems developed to help overcome the risk of “information exclusion” or e-exclusion. • eLearning The use of new multimedia technologies and the Internet to improve the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services as well as remote exchanges and collaboration. • ICT Skills The knowledge and abilities workers need in order to carry out tasks relating to the Information Society. The expression “ICT Skills gap” is often used to refer to lack of ICT-trained workers in Europe. • Lifelong Learning An expression used to indicate that acquiring new knowledge is now considered a continuous process which does not end when one leaves school or university, but continues uninterrupted throughout one’s professional life and even after retirement, spreading to embrace all stages of life and all social groups thanks, to a great extent, to the possibilities offered by eLearning. • Management of change An expression defining methods deployed by organizations to adapt to the new challenges posed by the Information Society, as new organizational models emerge as a result of new learning systems and the central place allotted to information. 120 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

• Multimedia A term referring to the different media users can access or control from a computer (video, sound, animation, text, graphics…). • Network Learning Learning in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources (Jones and Steeples 2001, in “Networked Learning: Perspectives and issues”). • ODL (Open and distance learning) The possibility of learning at a distance, outside the classroom and with a high degree of autonomy, with the help of different systems, outstandingly eLearning. • School Twinning The use of multimedia and exchange tools (email, videoconference, joint web development…) to establish co-operation links between schools. • Skills Standards specifying the level of knowledge and competence required to successfully perform functions in the world of employment, adapted to each employment group. • Virtual Campus Part of a university or faculty that offers educational facilities at any time or, in theory, any place, by Internet. • Virtual Mobility The use of information and communication technologies to obtain the same benefits as one would have with physical mobility but without the need to travel. • Virtual University University that lodges all its education facilities on the Internet. • VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) This expression refers to the spaces where on-line interaction takes place, with any purpose, including learning, between students and teachers. 11.4 Launch of a pan-European promotion and dissemination campaign This chapter discusses the strategies and materials used to create awareness for the eCAT initiative for multilingual catalogue strategies for eCommerce and eBusiness. Today the status quo of dealing with catalogue data within the industry offers an interesting window of opportunity. Many of the companies already implemented electronic catalogue solution more than once. These implementations were based on various technologies. Examples of these catalogues are CD-ROM catalogues, online-catalogues, CAD-catalogues, price-books, etc. In the last years globalisation also entered the SME market. New technologies opened new markets and business opportunities especially for SME’s. But the companies more and more get pressure from their customers to deliver electronic data. So far large customers are in the position to request data in formats they define. Often these formats are propriety and cannot be used for further customers. Due to this past “experiences” the companies do know that only harmonization and standardization of these activities are the way to go in the future. But standardization will CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 121 have to fight concerns like “this is just ANOTHER way of doing the job”. It will be necessary to offer a wide spectrum of information to be accessed. Also a critical mass of adopters together with success stories will be needed. The following chapters present the activities to get the information about the eCAT strategies to the people and companies who shall be the ones to implement it. 11.4.1 eCAT – Logo/CI Promotion and dissemination of information is effective if the target audience remembers past activities. To get a uniform appearance to the outside a CI-concept has to be developed. This includes a project logo and design predefinitions like colours, text-fonts and layouts for presentation slides etc. Also naming conventions and the definitions of the web-URL (will be discussed in the next chapter) are necessary. 11.4.2 eCAT – Web Platform The World Wide Web as a medium is probably the most important medium to present and distribute information on this topic. An eCAT web platform has to be set up. This web platform will serve as a portal to all eCAT activities. Interested parties can collect information at any time they like. A key element will be the selection of a concise and easy-to-remember web address (URL) and the communication of this address internationally. The content of the eCAT web platform will include: • A comprehensive overview on the eCAT initiative and the benefits to be realised when implementing it • Success stories of implementations • Information on companies offering support and tools for implementation • News/Press • Events (Conferences, Trainings, …) • Download section with White Papers and Presentations • Links to the web-pages of all related initiatives, organizations, associations, standardization activities, partners, vendors, … • Log-In section (for partners and registered users) • Discussion forum The Web-Platform has to be actively managed and updated. Users shall have the possibility to register themselves for Newsletters. Sponsorships and Advertisements can be offered to get some financing for the Site. 11.4.3 eCAT – email Newsletter Electronic distribution of information keeps information hot and delivers it directly to the work desk of the people. The newsletter shall be a supplement to the information on the Web-Platform. The information shall be short and succinct and will animate the reader to visit the eCAT web platform. Content shall include: • news from the eCAT project • success stories on implementations 122 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

• vendor-news • news from standardization activities • conferences and events • training opportunities Interested parties may register for the newsletter on the eCAT web platform and receive the newsletter free of charge. Sponsoring opportunities for vendors are available for the newsletter. 11.4.4 eCAT series of conferences All big organizations and most of the SMEs have to deal with eCatalogues and nobody today is satisfied. Hundreds of millions of Euros are spent every year by the companies to work within this unsatisfying environment. There is a need not only for a public platform like the eCAT web platform but there is also need for an event to meet each other and discuss the problems and find solutions. There is an urgent need for initiating and eCAT series of conferences. The eCAT series of conferences could be organized twice a year in different European locations as a two or three day event which includes presentations from research and standardization activities to customer implementations. An enclosed vendor fair will give the participants a good overview on the market offerings and will help to finance the conference. 11.4.5 Events Besides the eCAT series of conferences active participation at national and international conferences and industry associations meetings have to be initiated to create awareness and get approval on the initiative. Presentations on project activities and results as well as successful implementations shall be performed. Examples for such events include events like EU- and CEN- conferences, presentations at international events like TAMA or the ISPE series of conferences and national workgroup meetings of automotive, chemical, electronics industry associations. 11.4.6 Publications and Promotion Material The following chapters will discuss the printed and electronic information material for eCAT activities.

11.4.6.1 Articles for magazines The eCAT initiative is on the one hand very technical oriented to be able to get common sense on the data structure and exchange level. On the other hand it has big impacts on costs – either investments or also the savings related from this. It is necessary to communicate both the technical and also the commercial issues. Articles for management and technical magazines have to be written which cover the intention and the results of the eCAT activities. Most credible for the readers are successful implementations at corporations which also discuss the investment and below the line benefit for the involved parties. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 123

11.4.6.2 Press releases CEN shall use its good press relations to inform the media regularly on project activities and results. Also the participating companies and organizations shall be encouraged to use their infrastructure and contacts to journalists and media to address press releases about eCat. Published articles shall be collected centrally and used to display it on the Web-platform (“eCAT in the media”).

11.4.6.3 Promotion Material For conferences and events promotion material has to be developed. These items shall include: • an eCAT flyer with a description of the initiative • a Collection of Powerpoint presentations (project overview, implementations, …) • leaflets with successful implementations • posters for use at exhibitions and fairs for CEN and participating corporations • Giveaways like pens, stickers and writing pads for conferences and events 11.5 Support of standardization/harmonization efforts in this connection in order to facilitate the preparation and application of multilingual eCatalogues Standardization and harmonization are crucial for successful eBusiness implementations throughout the industry. As the markets became global standardization and harmonization activities in this area also have to be focused on international level. When looking at the eCatalogues initiative we find several topics we have to address. Key issues include: • Terminology • Data model • Data transfer and exchange The below standardization activities are related to these issues. Active participation in these activities can assure, that the eCAT initiative will not work against these activities and vice versa. 11.5.1 ISO/TC 37 – Terminology and other language resources The scope of ISO/TC 37 is the standardization of principles, methods and applications relating to terminology and other language resources. ISO/TC 37 has a proposed working item ISO/PWI 22274 “Basic principles and requirements of multilingual product classification for electronic commerce”. This proposed working item has been adopted and it is closely linked to the tasks of CEN/ISSS/eCAT. 11.5.2 ISO 13584 – PLIB (ISO TC 184) The scope of ISO TC 184 is standardization in the field of industrial automation and integration concerning discrete part manufacturing and encompassing the application of multiple technologies, i.e. information systems, machines and equipment, and 124 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 telecommunications. Excluded from this definition are electrical and electronic equipment as dealt with by IEC / TC 44 and programmable logical controllers for general application dealt with by IEC / TC 65. TC 184/SC 4/WG 2 has the specific scope to work on “Standard for the neutral representation of standard parts”. Within this working group the ISO 13584 (P-LIB) standards series was developed. Based on ISO 13584 part 42 several implementation activities were started and are progressing. These activities include:

11.5.2.1 ISO 13584 – part 501 The scope of ISO 13584 part 501 it to specify the requirements on an ISO-registered reference dictionary for measuring instruments with their descriptive properties and domains of values. The measuring instruments to be included in the dictionary comprise industrial-process measuring instruments, environment measuring instruments, and laboratory measuring instruments. It also specifies the procedures of an organization that develops, maintains and updates the reference dictionary for measuring instruments over a specified period of time registers elements to be included in a reference dictionary on measuring instruments and that maintains and updates it the dictionary over a specified period of time. Such an organization will be nominated by ISO and is called Registration Authority of the reference dictionary for measuring instruments.

11.5.2.2 ISO 13584 – part 511 Part 511 of ISO 13584 is a fastener reference dictionary. The scope of ISO 13584 part 511 is to collect all the data from ISO fastener product standards and represent them by the dictionary methodology of ISO 13584 specified in its part 42, part 24, and part 25. The data of fasteners includes bolts, screws, studs (BSS), washes, rivets, pins, nails, rings, bushes, clamps, etc. ISO 13584 part 511 was prepared by CNIS PLIB team (China) and supported by some P members of ISO TC184/SC4, such as France, Germany, UK, Japan, Canada, and Korea.

11.5.2.3 DIN Online Dictionary (www.DINsml.net) The German Institute for Standardisation (DIN; http://www.din.de/) has developed an Online Dictionary http://www.DINsml.net/. It is an Online Dictionary of properties aimed at providing users with access to standardized product properties. The DIN Online Dictionary is being created under the auspices of DIN, based on ISO 13584, IEC 61360 and DIN V 4002 standards. A process for online standardization was defined. Proposals for new properties can be handed in and will be processed accordingly. 11.5.3 IEC 61360 Online Dictionary The IEC 61360 Online Dictionary http://domino.iec.ch/iec61360/iec61360.nsf/ contains the IEC reference collection of classes and associated characteristic properties (data element types or DETs) for electric/electronic components and materials used in electrotechnical equipment and systems. The dictionary and database follow the methodology of Part 1 of IEC 61360 and the information model of Parts 2 and 5, and include: a hierarchical classification of components in a classification tree CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 125 a set of characteristic properties (DETs) associated with each class that fully describe components belonging to a class. Within the classification hierarchy, sub-classes inherit properties from those classes above them in the tree where relevant, conditions for which the property values are valid. The structure of the database follows the information model very closely so that data can be extracted from it in a compliant computer-sensible form. 11.5.4 ebXML ebXML (Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language), is a modular suite of specifications that enables enterprises of any size and in any geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. Using ebXML, companies now have a standard method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. ebXML was started in 1999 as an initiative of OASIS and the United Nations/ECE agency CEFACT. The original project envisioned and delivered five layers of substantive data specification, including XML standards for: • Business processes • Core data components • Collaboration protocol agreements • Messaging • Registries and repositories OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards http://www.oasis-open.org/) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of eBusiness standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. 11.5.5 GCI Global Commerce Initiative In October 1999 the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI; http://www.gci-net.org/) was created by manufacturers, retailers and sponsors (Trade Industry Associations, regional ECR initiatives, VICS and standard bodies) to improve the performance of the international supply chain for consumer goods through the collaborative development and endorsement of recommended voluntary standards and best practices. One task force within GCI focuses on “Global Product Classification”. The three business objectives of the EAN.UCC Global Product Classification (GPC) are: To support buying programmes by allowing buyers to pre-select groups of applicable products. To provide a common language for category analysis, thus speeding up the ability to react to consumer needs. To be a key enabler of the data synchronisation process 126 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

11.6 Conclusion As everybody sees the need for harmonization and standardization in working with electronic catalogues and the involved companies know about the potential savings they can achieve the prerequisite for a successful implementation of the eCAT initiative are there. But success will be much dependent on the fact if it is possible to get consensus on the technical issues and get support from the system vendors. If that is the case the next step is to find early adopters and prove the initiative in successful implementations. Promotion and dissemination must have the focus on creating awareness on the market and convince with facts. Corporations today want below the line benefits which they can achieve in a realistic time frame. Therefore it is also important to actively participate in international standardization activities to avoid converse developments and definitions in the long term run. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 127

12 Recommendations It is intended to formulate here a few major strategic recommendations in addition to several conclusions at the end of major chapters and many individual recommendations at many places all over the Report.

