CEN/ISSS Workshop On Footwear INdustry Electronic Commerce (FINEC) Business Plan V4 February 2002
Contents Contents 2 1. Proposers 3 2. Workshop objectives 4 a) Workshop framework 4 b) Workshop Objectives 5 c) Workshop working methods 7 3. Detailed Workshop contents, deliverables and timescales 7 4. Funding and resource requirements 9 a) Secretariat 9 b) Workshop Chair and Vice-Chairs 9 c) Financing 9 5. External Liaisons 9 6. Contact points 10 1
1. Proposers Nouvelles Techniques d Information (API-EDI) Tour Eve 1004 1 Place du Sud 92800 Puteaux France Tel. 0033 4 91 315221 Contact: Remy Marchand E:mail: API-EDI@wanadoo.fr Hellenic Association of Footwear Manufacturers and Expvorters (Elsevie) 27 Pinelopis Delta St 15451 Neo Psychico Athens Greece Tel.: (+301) 672 52 95 Fax: (+301) 674 44 97 Contact: Dimitri Carabinis e-mail: elsevie@hellasnet.gr Mário da Mota-Comunicações e Sistemas Lda (MdM) Rua D. Nuno Alvares Pereira, 240 1 C16 4450 Matosinhos Portugal Tel.: (+351) 229 373 915 Fax: (+351) 229 373 915 Contact: Mário da Mota e-mail: mario.damota@mail.telepac.pt Dipo BV Koningsplein 4 8011 TD Zwolle Netherlands Postal Address PO Box 1052 8001 BB Zwolle Netherlands Tel.: (+30) 38 421 8865 Fax: (+31) 38 4220037 Contact: Tom van Geemen e-mail: dipo@worldline.nl
Tor Information Systems Ltd (Tor Consulting) 20 Wells Road Glastonbury Somerset UK BA6 9DJ Tel.: (+44) 1458-831131 Fax: (+44) 1458-832498 Contact: Martin Baker e-mail: torconsult@aol.com Conféderation Européene de l Industrie de la Chaussurve (CEC) Rue François Bossaerts, 53 B-1030 Bruxelles Belgium Tel.: (+32) 2 736 5810 Fax: (+32) 2 736 1276 Managing Director: Roeland Smets e-mail: cec@vidac.be 2. Workshop objectives a) Workshop framework It has been demonstrated in a number of industry sectors that electronic commerce can increase sales and profitability. New ways of conducting EDI and E-commerce projects have been found thanks to the applicability of new standards and syntaxes which have been developed under the auspices of the World Wide Consortium (XML/XSL and their diverse customisations) on the one hand and of the ebxml activity, which associates UN/CEFACT and OASIS on the other hand (XMLEDI) : 1. UN/CEFACT (www.unece.org/cefact) is the United Nations body whose mandate covers worldwide policy and technical development in the area of trade facilitation and electronic business. Headquartered in Geneva, it has developed and promoted many tools for the facilitation of global business processes including UN/EDIFACT, the international EDI standard. 2. OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) is a non-profit, international consortium dedicated solely to product-independent data and content interchange. Focusing on product interoperability, OASIS embraces the complete spectrum of structured information standards including XML, SGML and CGM. Value added networks operators (VANs) related to the implementation of some EDI profiles (Message Implementation Guidelines - MIGs) already exist in the footwear sector in a number of European countries, including France, Germany, Denmark, Greece and the UK. Although each of them has developed the same message types (Product data, Orders, Sales etc) the implementations differ from project to project. As a result it is not possible to
exchange messages between them without software modification. Given the complex, global nature of the supply chain, this could lead to a complicated network and involve previously unseen costs. Additionally, the large majority of enterprises within the footwear sector in Europe are SMEs who do not have the know-how or the resources to implement or modify their own electronic trading systems. For that reason, the above mentioned