Recommendation 1 Given the fact that there are numerous technical eCatalogue implementations covering also several – mutually non-interoperable – software standards (however, not in the meaning of “open standards”) there is definitely the need for system-independent methodology standards with a view to assuring syntactic and semantic interoperability, covering among others: - general basic principles and requirements of multilingual eCatalogues - basic principles and requirements for data modelling of eCatalogue content - design of metamodels bringing about syntactic and semantic interoperability between standard-conformant eCatalogues - requirements towards interfaces for the interoperability of eCatalogue content with other kinds of product data for different purposes - maintenance authorities for standardised metamodels and datamodels - registration authorities for metadata descriptions - repositories for authority data and other kinds of content for world-wide re-use so that the basic requirements for single-sourcing (with a view to unlimited re-use of data) and resource-sharing (with a view to joined efforts concerning the net-based distributed cooperation for interoperable content development) according to content management in the broadest sense can be met. Such standards could be drafted in the form of CWAs at European level and introduced as soon as possible into the standardisation system at international level.

Recommendation 2 Translation of the findings of this Report into - training activities and consultancy services especially for SMEs in order to reduce the risks encountered in and break down the scepticism against engagement in eBusiness especially by SMEs - a Europe-wide promotion campaign so that the psychological barriers against active (i.e. marketing and selling) engagement in eBusiness are reduced. A promotion campaign to this extent should be organized and financed at European level with strong political and financial assistance from national level as soon as possible.

Recommendation 3 Being highly multilingual and multicultural by nature Europe has the greatest need itself and could provide model solutions to the World at large concerning the syntactic and semantic interoperability of content in eBusiness. This topic, therefore, should not only rank prominently in EU policy, but be also included in the respective policies at national level – for Europe’s own benefit.

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13 Bibliography The following material, though not specifically referenced in the body of the present document (or not publicly available), gives supporting information. - Serge Abiteboul. “On views and XML” Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD Record December 1999, Volume 28 Issue 4. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/344816.344853 - Rakesh Agrawal, Ramakrishnan Srikant. “On integrating catalogs”. Proceedings of the tenth international conference on World Wide Web May 2002. http://www10.org/cdrom/papers/076/index.html - Sena Arpinar, Asuman Dogac. “Provision of market services for eCo compliant electronic marketplaces” Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD Record September 2000 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/362084.362098 - Snehamay Banerjee, Ram L. Kumar. “Managing electronic interchange of business documents” Communications of the ACM July 2002 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/514236.514241 - John P. Baron, Michael J. Shaw, Andrew D. Bailey. “Web-based eCatalog systems in B2B procurement” Communications of the ACM May 2000 Volume 43 Issue 5 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/332833.332845 - Sherif Danish. “Building database-driven electronic catalogs” Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD Record December 1998 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/306101.306103 - DIN: “DIN 4000 Sachmerkmalleisten: Begriffe und Grundsätze”, 1981 http://www.beuth.de/ - eCl@ss: “eCl@ss White Paper 0.6”, January 2000 http://www.eClass-online.com/informationen/download/eClassWhitePaper06.doc - Frank Gilbane. “eCatalogues: strategic issues for suppliers”. http://www.gilbane.com/ - Claus Hümpel, Volker Schmitz. “BMEcat: Produktkataloge austauschen per XML”. http://www.bli.uni-essen.de/publications/2001_XML_HuempelSchmitz.pdf - Anant Jhingran. “Moving up the food chain: supporting eCommerce applications on databases” Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD Record December 2000 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/369275.369287 - Oliver Kelkar, Joerg Leukel, Volker Schmitz. “Price modeling in standards for electronic product catalogues based on XML”. Proceedings of the eleventh international conference on World Wide Web May 2002. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/511446.511494 - Joerg Leukel, Volker Schmitz, Frank-Dieter Dorloff. “Exchange of catalogue data in B2B relationships. Analysis and Improvement”. http://www.bli.uni-essen.de/publications/2002_LeukelSchmitzDorloff.pdf - Jörg Leukel, Volker Schmitz, Frank-Dieter Dorloff: “Exchange of Catalogue Data in B2B Relationships – Analysis and Improvement”, November 2002 http://www.bli.uni-essen.de/publications/2002_ICWI_LeukelSchmitzDorloff.pdf CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 129

- Jörg Leukel, Volker Schmitz, Frank-Dieter Dorloff: “Referenzmodell für den Austausch von Produktklassifikationssystemen im E-Business”, September 2002 http://www.bli.uni-essen.de/publications/info_d_2002_MKWI.htm - Bart Meltzer, Robert Glushko. “XML and electronic commerce: enabling the network economy” Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD Record December 1998. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/306101.306105 - NATO Group of National Directors on Codification (AC/135): “Guide to the NATO Codification System”, September 2002 http://www.nato.int/structur/AC/135/ncs_guide/e_guide.htm - Nikolaus Ondracek: “Überführung bestehender Sachmerkmale in ein Merkmal- Lexikon”, Referatensammlung der DIN Tagung Merkmallexikon in der Anwendung, Beuth Verlag 1998 http://www.beuth.de/ - Joachim Quantz, Thorsten Wichmann: “E-Business Standards in Deutschland, Bestandsaufnahme, Probleme, Perspektiven”, April 2003 http://www.berlecon.de/studien/downloads/200304eStandards.pdf - Erica Rugullies. “Choosing the right B2B catalogue management solution.” Giga information group, 2001. RPA-062001-00002. http://www.gigaweb.com/ http://www.i2.com/assets/pdf/ B2726C08-D8C6-4ACA-BB4DD5ADFBD92DC2.pdf - Arie Segev, Dadong Wan, Caroline Beam. “Electronic catalogues: a technology overview and survey results” Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Information and knowledge management December 1995. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/221270.221284 - Michael Stonebraker, Joseph M. Hellerstein. “Content integration for e-business”. Proceedings of ACM SIGMOD 2001. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/375663.375739 - Min Wang, X. Sean Wang. “Web and e-business application: Optimizing relational store for eCatalogue queries: a data mining approach” Proceedings of the 17th symposium on Proceedings of the 2002 ACM symposium on applied computing March 2002. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/508791.509015 130 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

14 (Annex) Providers of eCatalogue Software In chapter 5.2, an overview was given of software companies providing software that includes eCatalogue functionality. The companies identified in the research that lead to that chapter are listed here in alphabetical order. For each company we list the name, a short description indicating its relevance to the topic of eCatalogues, the company URL and the ISO 3166 code for the country in which the company is based if the company is based in Europe. This list is provided for informative purposes only to give an overview of a number of providers of eCatalogue software at the time of writing of this CWA. The list is unlikely to be complete at the time of writing and indeed may rapidly become outdated after publication of this CWA because of the dynamics of the marketplace. Inclusion of a particular product or service provider on this list does not imply an endorsement of the provider or the software product or service by CEN or those contributing to this CWA. A regularly updated overview of catalogue management software, with an emphasis on the German market, is provided by the Web site http://www.katalogmanager.de/. - A2i. Product Content Management & Cross-Media Catalogue Publishing Solutions. http://www.a2i.com/default.asp. - AchatPro. E-procurement solutions. http://www.achatpro.com/ (FR). - AIS. Electronic document services. http://www.xml-ais.com/ (FR). - Applied Information Technologies AG. E-Business software suite. http://www.aitag.com/ (DE). - Ariba. Enterprise spend management solution. http://www.ariba.com/. - Armantis. ECatalogue and product data management. http://www.armantis.com/ (FR). - ATG. Art Technology Group. http://www.atg.com/. - Ascential Software. Enterprise data integration. http://www.ascential.com/. - ASIM. Single source publishing. http://www.asim.de/ (DE). - BEA Systems. Commerce server software. http://www.bea.com/. - Belenus. Electronic spare parts catalogues and service information systems. http://www.belenus.de/ (DE). - BizDirect. E-Procurement, marketplace and sellside solutions. http://www.bizdirect.pt/ (PT). - Blue Martini. Intelligent selling systems. http://www.bluemartini.com/. - Brain://on. Realisation and information structure conversion. http://www.brainon.ch/ (CH). - BroadVision. Enterprise portal applications. http://www.broadvision.com/. - CaContent. E-Procurement software. http://www.cacontent.biz/. - Cardonet. Product information management solutions. http://www.cardonet.com/. - Catalogic. Software for organization, structuring and standardization of product data exchanged between producers and distributors. http://www.catalogic.fr/ (FR). CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 131

- Cataloom. Product information management solution. http://www.cataloom.com/ (DE). - Catone. B2B catalogue system. http://www.catone.de/ (DE). - Celerity. Retail supply chain management solutions. http://www.celerity.ie/ (IE). - Channelinx. E-Business, procurement, sales management software. http://www.channelinx.com/. - Ciberguia. Electronic content management platform for on-line eCommerce. http://ebiz.ciberguia.com/ (PT). - Click Commerce. E-Business Solutions for Channel Sales. http://www.clickcommerce.com/. - Comedis. Single source document management and publication. http://www.comedis.de/ (DE). - Comergent. Demand chain management solutions. http://www.comergent.com/. - Commerce One. Composite process management solutions. http://www.commerceone.com/. - Comosoft AG. Database-driven advertising media production system solutions. http://www2.comosoft.de/ (DE). - Compodata. Electronic catalogue and configuration software. http://www.compodata.com/ (FR). - CPTec. Technical documentation and catalogue services for various vertical industries. http://www.cptec.de/ (DE). - crossbase mediasolution. Provider of cross-media publishing software. http://www.crossbase.de/ (DE). - Cuesta Technologies. Web business solutions provider specialized in interactive customizable database-driven online catalogues. http://www.cuesta.com/. - Documentum. Enterprise content management. http://www.documentum.com/. - Docware. Producer of electronic spare parts catalogues and service information systems. http://www.docware.de/ (DE). - E-Pro. Software solutions based on the BMEcat standard. http://www.e-pro.de/ (DE). - Eggheads. Crossmedia content management and publishing software. http://www.egghead.de/ (DE). - Empolis. Enterprise content and knowledge management software. http://www.empolis.com/ (DE). - ems ePublishing. Electronic media solutions. http://www.ems-ag.de/ (DE). - Enigma. Support chain software. http://www.enigma.com/e/. - Enterworks. End-to-end catalogue management for buyers and sellers. http://www.enterworks.com/. - Entigo. Warranty chain and claims management software solution provider. http://www.entigo.com/. - Exsyde. Content management software. http://www.exsyde.com/ (FR). 132 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

- Fire Pond. Sales, service and configuration software provider. http://www.firepond.com/. - First logic. Provides software for data quality, profiling, cleansing, enhancement and matching. http://www.firstlogic.com/. - Flexbiz. E-Business solutions for manufacturers and distributors. http://www.flexbiz.com/. - Foro empresarial. Integrated engineering and design solutions. http://www.foroempresarial.com/ (ES). - Fullstep. Software for B2B purchasing/procurement process optimisation. http://www.fullstep.com/ (ES). - Fourthchannel. Interactive sales software providing configuration and transaction capabilities. http://www.fourthchannel.com/. - Gartenmann Software. Cross-media content management. http://www.gsa.ch/ (DE). - Geac. Product Lifecycle Management software for apparel and footwear industries. http://www.runtime.geac.com/ (DK). - Gedicon. Software for technical product catalogues. http://www.gedicon.de/ (DE). - Generix. E-business suite. http://www.generix.fr/ (FR). - Guidance. Database publishing solution for cross-media catalogue management. http://www.guidance.nl/ (NL). - Gulliver. eCatalogue Application Service Provider. http://www.gulliver.com/ (FR). - GXS. Electronic product catalogues, data-alignment service and data synchronization solutions. http://www.gxs.com/. - Haht Commerce. Commerce demand chain management. http://www.haht.com/. - Healy Hudson. Software solutions for purchasing automation. http://www.healy- hudson.com/ (DE). - Heiler Software. Product information and catalogue management software solutions. http://www.heiler.com/ (DE). - I2. Value chain management software solutions. http://www.i2.com/. - IBM. Commerce server platform. http://www.software.ibm.com/. - Ilsys. ERP, sales and production management. http://www.ilsys.fr/ (FR). - Incony. Integration e-business solution software for technical markets. http://www.incony.de/ (DE). - Innop. Software for producing cross-media catalogues. http://www.innop.de/ (DE). - Intershop. Unified Commerce Management Software. http://www.intershop.de/. - Interworld. Enterprise Commerce Management software. http://www.interworld.com/. - Interwoven. Enterprise Content Management. http://www.interwoven.com/. - Intigma. Software for content aggregation, management and syndication. http://ww.intigma.com/. - Ironside. Business-to-business eCommerce solutions. http://www.ironside.com/. - ITB. Catalogue management software. http://www.itb-web.de/ (DE). CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 133

- Itemos. On-line catalogue management service. http://www.itemos.fr/ (FR). - JCatalog. Medium-neutral product and service catalogues. http://www.jcatalog.de/ (DE). - J-K Internet. Software for active Web sites. http://www.j-k.co.uk/. - Kodiak Group. Strategies, infrastructure, integration, and trading community management that facilitate eCommerce. http://www.connectivecommerce.net/. - Logisma SA. Warehouse management software. http://www.logisma.com/ (DE). - Maniasytem. On-line catalogues, content and site management. http://www.maniasystem.com/ (FR). - mdc Multimedia, Design & Consulting. Catalogue management software. http://www.mdc.de/ (DE). - Mediaware. Premedia services. http://www.mediaware.nl/ (NL). - Meier + Cie AG. Cross media catalogue publishing. http://www.meierxmedia.ch/ (CH). - Mercado Software. Enterprise search & navigation software. http://www.mercado.com/. - Microsoft. Commerce server product. http://www.microsoft.com/. - Mijn Winkel. Hosted Commerce Solution. http://www.mijnwinkel.nl/ (NL). - myview technologies. Catalogue management software. http://www.myview.de/ (DE). - Netdif. Online catalogue and content management. http://www.netdif.com/ (FR). - Online Consulting AG. Software for content and catalogue management. http://www.oc-ag.ch/ (CH). - Open Pages. Content lifecycle management software. http://www.openpages.com/. - Oracle. Database, e-business suite, application server software. http://www.oracle.com/. - Partnet. Software for business-to-business integration, eCatalogues and e- purchasing solutions. http://www.partnet.com/. - Parts River. data quality services and analytics for purchasing and inventory in the industrial parts industry. http://www.partsriver.com/. - Peoplesoft. Enterprise catalogue management solution in enterprise supply chain management product line. http://www.peoplesoft.com/corp/en/products/line/scm/catalog/features.jsp. - Peregrine. Asset management and service management software. http://www.peregrine.com/. - Pindar Systems. Product information management for multi-channel commerce. http://www.pindarsystems.com/ (GB). - Poet Software. ECatalogue management software. http://www.x- solutions.poet.com/eu/. - ProDAM. Product data management software. http://www.prodam.de/ (DE). - Profile Systems. Item data and vendor managed inventory solutions. http://www.profilesystems.com/. 134 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

- ProOn Webshop. Catalogue aggregation service provider. http://www.proon.de/ (DE). - Qualiac. Enterprise resource planning software. http://www.qualiac.fr/ (FR). - Query. Online catalogue management software. http://www.query.es/ (ES). - RacTech GmbH & Co. KG. Product information and catalogue management software. http://www.ractech.de/ (DE). - Requisite Technology. Enterprise catalogue management solution. http://www.requisite.com/. - Sanitania. Hospital procurement solution. http://www.sanitania.com/ (PT). - Saqqara. B2B catalogue content management solutions. http://www.saqqara.com/. - SAP. Catalogue management in Supplier Relationship Management. http://www.sap.com/solutions/srm/ (DE). - Softco. Document and process management solutions. http://www.softco.com/. - Softforum. Content management software. http://www.softforum.de/ (DE). - Stibo Catalogue. Catalogue & product content management, cross media publishing and printing. http://www.stibocatalog.dk/ (DK). - summersoft Softwarelösungen. Cross media catalogue publishing solution. http://www.summersoft.cc/ (AT). - SV Data. Software components for BMEcat catalogues. http://www.sv-data.de/ (DE). - T-Systems International GmbH Business Networks. Hosted catalogue services. http://www.t-systems.com/ (DE). - Thomas Tech. Electronic catalogue solutions. http://www.thomastechsolutions.com/. - TIE Nederland. Catalogue and content management solution. http://www.tie.nl/ (NL). - Trigo Technologies. Product information management solutions. http://www.trigo.com/. - Trilogy. Enterprise software for several vertical industry segments. http://www.trilogy.com/. - Unternehmensberatung Peter Kloß GmbH. Electronic catalogue management and procurement software. http://www.upk.de/ (DE). - up2date.IT. Supplier relationship and catalogue management software. http://www.up2date.it/ (DE). - Velosel. Collaborative product information management. http://www.velosel.com/. - Verisync. Catalogue management facility in Consumer Packaged Goods solution. http://www.verisync.com/. - Vignette. Enterprise content management. http://www.vignette.com/. - Vinimaya. Intelligent catalogue syndication software. http://www.vinimaya.com/. - WallMedien. Catalogue management software. http://www.wallmedien.de/ (DE). - Web2Cad. Software for technical product data management. http://www.web2cad.de/ (DE). - Wiznet. Catalogue conversion and storage services. http://www.wiznet.com/. - Xeolia. Specialist catalogue services. http://www.xeolia.com/ (FR). CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 135

- Zycus. Spend data management software. http://www.zycus.com/. - Zygon. Catalogue and product information management solutions. http://www.zygon.com. 136 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

15 (Annex) Standards organizations and other guidelines/regulations-setting organizations having a strong impact on SMEs (focussing on eBusiness requirements) IEC – International Electrotechnical Commission • IEC/TC 3 “Information structures, documentation and graphical symbols” (project in common with ISO/TC 10): IEC 82045-1 Document management – Part 2: Reference collection of metadata and reference models. • IEC/TC 3/SC 3D “Data sets for (component) libraries” • IEC/TC 56 “Dependability” • IEC/TC 57 “Power system control and associated communications”: new work item proposal on Framework for deregulated electricity market communications • IEC/TC 91 “Electronics assembly technology” • IEC/TC 93 “Design automation” ISO – International Organization for Standardization • ISO/TC 37 “Terminology and other language resources”, SC 3 “Computer applications for terminology”: o Data Categories o Machine-readable terminology interchange format o Terminology mark-up framework • ISO/TC 46 “Information and documentation” • ISO/TC 68 “Banking, securities and other financial services”, SC 4 “Securities and related financial instruments”, ISO 15022 Series Securities – Scheme for messages (Data Field Dictionary) (DFD), WG 10 “Integration of XML in ISO 15022” • ISO/TC 154 “Processes, data elements and documents in commerce, industry and administration” • ISO/TC 154/WG1 “Basic Semantics Register” (BSR) • ISO/TC 184 “Industrial automation systems and integration”, SC4 “Industrial data” • ISO/TC 215 “Health Informatics” ISO/IEC JTC 1 – Information technology • SC 27 “IT security techniques” • SC 31 “Automatic identification and data capture techniques” • SC 32 “Data management and interchange” • SC 34 “Document description and processing languages” ITU-T – ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector – SGs (Study Groups) • SG 17 “Data Networks and Telecommunication Software”: ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) Schema for XML Markup • ITU-T SG 3 “Tariffs and accounting principles including related telecommunications economic and policy issues” • ITU-T SG 4 “Telecommunication management, including TMN” • ITU-T SG 13 “Multi-protocol and IP-based networks and their internetworking” • ITU-T SG 16 “Multimedia services, systems and terminals” • ITU-T SG 17 “Data Networks and Telecommunication Software” • ITU-T SSG (Special Study Group) “IMT-2000 and Beyond” CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 137

UN/CEFACT – United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business • UNeDocs “United Nations electronic Trade Documents” • ebXML “Electronic business eXtensible Markup Language”, a derivate of the “eXtensible Markup Language” (XML) UN/ECE CEFACT EWG Projects • P1. Business neutral core component Library • P2. Harmonisation documentation • P3. Finance Core Components • P4. Finance Business Process Modelling • P5. Travel, Tourism and Leisure Core Components • P6. Insurance Core Components • P7. Accounting and Auditing Core Components OASIS • Business Transactions Protocol (BTP) • ebXML Collaborative Partners (CPPA) • ebXML Implementation, Interoperability, Conformance (IIC) • ebXML Messaging • ebXML Registry • Universal Business Language (UBL) • Access Control (XACML) • Common Biometric Format (XCBF) • Provisioning Services • Security Services (SAML) • Customer Information Quality (CIQ) • Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF) CEN • CEN/ISSS/EC – European Committee for Standardization, Information Society Standardisation System, Workshop on “Electronic Commerce” In addition some US standards bodies or other “authoritative” organizations are formulating standards, which are often observed world-wide, including: ANSI – American National Standards Institute: ANSI’s primary goal is to enhance the global competitiveness of US business and the American quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and ensuring their integrity ASTM – American Society for Testing and Materials: standardizing among others quality and other management related issues, incl. material databases, etc. MoU – the Memorandum of Understanding on electronic business is joining three leading international standards-setting organizations, namely the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) with registered international user groups, such as CALS International and NATO CALS, OASIS, CEN, etc. to participate in the implementation of the MoU as a framework to coordinate standardization and harmonization activities in the field of eBusiness. 138 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

16 (Annex) Maintenance Agencies and Registration Authorities A number of International Standards developed by ISO technical committees require, with a view to their updating or implementation, a competent body which has the requisite infrastructure for ensuring the effective use of these international agreements. These bodies are designated by ISO to serve as maintenance agencies or registration authorities. The data, which they maintain are either of direct concern to SMEs or of primary importance to the handling of SME-related information. For each of the standards concerned detailed information can be obtained through the respective secretariats listed below. ISO 639-1:2002 Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 1: Alpha-2 code Registration Authority: c/o International Information Centre for Terminology, Aichholzgasse 6/12, AT-1120 Wien, Austria, [email protected] ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 2: Alpha-3 code Registration Authority: c/o Library of Congress, Network Development and MARC Standards Office, Washington DC 20540-4402, USA, [email protected], http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/ ISO 3166-1:1997 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes ISO 3166-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 2: Country subdivision code ISO 3166-3:1999 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 3: Code for formerly used names of countries Maintenance Agency: c/o ISO Central Secretariat, 1, rue de Varembé, Case postale 56, CH-1211 Genève 20, Switzerland, [email protected], http://www.iso.org/mara/iso3166 ISO 3780:1983 Road vehicles – World manufacturer identifier (WMI) code Registration Authority: c/o Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., 400, Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale PA 15096-0001, USA ISO 3901:2001 Information and documentation – International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) Registration Authority: c/o IFPI Secretariat, International ISRC Agency, 54 Regent Street, London W1B 5RE, United Kingdom, [email protected], http://www.ifpi.org/isrc/ ISO 4100:1980 Road vehicles – World parts manufacturer identifier (WPMI) code Registration Authority: c/o Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., 400, Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale PA 15096-0001, USA ISO 4217:2001 Codes for the representation of currencies and funds Maintenance Agency: c/o British Standards Institution, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL, United Kingdom, [email protected], http://www.bsi-global.com/ Technical+Information/Publications /_Publications/tig90.xalter ISO/IEC 6523-1:1998 Information technology – Structure for the identification of organizations and organization parts – Part 1: Identification of organization identification schemes CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 139

ISO/IEC 6523-2:1998 Information technology – Structure for the identification of organizations and organization parts – Part 2: Registration of organization identification schemes Registration Authority: c/o British Standards Institution, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL, United Kingdom, [email protected] ISO 7372:1993 Trade data interchange – Trade data elements directory NOTE: Endorsement of document: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Trade Facilitation, Trade Data Elements Directory (TDED), volume 1. Maintenance Agency: c/o ISO Central Secretariat, 1, rue de Varembé, Case postale 56, CH-1211 Genève 20, Switzerland, [email protected] ISO/IEC 9070:1991 Information technology – SGML support facilities – Registration procedures for public text owner identifiers Registration Authority: c/o Graphic Communications Association (GCA), 100 Dangerfield Road, Alexandria VA 22314, USA ISO/IEC 9834-7:1998 Information technology – Open Systems Interconnection – Procedures for the operation of OSI Registration Authorities: Assignment of international names for use in specific contexts Registration Authority: c/o British Standards Institution, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL, United Kingdom, [email protected] ISO/IEC 10036:1996 Information technology – Font information interchange – Procedures for registration of font-related identifiers Registration Authority: c/o Centre for Global Communications, International University of Japan, Harks Roppongi Bldg. 2F, 6-15-21 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032, Japan, [email protected] ISO 10444:1994 Information and documentation – International standard technical report number (ISRN) Registration Authority: c/o Fachinformationszentrum (FIZ), Karlsruhe, DE-76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany ISO 10962:2001 Securities and related financial instruments – Classification of Financial Instruments (CFI code) Registration Authority: c/o Mr. Alain Duhamel, Executive Secretary, Association of National Numbering Agencies, Euroclear France, 115, rue Réaumur, FR-75081 Paris Cedex 02, France, http://www.anna-web.com ISO/IEC 13522-4:1996 Information technology – Coding of multimedia and hypermedia information – Part 4: MHEG registration procedure Registration Authority: c/o Association française de normalisation, 11, avenue Francis de Pressensé, FR-93571 Saint-Denis La Plaine Cedex, France, [email protected] ISO/IEC 15897:1999 Information technology – Procedures for registration of cultural elements Registration Authority: c/o The Danish UNIX-systems User Group (DKUUG), Fruebjergvej 3, DK-2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark, [email protected], http://anubis.dkuug.dk/cultreg/ ISO/FDIS 18245 Retail financial services – Merchant category codes Registration Authority: c/o Mrs. Cynthia L. Fuller, Accredited Standards Committee X9, Incorporated, Financial Industry Standards, P.O. Box 4035, US-Annapolis, MD 21403, USA, [email protected] 140 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

17 (Annex) Terms in the context of ebXML (Included from the UN/CEFACT and ITU website. Some of the definitions have been extracted from the Memorandum of Understanding between ISO/IEC and CEFACT) Business: a series of processes, each having a clearly understood purpose, involving more than one organization, realized through the exchange of information and directed towards some mutually agreed upon goal, extending over a period of time. (Open-edi Reference Model Standard – ISO/IEC 14662). (MoU) Basic Semantics Register (BSR): the BSR is envisioned to be the official ISO register of data for use by designers and implementers of information systems in a manner which will allow systems development to move from a closed to an open multilingual environment, especially for use in domestic and international electronic communication including electronic commerce and EDI. (MoU) Business Operational View (BOV): a perspective of business transactions limited to those aspects regarding the making of business decisions and commitments among organizations, which are needed for the description of a business transaction. (Open-edi Reference Model Standard – ISO/IEC 14662). (MoU) Collaborative activity: In a collaborative activity joint meetings are held at working group level to develop a common standard, which then is approved using the appropriate approval process of each organization. (MoU) Common Business Library (CBL): a public domain product from Commerce One Electronic Business: a generic term covering information definition and exchange requirements within and between enterprises, including customers. (MoU) Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): the automated exchange of any predefined and structured data for business among information systems of two or more organizations. (Open-edi Reference Model Standard – ISO/IEC 14662). (MoU) EDI message: an approved, published, and maintained formal description of how to structure the data required performing a specific business function, in such a way as to allow for the transfer and handling of this data by electronic means. (MoU) Functional Service View (FSV): a perspective of business transactions limited to those information technology interoperability aspects of IT Systems needed to support the execution of Open-edi transactions. (MoU) Message Implementation Guidelines (MIG): a description of how an EDIFACT or an X12 message must be implemented in software CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 141

Open-edi: electronic data interchange among multiple autonomous organizations to accomplish an explicit shared business goal according to Open-edi standards (i.e. that complies with the Open-edi Reference Model Standard – ISO/IEC 14662). (MoU) Register: an official list in which items are recorded for reference (list of elementary data in which the meaning – i.e. semantics – of these data is defined) Registry: a place where registers are kept Repository: electronic store of structured information (such as EDIFACT messages, X12 messages, XML messages) Scenario: a formal specification of a class of business activities having the same business goal. (ISO 19735 part 1) Simpl-EDI: subsets of UN/EDIFACT messages especially designed for SMEs STEP: the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (ISO 10303) (MoU) Syntax rules: rules governing the structure of an interchange and its functional groups, messages, segments and data elements. (ISO 9735) Unified Modeling Language (UML): a set of diagrams that communicate requirements regarding a business process UN/EDIFACT (United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport): user application protocol, for use within user application systems for data to be interchanged, compatible with the OSI model. (UN/EDIFACT syntax implementation guidelines, UNTDID 1990). (MoU) eXtensible Markup Language (XML): XML is designed to enable the exchange of information (data) between different applications and data sources on the World Wide Web. XML is a simplified subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). XML allows construction of structured data (trees) which rely on composition relationships. XML schemas are used to define data models. 142 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

18 (Annex) Definitions and developments related to eBusiness (Electronic business, Electronic commerce, SIMPL-EDI, Lite EDI, XML/EDI and Web-EDI) Value Chain Management: Maximising total performance and added value across an entire process by reviewing each internal and external operation and the links between these operations. The process will be reviewed in a systematic and standard way in order to optimise speed, certainty, and cost effectiveness for the parties involved. The process review can be achieved through established procedures and existing techniques such as value chain analysis and activity based costing. Supply Chain: A sequence of events, which may include conversion, movement or placement, which adds value to goods, products, or services. Simplification Toolkit: Collection of tools to enable simplified implementations of structured electronic commerce techniques such as, electronic data interchange, electronic funds transfer, automatic data capture, bar-code technology and unique goods/ product/ service/ party identification schemes. Electronic Commerce The definition as agreed in the CEFACT ad hoc group for Electronic Commerce: Electronic Commerce is doing business electronically. This includes the sharing of standardised unstructured or structured business information by any electronic means (such as electronic mail or messaging, World Wide Web technology, electronic bulletin boards, smart cards, electronic funds transfers, electronic data interchange, and automatic data capture technology) among suppliers, customers, governmental bodies and other partners in order to conduct and execute transactions in business, administrative and consumer activities. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 143

BUSINESS PROCESS BUSINESS (Full Functionality) DATA

TRADITIONAL EDI (Full Functionality)

SIMPLE CORE BUSINESS BUSINESS PROCESS DATA VALUE CHAIN

SIMPLIFICATION TOOL KIT

SIMPLE ELECTRONIC BUSINESS *

Figure 1: Simple Electronic Business Map

*The simple electronic business tools are defined on the next page of this document

Simple Electronic Business (SEB): Simple Electronic Business is the application of simplified business processes, using core application data, and new and existing standardised techniques which support paperless and efficient operations. Simple electronic business encompasses existing approaches such as SIMPL-EDI, Lite-EDI, Web-EDI, providing a comprehensive set of tools to support companies of all sizes. Forms based EDI can take advantage of SIMPL-EDI messages. Tools and initiatives to support electronic business: include techniques such as: 1 Definition and use of core application data 2 master data exchange 3 master data alignment 4 Value Chain analysis 5 forms based interfaces 6 business scenarios and modelling using object oriented approach 7 unique numbering and identification 8 automatic data capture techniques 144 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

9 application integration 10 best business practice recommendations 11 UN/EDIFACT 12 Use of appropriate security mechanisms 13 Cross sectoral simplification and harmonisation 14 Techniques to generate electronic forms and data exchange No priority should be implied by the sequence of this list. Initiatives and concepts of Simple Electronic Business SIMPL-EDI: Simple Electronic Business defines simplest processes and their required core data allowing the exchange of the minimum data to effect a business transaction electronically. SIMPL-EDI documents the use of UN/EDIFACT EDI messages to support the requirements of simplified basic business processes, and the core data to support the processes. SIMPL-EDI allows the linking of improved processes and procedures, organised with the maximum use of simple standard procedures and standard EDI with the maximum use of applicable coding systems and standard IT systems. The underlying principles are: - application to application processing - no manual intervention - Prior exchange of master data - Data alignment - adoption of 80/20 rule i.e. 20% of the data from the existing UNSM’s to enable 80% of the business relationships simply and automatically, with exceptions requiring more sophisticated use of the UNSM - simple processes - simple to understand and to use Lite EDI is another term that supports many of the same concepts as SIMPL-EDI. Core Data: The fundamental set of data that is needed to convey the essential minimum detail for a specific transaction type. Ideally the detail should be all required pieces of information with no, or at least the very minimum of, options. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 145

19 (Annex) Figures in chapter 7 The following pages contain figures that are references in chapter 7. CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A1 ) OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT Version 1.2 2.0 0.21 3.0 1.2.009 4.0 1.3 3.0 96 A V006 96 B V3.0 8.0 3.0 2A1_MG_R0 4.0 2_00_00A Date of publication March, 2001 2003 August, 2000 June, 2002 June, 2003 Januar, 1994 July, 2003 November, November, Juli, 1997 April, 2002 November, February, June, 2003 2002 1999 2001 2003 Objects of investigation Meta Model ------Framework ------yesyes- Processes yes - Other processes - - - yes yes - yes - - - yes - yes yes Catalog exchange processes yes yes - yes yes - yes yes - - yes yes yes yes Documents - Other documents yes in yes in - yes yes yes yes - yes yes yes - yes yes cooperation cooperation with with openTRANS openTRANS Catalog documents yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Vocabulary - Changeable attributes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Rigid attributes - - - yes - yes yes - yes yes - - yes - Datatypes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Table 7-1: Structuring the objects of investigation with the level model. CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A2 ) OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT Standardisation process - Standardization body Industry Industry Company Industry Company Standards Standards Company Standards Standards Industry Company Industry Company consortium consortium consortium body body body body consortium consortium Supported industry branches not not not chemical not building trade consumer not different different not not electronic not specialized specialized specialized industry specialized goods specialized industries: industries: specialized specialized components / specialized here here building IT consumer trade goods Release policy Change frequence low low low medium low low low low low low high low medium high Draft versions yes yes - yes - yes yes - - yes yes yes yes yes Legal aspects - Documentation access self self - free free must be free free must be free free free free free registration - registration - purchased purchased to finished to finished publications publications Input possibilities yes yes - yes yes yes - - only for yes yes - yes yes members Work within working groups membership, membership, - membership, - membership, membership, - membership, membership, membership, - membership, - invited guest invited guest invited guest invited guest invited guest invited guest invited guest invited guest invited guest Membership pre-condition free for - annual fees - fees fees - annual fees - annual fees - annual fees - buying organisations and assosiations Services for users - Examples yes yes - yes yes yes yes - yes - yes - yes yes Checklists, Guidelines - - - yes ------yes-yesyes Training and consultancy - - - yes ------yesyesyesyes SW-Tools (API, converter, …) - 1.2 -> 2.0 -yes------yes-yes- converter Interactivity (discussion groups yesyes-yesyes-----yesyesyesyes Certification (SW, data, proces yes yes - yes ------yes-yes

Table 7-2: Analysis of the standardization organization. CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A3 ) OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT Document types reference, reference, - users guide, users guide reference reference users guide reference reference, users guide, users guide users guide reference beginners beginners whitepapers users guide reference reference guide guide Printable yes yes yes yes yes paper based yes yes yes paper based - yes yes - File formats pdf pdf, html, pdf pdf pdf paper based pdf pdf html, pdf, paper based html pdf, doc pdf, html, doc html, pcm pcm book Online documentation - yes ------yes Formal notation - - - yes - - yes - - - yes - yes yes Documents languages german, german, - english english german english english english german english english, english english english english german Documents cultural adapted ------

Table 7-3: Analysis of the standards documentation. CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A4 ) OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT Base technology XML XML XML XML XML EDIFACT XML XML EDIFACT EDIFACT XML XML XML XML Formal specification language DTD, XSD DTD, XSD DTD DTD DTD - XSD DTD - - XSD - DTD XSD Richness of specification Data types User defined types in XSD in XSD ----yes---yes--yes Use of domain constraints in XSD in XSD ----yes---yes--yes Attributes Use of domain constraints in XSD in XSD - - enumeration - yes - - - yes - - yes Use of referential integrity in XSD in XSD - - yes ------Elements Use of cardinalities in XSD in XSD ----yes---yes--yes Use of referential integrity in XSD in XSD ------Use of inheritance in XSD in XSD ----yes---yes--yes Specification structure External datatypes in XSD in XSD ------yes - - yes File splitting vs. all-in-one both both all-in-one splitting all-in-one - splitting all-in-one - - splitting - splitting splitting Internal documentation only minor yes --- --yes--- comments

Table 7-4: Analysis of the formal specification. CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A5 BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL Catalog header Identification - Name yes yes - - yes yes - yes yes - yes - - yes ID yes yes yes yes yes yes yes - yes - yes - yes yes Revision yes yes - - - yes - - yes - yes - - yes Parties - Supplier party yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes - - yes Buyer party yes yes - yes - yes yes yes yes yes yes - yes - receiver -

Catalog creator party - yes - yes - yes yes yes yes - yes - yes - sender yes Shipping party ------yes - address - - yes - - -

Bill to party ------yes - address - - yes - - -

Punchout party - yes ------Manufacturer party - yes - - - yes ----yes--- Broker party - - yes -----yes-yes--- Other parties ------yes - a lot --- more Party details Codification of ID yes yes yes yes yes - yes yes yes yes yes - yes yes Business units ------yes--- Address yes yes yes yes yes - yes yes yes - yes - - yes Building information (floor, ------yes Contact - yes yes yes Order - yes - yes - yes - yes yes contact s.b. E-Mail yes yes - yes yes ------yesyes Encryption yes yes ------URL yesyes-yesyes------yes Multi location ----yes-----yes--- Remarks yes yes - yes yes - URL - - - yes ----- Order method ----yes-yes------Currency ------yes--- Payment methods ------yes-yes-yes--- Qualification ------yes--- Rating ------yes--- Tax data - - - yes - - yes yes yes - yes - - yes Corrospondence language ------yes---yes--yes

Table 7-7: Full analysis at document layer (I). CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A6 BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL Target users ------yes---yes--- Agreement reference yes yes -----yesyes---yes - yes document references Customs, tax, charge descrip ------yes-yes----- Product type ------yes------Commodity definition ------yes--- Means of transport ------yes - very ----- detailed Transport requirements ------yes----- Incoterms ------yes----- Country of origin ------yes----- User defined extensions yes yes -----attribute list yes - five - yes - - attribute list lines text Defaults Currency yes yes - yes - - - yes yes - yes - - yes Valid start time - yes -----yes--yes-yesyes Valid end time - yes -----yes--yes-yesyes Price Groups -----yes--yes----yes Language yes yes - yes ------yes Territory yes yes ------yes- General costs - Shipping only flag only flag -----yesyes - allow or ----- wether it is wether it is charge included included Insurance only flag only flag ------yes - allow or ----- wether it is wether it is charge included included Packing only flag only flag ------yes - allow or ----- wether it is wether it is charge included included Freight only flag only flag ------yes - allow or ----- wether it is wether it is charge included included Scenario support Multi buyer catalogs - yes Price groups ----yes - site ? - - yes - - - ?? Multi supplier catalogs - yes ------not quite --- clear Multi lingual catalogs yes, but in yes - yes yes - - yes - - yes - - yes different files Multi territory catalogs yes yes - yes, but yes, but not ------hardly price relevant

Multi currency catalogs yes yes yes yes yes - - yes - - yes - - yes Multi time spans yes yes - yes - yes - - yes - yes - - yes

Table 7-7: Full analysis at document layer (II). CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A7 BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL Product data Identification Name yes yes yes yes yes - yes text attributes - yes - yes yes yes

Supplier ID yes yes yes yes yes yes yes key attributes yes yes yes yes yes supplier id or buyer id Version number ------yes-yes- Alternative supplier ID yes yes - - yes yes - - yes yes - - yes - Buyer ID yes yes ------yes yes supplier id or buyer id Different codification system yes yes only yes - yes - - yes - yes - yes yes 'barcode' Manufacturer ID yes yes yes yes yes - - - - - yes - yes Manufacturer name yes yes yes yes yes - yes - yes - yes yes - yes Marketing / Brand name - - - yes - multiple - - yes - yes -----

Attributes see also WP 1.4 Specify attributes yes yes - yes yes - yes yes yes - yes yes - five - yes Reference to attribute sets yes yes - - yes - yes yes ------Valid time span ------yes--- Relevant order unit ------yes--- Test method for attribute va ---yes------Price data Start validity date yes yes - yes yes yes yes - yes yes yes - yes yes End validity date yes yes yes yes yes yes yes - yes yes yes - yes yes Multi time spans yes yes - yes - yes - - yes - yes - - yes Multi territory yes yes ------may be via --- customer party Multi currency yes yes yes yes yes - - yes - - yes yes - yes Multi buyer - yes -----yes -site ?? - - yes - - - Different price types yes yes yes yes - ?? - yes - - yes yes yes - yes yes Quantity interval yes yes yes yes - yes - yes yes - yes - - yes Price quantity yes yes - - - yes yes - yes ----yes Price unit - ? - yes - yes yes - yes - - yes - - Contract reference - yes -----yes--yes - yes - contract - yes document and references quotation Allowance or charge yes, but only yes with yes yes - yes yes yes yes - yes - yes - one formulas Price groups - - yes - - yes - - yes yes yes - - yes Price on request - yes ------yes- Price formula - yes - hash tables ------Price reason - - - yes ------Payment terms ------yes-yes----- Tax data yes yes ------yes----yes Price change management ------yes-

Table 7-7: Full analysis at document layer (III). CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A8 BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL Ordering data Order unit yes yes yes - yes - yes - yes yes yes yes yes yes Minimum order quantity yes yes yes yes - - yes - yes yes - - yes yes Maximum order quantity - - yes - - - yes - yes - - - yes - Quantity interval yes yes yes - - - yes - yes yes - - yes yes Packing unit = order unit = order unit yes yes - yes yes - yes yes - - yes - Content unit yes yes - yes - - yes - yes yes - - - - Number of content units yes yes ----yes-yesyes---- Alternative oder units reference reference ----yes-yes---yesyes with link with link Conversion factor between ------yes- ----yes Logistic data Customs tariff numbers - yes ----y-yes----- Country of origin - yes - yes - - yes - yes - - - yes yes Physical dimensions - yes yes yes - weight - yes yes - yes yes - - yes - Lead time - yes - yes - w/o yes - yes - w/o - yes - - yes yes yes delivery time delivery time Delivery Time yes included in daysARO?? ------the lead time Delivery Time Span - yes ------yes- Ship date ------yes- Incoterms - yes ------Safety documents can be special -yes--yes------referenced document with type within attachments attachments but not individually specified International restrictions - yes - yes ------yes- Export licence ------yes- Special materials classes (h yes yes yes - - - yes - yes yes - - yes - Handling instructions - yes - yes - - yes - yes yes - - - - Means of transport - yes ------Packing label - - - yes - - yes - yes ----- Packing structure (layers) - - - yes - - yes - yes ----- Standardized packings - yes Packing ---yes-yes----- unit?? Stock availibility - - yes ------Stock warehouse id - - yes ------Stock store area - - yes ------Manufacturing date ------yes---yes- Non-availibility date ------yes-yes---yes- Shelf life - - yes yes - - yes - yes ----- Lifecycle ------yes-

Table 7-7: Full analysis at document layer (IV). CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A9 BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL Product configuration Attribute based (parameter yes yes yes - yes - - yes ------Parts list based - yes - - - yes - sets ------Price relevant - yes yes ----yes - with ------formula Order code yes yes yes ------yes-- Attribute domain definition yes, but only yes - - yes, but poor ------enumeration domain types definition Formulas - yes -----yes------Constraints - yes ------Attachments Picture yes yes yes, but only ------yesyes--yes, but one freetext Thumbnail yes yes ------yes, but not - - yes, but explicite freetext URL yesyes--yes-----yesyes - one - yes, but freetext data sheet yes, but not yes, but not - yes - URL ------yes--yes, but explicite explicite freetext drawing yes, but not yes, but not ------yes--yes, but explicite explicite freetext instruction yes, but not yes, but not ------yes--yes, but explicite explicite freetext icon yes, but not yes------yes, but not - - yes, but explicite explicite freetext Other product data Long description yes yes yes yes yes yes - - yes yes yes yes yes Short description -----yesyes-yesyes- yesyes Remarks yes yes yes - yes yes - yes yes - - - yes - Tradematk of product name ---yes--yes-yes----- Buyer ERP group number yes yes ------yes-- Supplier ERP group numbe yesyes------Agreement reference - yes yes ------yes-- SC type code (JIT, …) ------yes- Product type - yes ------yesyes - good or yes - service PunchOut reference - yes - - yes ------Parties Supplier party - yes ------yes-yesyes - vendor - - Buyer party - yes ------yes--- Shipping party - yes ------yes--- Bill to party ------yes--- Punchout party - yes ------Manufacturer party - yes ----yes-yes-yes--- Broker party ------yes--- Other parties ------yes---

Table 7-7: Full analysis at document layer (V). CEN/ISSS WS/eCat – Final draft CWA – 2004-03-10 A10 BMEcat 1.2 BMEcat 2.0 BMEcat catXML CIDX cXML DATANORM EAN.UCC eCX (Pricat) EDIFACT (Prodat EDIFACT OAGIS OCI RosettaNet xCBL Warranty information ------yes- ABC code ------yes- Singel sourcing flag ------yes- Product labels and price tag ---yes--yes------Quality information - - - yes ------Keywords yes yes - yes ------Product family name yes - - yes - yes yes - yes ----- Sample available ------yes- Sample cost ------Sample ship term - - yes ------yes- Changemanagement inform ------yes- User defined extensions yes yes - - yes - - yes yes - text - yes - - - Product structures Hierarchical structures (see.also WP 1.4) Definition yes yes -----yesyesyesyes--yes Reference yes yes yes yes yes - yes yes - yes yes - yes Class reference yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes - yes yes Product references yes yes ------yes---yes Replacing product yes yes - - - yes - - - yes - - yes yes

Table 7-7: Full analysis at document layer (VI). 156 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

20 (Annex) Report: Terminology for eCatalogues and Product Classification 20.1 Introduction During the work in the CEN/ISSS/eCAT Workshop and elsewhere it has become clear that there is a need to “clean up” terminology usage in the fields of eCatalogues and Product Description and Classification. The authors of this document were asked to recommend one set of terms for the use within the project, and hopefully beyond the eCAT activities. Work started in December 2003. The terminology work may continue within the WS after the submission of this report by the Project Team. This document is intended as an appendix to the report CEN/ISSS WS/eCAT Multilingual catalogue strategies for eCommerce and eBusiness.

20.2 Scope The purpose of this document is to attempt to establish consensus within the CEN/ISSS/eCAT Workshop regarding important concepts of electronic catalogues and product description and classification. Recommendations relating to terms and definitions do not necessarily imply that we find other terms and definitions erroneous or inferior. The document seeks to establish one set of terms and definitions, while other sets might also have served the same purpose. In cases where different fields of study have different terminological tradition, we have chosen to conform more closely to traditional usage within language resources rather than e.g. the usage within data modeling. 20.3 Normative References The following International and European Standards have been used in the preparation of this document. Other references of interest are listed in the Bibliography. BS 1000m: Part 1 : 1995 Universal Decimal Classification. International Medium Edition, English text, FID publication no. 571. ISO 704 : 2000 Terminology work – Principles and methods. ISO 1087-1 : 2000 Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 1: Theory and application. ISO 1087-2 : 2000 Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 2: Computer applications. ISO 10303-1 : 1994 Industrial automation systems and integration - Product data representation and exchange - Part 1: Overview and fundamental principles. ISO 12200 : 1999 Computer applications in terminology – Machine-readable terminology interchange format (MARTIF) – Negotiated interchange. ISO 12620 : 1999 Computer applications in terminology – Data categories. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 157

ISO 13584 Industrial automation systems and integration – Parts library (published in several parts from 1998). ISO/FDIS 15926-1 : 2003(E) Industrial automation systems and integration — Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities — Part 1: Overview and fundamental principles. ISO/FDIS 15926-2 : 2003(E) Industrial automation systems and integration — Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities — Part 2: Data model. ISO 16642 : 2003 Computer applications in terminology – Terminological markup framework. ISO/IEC 11179-3 : 2003 (ISO JTC 1/SC 32) Information technology – Data management and interchange – Metadata registries (MdR) – Part 3: Registry metamodel. ISO/IEC 15459-1 : 1999 Information technology – Unique identification of transport units – Part 1: General. ISO/IEC 15459-2 : 1999 Information technology – Unique identification of transport units – Part 2: Registration procedures. ISO/IEC FCD 11179-3 : 200x(E) (ISO JTC 1/SC 32): Information technology – Data management and interchange – Metadata registries (MdR) Part 3: Registry metamodel. ISO/WD 12620-1 : 2003 Data Category Registry for ISO TC37. 20.4 General information about the terminology study The terminology study that is underlying the presentation in this document is based on traditional terminological principles as described e.g. in documents from ISO/TC 37 (Terminology and other language resources). This report contains a number of general concepts that are central to the fields of eCatalogues and Product Description and Classification. Due to the time limit of the project, many more specific concepts of the domain are not included. Existing standards, for example ISO/FDIS 15926-1 and ISO/FDIS 15926-2, contain many relevant concepts (e.g. ‘manufactured product class’, ‘commodity product class’, ‘proprietary product class’) that should be included in a more comprehensive terminology study. 20.5 Concept systems Terminology studies utilize concept relations and concept systems as tools. We have chosen to present the concept systems in graphical form to facilitate understanding of the relations between the concepts. The concept systems below are simplified since they do not comprise all relevant concepts within the eCatalogue domain. A few concepts in the concept systems are not defined in section 20.6 Terms and definitions, and the concept systems do not comprise all concepts defined in section 20.6. If a concept occurs in several concept systems, it is only defined once. 158 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

20.5.1 Concept systems: “Knowledge representation”

knowledge representation

model classification system See figure 2 0 - 2 See figure 2 0 - 3

ontology data model taxonomy subject classification system

Figure 20-1: Top of concept system “Knowledge representation”.

Figure 20-2 and 20-3 show two parts of the full concept system “Knowledge representation”.

Explanation of relation types type of part of belongs to describes

CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 159

model

ontology data model

metamodel conceptual information physical data top-level domain-specific data model model model ontology ontology

terminological product concept system ontology database schema XML schema DTD

product category data business concept concept relation dictionary vocabulary entity

characteristic product element attribute property

feature specification product property attribute value

Figure 20-2: Part 1 of concept system “Knowledge representation”: “Ontologies and data models”. 160 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

classification system

taxonomy subject classification system

taxonomy product metadata product classification category taxonomy taxonomy system

product metadata product category category class metadata

product sub metadata sub category category product subclass

entity product product metadata description description

property

product property attribute value attribute value

Figure 20-3: Part 2 of concept system “Knowledge representation”: “Classification systems”. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 161

20.5.2 Concept system: “Modeling tools”

modeling tool

concept modeling tool data modeling tool

ontology graph concept diagram UML class ER diagram EER diagram hierarchical diagram element tree

concept concept concept concept class assoc iation entity relationship entity relationship attributeelement relation relation type type type type

Figure 20-4: Concept system “Modeling tools”. 162 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

20.5.3 Concept system: “Terminology and related products”

terminology

nomenclature

terminological dictionary

vocabulary glossary

thesaurus

relation keyword

descriptor non-descriptor

Figure 20-5: Concept system “Terminology and related products”. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 163

20.5.4 Concept system: “Product catalogues”

product catalogue

eCatalogue

product category

See figure 2 0 -3

product description

Figure 20-6: Concept system “Product catalogues”. 164 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

20.5.5 Concept system: “Registries”

registry

metadata registry item registry

meta data register item repository

metadata category

See figure 20 -3

metadata description

Figure 20-7: Concept system “Registries”.

CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 165

20.5.6 Levels in product classification systems Words such as “section”, “division”, “group”, etc. have no clear order of magnitude in natural language. One example from public and private administration is that some “sections” are subdivided into several “divisions”, while in other cases “divisions” may consist of several “sections”. It is no wonder then that different systems of product classification have used widely different denotations for the different levels of their respective hierarchies. It should also be noted that the concept of “levels” itself may differ from one system to another. The following terms have been identified for the different levels. This list is not exhaustive. Level 1 division – main category – section – sector – segment Level 2 category – chapter – division – family – group – heading – macro-family – main group – major group – subsector Level 3 class – family – group – heading – industry group – sub-category – sub-heading Level 4 brick – class – commodity – commodity class – commodity group – group – industry – sub- heading Level 5 attribute – category – class – property – sub-class Level 6 attribute – category – property – sub-category Recommendations (1) When using any of the terms designating levels in a hierarchy there should always be a clear indication of which system the terms belong to. (2) It is advisable to use generic terms, such as “top level”, “second level”, etc., at least to designate some of the levels. 20.6 Terms and definitions The terms in this annex are listed in a systematic order. The entries have the following structure: Entry number, recommended term, definition, reference, note on concept and note on terms. Entry number, recommended term and definition are the mandatory elements of each entry. Other elements appear only when appropriate. References are given when the definition is taken over from or based on a definition of a standard. Notes on concepts describe any differences between the concept and closely related concepts as defined or used in other documents. This note can also give additional information about a defined concept. 166 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

Notes on terms enumerate and explain the usage of other terms that are used for the same concept (or very closely related concepts) in other documents. The terms are printed in boldface and included in the alphabetical index. 20.6.1 Terms relating to ontologies and data models 1.1 model simplified representation of something 1.2 ontology model of knowledge of the world comprising concepts and relations between concepts NOTE ON CONCEPT The concept “ontology” is defined in various ways depending on the point of view, e.g. philosophical or pragmatic, top-level or specific, domain-specific or general, formal or not formal etc., cf. e.g. Guarino (1998). John F. Sowa (http://users.bestweb.net/~sowa/ontology/) defines ontology as “the study of categories of things that exist or may exist in some domain”, cf. clause 8.2 of the report CEN/ISSS WS/eCAT Multilingual catalogue strategies for eCommerce and eBusiness. Guarino (1998) defines ontology as “a logical theory accounting for the intended meaning of a formal vocabulary, i.e. its ontological commitment to a particular conceptualization of the world”. Our recommendation is to use the term in the general meaning as defined here. An ontology may comprise all kinds of relations between concepts, e.g. generic, partitive and temporal relations, cf. also concept relation, 1.13. This is in contrast to a classification system, which comprises only generic relations. A data model should always be based on an ontology, but sometimes a data model, represented by means of an ER diagram, is referred to as an “ontology”. Our recommendation is to use the term “ontology” only as defined here. Please observe that the term “conceptual model” is referring to a kind of data model, cf. 1.17 “conceptual data model”. NOTE ON TERMS The terms “concept model” and “concept system” are also used, but our recommendation is to use “ontology”. See also “terminological concept system” cf. 1.5. 1.3 top-level ontology ontology that describes general concepts like space, time, matter, object, event, action, etc., which are independent of a particular problem or domain NOTE ON TERMS The term “top ontology” is also used, but our recommendation is to use “top-level ontology”. 1.4 domain-specific ontology ontology which describes concepts of a specific domain NOTE ON TERMS The term “domain ontology” is also used, but our recommendation is to use “domain-specific ontology”. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 167

1.5 terminological concept system domain-specific ontology used in terminology work NOTE ON CONCEPT ISO 1087-1:2000 (3.2.11) defines “concept system” as “set of concepts structured according to the relations among them”. However, the definition given here takes into consideration the position of the concept in the concept system in figure 20-2. NOTE ON TERMS The term “concept system” is also used, cf. 1.2. 1.6 concept unit of knowledge created by a unique combination of characteristics REFERENCE ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.2.1 NOTE ON CONCEPT This term is used for different concepts with a continuously varying degree of specialization. Our recommendation is to use the term in the specific meaning as defined here, which is the common usage in the field of terminology. NOTE ON TERMS Concepts in ontologies are also often referred to as “types”, but the term “concept” is always used in combination with concept systems used for terminology work (“terminological concept systems”). Our recommendation is to use only the term “concept”. 1.7 entity anything perceivable or conceivable REFERENCE ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.1.1 NOTE ON CONCEPT Objects may be material (e.g. an engine, a sheet of paper, a diamond) or immaterial (e.g. conversion ratio, a project plan). 1.8 characteristic feature of a concept describing a property of the entities that make up the extension of the concept NOTE ON CONCEPT Characteristics are used for describing concepts. ISO 1087-1:2000 (3.2.4) defines “characteristic” as “abstraction of a property of an object or of a set of objects”. However, the definition given here takes into consideration the position of the concept in the concept system in figure 20-2. The terms “characteristic”, “property” and “attribute” are often used more or less synonymously. Our recommendation is to use: “characteristic” when referring to the “concept level”, “property” when referring to the “entity level” and “attribute” when referring to the “specification level”. 1.9 property quality of an entity NOTE ON CONCEPT Cf. note on “characteristic”, 1.8. 168 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

1.10 feature specification formal representation of a characteristic of a concept by means of an attribute-value pair NOTE ON CONCEPT Example: line printer [OUTPUT: line-per-line], page printer [OUTPUT: page-per-page]. 1.11 attribute part of a feature specification which specifies the feature name NOTE ON CONCEPT The name of an attribute represents the role played by its associated value in the context of the entity in which it occurs. Cf. note on “characteristic”, 1.8. Please observe that the term “attribute” also designates another concept, cf. 1.25. Example: line printer [OUTPUT: line-per-line], page printer [OUTPUT: page-per-page]. 1.12 value part of a feature specification which specifies the content of an attribute NOTE ON CONCEPT Example: line printer [OUTPUT: line-per-line], page printer [OUTPUT: page-per-page]. 1.13 concept relation semantic relation between concepts NOTE ON CONCEPT In terminology work one distinguishes between hierarchical relations and associative relations. Hierarchical relations are generic relations (genus-species relations) and partitive relations (part-whole relations). Associative relations are all other kinds of relations, cf. ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.2.3. 1.14 product ontology domain-specific ontology in which the concepts refer to product categories NOTE ON CONCEPT A product ontology may comprise all kinds of relations and may be a network, as opposed to a product taxonomy, which comprises only generic relations, and which does not allow poly-hierarchy, cf. “product taxonomy”, 2.4, and “product category”, 2.5. Most eCatalogues will probably comprise product taxonomies, not product ontologies. eCatalogues may use a combination of a subject classification system for an overall grouping of product categories and one or more specific taxonomies for a more detailed systematization of product categories, cf. “subject classification system”, 2.15. 1.15 data model formal model for the specification of the properties, structure and inter-relationships of data REFERENCE Amended from ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003(E), 3.2.11 NOTE ON TERMS The term “data model” was originally used to designate a model for describing databases, e.g. the “relational model”. However, it is also used for the description of the data structure of a database, and it is this meaning of “data model” which is defined here. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 169

1.16 metamodel a data model that specifies one or more other data models REFERENCE ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003(E), 3.2.24 NOTE ON CONCEPT ISO 16642:2003 defines “metamodel” as “abstract conceptual data model that supports analysis and design at a very general level”. NOTE ON TERMS The variant “meta-model” is also used. Our recommendation is to use the term “metamodel”. 1.17 conceptual data model data model that represents an abstract view of the real world REFERENCE ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003(E), 3.2.8 NOTE ON CONCEPT Is often represented by means of a UML class diagram. NOTE ON TERMS Please observe that the term “concept model” designates another concept, namely the concept “ontology”, 2.2, and it should therefore not be mixed up with the concept “conceptual data model”. The term “conceptual model” is also used. Our recommendation is to use the term “conceptual data model”. 1.18 information model data model that represents the organization of information in a manner that reflects the structure of an information system REFERENCE Amended from ISO/IEC FCD 11179-3:200x(E), 3.2.13 NOTE ON CONCEPT ISO/IEC FCD 11179-3:200x(E), 3.2.13 defines “information model” in the following way: “a high level description of the organization of information in a manner that reflects its structure. It takes the form of logical groupings of entities and levels of sub- entities, without showing any relationships between entities other than the hierarchies of sub-entities”. An information model is often represented by means of a hierarchical element tree, cf. 3.14, but may also be represented by means of a UML class diagram which is based on the hierarchical relationship, that is the only possible kind of relationship in an XML document. 1.19 physical data model data model represented in a database schema 1.20 database schema schema that describes the physical storage of data 1.21 data dictionary relational database schema that contains information about relations and attributes NOTE ON TERMS Sometimes the term “data dictionary” is used as a synonym for “business vocabulary”, cf. 1.24. Our recommendation is to use “data dictionary” only in combination with relational database models. 170 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

1.22 XML schema schema describing the structure and components of a class of XML documents NOTE ON CONCEPT An XML schema fulfills the same role as a database schema of a database, which justifies the position of the concept “XML schema” in the concept system in figure 20-2, section 20.4.1. This is also supported by the following explanation concerning “data model” from Geroimenko (2004): “The data model of a particular class of XML document (also known as document type) is formally defined in an XML schema or a DTD and consists of the allowable element names and attribute names and optional structural and occurrence constraints.” In a more detailed concept system for XML concepts, the concept “XML schema” may be related to other concepts. 1.23 business vocabulary set of element names and attribute names that are selected or produced in order to create a custom XML-based markup language NOTE ON CONCEPT A vocabulary forms the basis of an XML schema or a DTD that specifies the relationships between elements and attributes, the restrictions on element contents and attribute values, allowed data types, and so on. The term “vocabulary” is sometimes used to refer to an entire XML-based markup language defined in an XML schema or a DTD. Our recommendation is to use the term “business vocabulary” in the meaning as defined here. NOTE ON TERMS The short form “vocabulary” (without the specification “business”) is often used. Our recommendation is, however, to use the term “business vocabulary” in order to distinguish this concept from the concept “vocabulary” in the field of terminology. Sometimes the term “data dictionary” is used as a synonym for “business vocabulary”. Our recommendation is to use “data dictionary” only in combination with relational database models, cf. 1.21. 1.24 element in XML and SGML, a main building block of an XML document 1.25 attribute in XML and SGML, a name-value pair associated with an element 1.26 DTD grammar describing the components and structure of a class of XML documents NOTE ON CONCEPT Cf. comment on XML schema, 1.22. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 171

20.6.2 Terms relating to classification systems 2.1 classification system representation of the hierarchical division of phenomena or concepts on the basis of their properties or characteristics NOTE ON CONCEPT A classification system is hierarchical and based exclusively on generic relations. NOTE ON TERMS The term “classification” is often used in this meaning. Our recommendation is to use the term “classification system”. 2.2 taxonomy classification system for the classification of categories of a domain NOTE ON CONCEPT A taxonomy is a kind of classification system, that comprises exclusively generic relations between the categories, in contrast to an ontology, which is a kind of model that may comprise all kinds of relations between concepts, cf.1.2. 2.3 taxonomy category concept classified in a taxonomy NOTE ON TERMS The nodes representing concepts in taxonomies are normally referred to as “categories”. The designation of a category is often referred to as “category name”. This is probably due to the fact that originally taxonomies typically were used for the categorization of e.g. plants, the designations of which were referred to as “names”. 2.4 product taxonomy taxonomy defining the relations between product categories NOTE ON CONCEPT Our recommendation is to use the term as defined here and to distinguish it from the concept “product ontology”, cf. 1.14. An ontology may comprise all kinds of relations between concepts (generic, partitive, temporal relations etc.), whereas a taxonomy comprises exclusively generic relations between concepts. 2.5 product category category in a product taxonomy, denoting a class of products NOTE ON CONCEPT See note on product, 2.6. 2.6 product thing or substance produced by a natural or artificial process REFERENCE ISO 10303-1, 3.2.26 NOTE ON CONCEPT A product may be material or immaterial. NOTE ON TERMS The term “product” is used for several concepts, e.g. for “individual product” or “product category”. Our recommendation is to use the term in the meaning of “individual product” as defined here. 2.7 product sub category sub category of a product category 172 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

2.8 product description specification of the characteristics of a product category NOTE ON CONCEPT The specification may be given by means of an attribute-value pair or by means of a definition. ISO 10303-1 (3.2.27) defines “product data” as “representation of information about a product in a formal manner suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing by human beings or by computers”. The same standard (3.2.28) defines “product information” as “facts, concepts, or instructions about a product”. NOTE ON TERMS Our recommendation is to use only the term “product description”. 2.9 product property property of a product 2.10 metadata taxonomy taxonomy defining the relations between metadata categories 2.11 metadata category category denoting a class of metadata NOTE ON TERMS ISO 16642:2003, uses both “data category” and “meta data”, and defines “data category”, 3.2, as “result of the specification of a given data field [ISO 1087-2:2000], (i.e. a type of data field, such as definition)”. Our recommendation is to use only the term “metadata category”. 2.12 metadata data that defines and describes other data REFERENCE ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003(E), 3.2.18 2.13 metadata sub category sub category of a metadata category 2.14 metadata description specification of the characteristics of a metadata category NOTE ON CONCEPT The specification may be given by means of an attribute-value pair or by means of a definition. CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 173

2.15 subject classification system classification system for the division of phenomena into subject fields NOTE ON CONCEPT Each class in a subject classification system consists of a group of phenomena making up a domain. An example is the Universal Decimal Classification (BS 1000M: Part 1, 1985) where the class with the systematic notation 631.312.3 comprises the following tools: “Ploughing machines. Ploughs with movable tools. Rotary ploughs. Gyrotillers. Spading machines etc.” ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.1.2 defines “subject field, domain” as “field of special knowledge”. NOTE ON TERMS The term “subject classification” is often used for “subject classification system”. Our recommendation is to use the term “subject classification system”. 2.16 product classification system subject classification system for the grouping of products into subject fields NOTE ON CONCEPT Clause 8.2 of the report CEN/ISSS WS/eCAT Multilingual catalogue strategies for eCommerce and eBusiness says: “The task of product classification is to assign each product to a product group (called ‘classification group’ or short ‘class’) corresponding to common attributes or application areas.” Our recommendation is to use the term as defined here, cf. also product class 2.17. A product classification gives an overall assignment of a product to a group of products (product class), whereas a product taxonomy uniquely specifies a product category (the concept of a product) in relation to other product categories. eCatalogues may use a combination of a subject classification system for an overall grouping of products and one or more specific taxonomies for a more detailed systematization of product categories, cf. 2.5. NOTE ON TERMS The term “product classification” is often used for “product classification system”. Our recommendation is to use the term “product classification system”. 2.17 product class group of products in a product classification system NOTE ON CONCEPT Each class comprises a group of products, i.e. each node in the product classification system represents a group of products. An example of a product class is: - detectors, actuators, electrical motors, … This is in contrast to a node of a product taxonomy, which represents one product category (i.e. one concept). Examples of product categories of a product taxonomy are: - detector - actuator - electrical motor 174 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

2.18 product subclass subclass of a product class 20.6.3 Terms relating to modeling tools 3.1 modeling tool tool for the graphical representation of a model 3.2 concept modeling tool modeling tool for the representation of a concept model 3.3 ontology graph concept modeling tool for the graphical representation of an ontology 3.4 concept diagram concept modeling tool for the graphical representation of a concept system REFERENCE Modified from ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.2.12 3.5 data modeling tool modeling tool for the representation of a data model 3.6 UML class diagram in UML, a data modeling tool that shows a set of classes and their associations NOTE ON CONCEPT UML class diagrams are often used in a simplified form (without attributes and operations) to represent ontologies, i.e. as a concept modeling tool. Our recommendation is to use the term in the meaning as defined here. NOTE ON TERMS UML is an abbreviation of Unified Modeling Language (OMG Unified Modeling Language Specification, 2003), cf. 3.7. 3.7 Unified Modeling Language language for specifying, visualizing, constructing and documenting the artifacts of software systems NOTE ON TERMS Unified Modeling Language is abbreviated “UML”, (OMG Unified Modeling Language Specification, 2003). 3.8 class in a UML class diagram, a description of a set of objects that share the same attributes, operations, methods, relationships, and semantics REFERENCE Amended from ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003(E). CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 175

3.9 association in a UML class diagram, a semantic relationship between two classes REFERENCE Amended from ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003(E), 3.1.4 NOTE ON CONCEPT Special types of associations are part-whole associations (aggregations and compositions) and generic associations (generalization / specialization). 3.10 ER diagram data modeling tool for representation of data models for relational databases that shows entity types and relationship types NOTE ON TERMS ER is an abbreviation of Entity-Relationship. 3.11 entity type in an ER diagram, a description of a set of entities that share the same attributes 3.12 relationship type in an ER diagram, a semantic relationship between two entity types 3.13 EER diagram ER diagram with extended features, such as for example superclasses and subclasses NOTE ON TERMS EER is an abbreviation of “Extended Entity-Relationship”. The term “Enhanced Entity-Relationship” is also used. Our recommendation is, however, to use the term “Extended Entity-Relationship”. 3.14 hierarchical element tree data modeling tool for the graphical representation of the structure of an XML schema NOTE ON TERMS Geroimenko (2004) uses the term “hierarchical tree structure”. 20.6.4 Terms relating to terminology and related products 4.1 terminology science studying the structure, formation, development, usage and management of terminologies in various subject fields REFERENCE ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.5.2 NOTE ON TERMS Please observe that the term “terminology” also refers to the concept in 4.2. 4.2 terminology set of designations belonging to one special language REFERENCE ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.5.1 NOTE ON TERMS Please observe that the term “terminology” also refers to the concept in 4.1. 176 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

4.3 nomenclature terminology structured systematically according to pre-established naming rules REFERENCE ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.5.3 NOTE ON CONCEPT Nomenclatures have been elaborated in various fields, such as biology, medicine, physics and chemistry. 4.4 terminological dictionary collection of terminological entries presenting information related to concepts or designations from one or more specific subject fields REFERENCE ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.7.1 NOTE ON TERMS synonym: “technical dictionary”. 4.5 vocabulary terminological dictionary which contains designations and definitions from one or more specific subject fields REFERENCE ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.7.2 NOTE ON CONCEPT The vocabulary may be monolingual, bilingual or multilingual. Please observe that the term “vocabulary” is also used for “business vocabulary”, cf. 1.24, which is a different concept. 4.6 thesaurus vocabulary of a controlled indexing language, formally organized so that the a priori relationships between concepts (for example “broader” and “narrower”) are made explicit REFERENCE ISO 2788:1986 NOTE ON CONCEPT The term “thesaurus” is also used to designate a dictionary where the words are ordered according to the relations between them such as e.g. Roget’s Thesaurus. 4.7 glossary terminological dictionary which contains a list of designations from a subject field, together with equivalents in one or more languages REFERENCE ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.7.3 NOTE ON CONCEPT In English common language usage glossary can refer to a unilingual list of designations and definitions in a particular subject field. 20.6.5 Terms relating to product description and metadata 5.1 product catalogue catalogue that describes product categories 5.2 eCatalogue product catalogue that is used in eCommerce and eBusiness CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 177

5.3 metadata registry information system for registering metadata REFERENCE ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003(E), 3.2.22 NOTE ON CONCEPT The associated information store or database is known as a “metadata register”. NOTE ON TERMS ISO 16642:2003, uses both “data category registry” and “meta data registry”. Our recommendation is to use only the term “metadata registry”. 5.4 metadata register information store or database maintained by a metadata registry REFERENCE ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003(E), 3.2.21 5.5 item registry information system for storing XML items (e.g., XML schemas, data elements, etc.) and non XML items (e.g. other eBusiness objects) NOTE ON CONCEPT The definition is modified from http://www.ebxml.org/ebusinessxmlregistry.pdf that uses “artifacts” instead of “items”. NOTE ON TERM This term is not explicitly mentioned in the documentation about registries, however our recommendation is to use this term to distinguish between “item registry” and “item repository”. 5.6 item repository location or set of distributed locations where repository Items, pointed at by the registry, reside and from which they can be retrieved NOTE ON CONCEPT Definition from UN/CEFACT and OASIS, ebXML Glossary, Technical Architecture Team, 2001. NOTE ON TERMS Normally the term “repository” is used. Our recommendation is to use the term “item repository”. 178 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

20.7 Alphabetical list of terms This alphabetical list of terms refers to the term numbers in the previous chapter. Included in the alphabetical list are also terms mentioned in the notes. All terms in this list are consequently not recommended terms. association (3.9), 175 concept system, 166, 167 heading (level 3), 165 attribute (1.11), 168 conceptual data model hierarchical element tree (1.17), 169 (3.14), 175 attribute (1.25), 170 conceptual model, 169 hierarchical tree structure, attribute (level 5), 165 175 data category, 172 attribute (level 6), 165 individual product, 171 data category registry, brick (level 4), 165 177 industry (level 4), 165 business vocabulary data dictionary (1.21), 169 industry group (level 3), (1.23), 170 165 data model (1.15), 168 category (level 2), 165 information model (1.18), data modeling tool (3.5), category (level 5), 165 169 174 category (level 6), 165 item registry (5.5), 177 database schema (1.20), category name, 171 169 item repository (5.6), 177 chapter (level 2), 165 division (level 1), 165 macro-family (level 2), 165 characteristic (1.8), 167 division (level 2), 165 main category (level 1), 165 class (3.8), 174 domain ontology, 166 main group (level 2), 165 class (level 3), 165 domain- specific ontology class (level 4), 165 (1.4), 166 major group (level 2), 165 class (level 5), 165 DTD (1.26), 170 metadata (2.12), 172 classification, 171 eCatalogue (5.2), 176 metadata category (2.11), 172 classification system (2.1), EER diagram (3.13), 175 metadata description 171 element (1.24), 170 (2.14), 172 commodity (level 4), 165 entity (1.7), 167 metadata register (5.4), commodity class (level 4), entity type (3.11), 175 177 165 ER diagram (3.10), 175 metadata registry (5.3), commodity group (level 4), family (level 2), 165 177 165 family (level 3), 165 metadata sub category concept (1.6), 167 (2.13), 172 feature specification concept diagram (3.4), (1.10), 168 metadata taxonomy 174 (2.10), 172 glossary (4.7), 176 concept model, 166 metamodel (1.16), 169 group (level 2), 165 concept modeling tool model (1.1), 166 (3.2), 174 group (level 3), 165 modeling tool (3.1), 174 concept relation (1.13), group (level 4), 165 nomenclature (4.3), 176 168 heading (level 2), 165 CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12 – 179 ontology (1.2), 166 product taxonomy (2.4), taxonomy category (2.3), 171 ontology graph (3.3), 174 171 technical dictionary, 176 physical data model property (1.9), 167 (1.19), 169 property (level 5), 165 terminological concept system (1.5), 167 product (2.6), 171 property (level 6), 165 terminological dictionary product catalogue (5.1), relationship type (3.12), (4.4), 176 176 175 terminology (4.1), 175 product category (2.5), repository, 177 terminology (4.2), 175 171 section (level 1), 165 thesaurus (4.6), 176 product class (2.17), 173 sector (level 1), 165 top ontology, 166 product classification, 173 segment (level 1), 165 top-level ontology (1.3), product classification sub-category (level 3), 166 system (2.16), 173 165 types, 167 product description (2.8), sub-category (level 6), 172 165 UML, 174 product ontology (1.14), sub-class (level 5), 165 UML class diagram (3.6), 168 174 sub-heading (level 3), 165 product property (2.9), Unified Modeling sub-heading (level 4), 165 172 Language (3.7), 174 subject classification, 173 product sub category value (1.12), 168 (2.7), 171 subject classification vocabulary (4.5), 176 product subclass (2.18), system (2.15), 173 XML schema (1.22), 170 174 subsector (level 2), 165 taxonomy (2.2), 171

180 – CEN/ISSS/WS/eCAT – Final version CWA – 2004-05-12

20.8 Bibliography - Geroimenko, Vladimir (2004): Dictionary of XML Technologies and the Semantic Web, Springer Professional Computing, Springer-Verlag London - Guarino, N. (1998): Amended version of a paper appeared in N. Guarino (ed.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems. Proceedings of FOIS’98, Trento, Italy, 6-8 June 1998. Amsterdam, IOS Press, pp. 3-15. http://www.loa- cnr.it/Papers/FOIS98.pdf - OMG (2003): Unified Modeling Language Specification - UN/CEFACT and OASIS (2001): ebXML Glossary, Technical Architecture Team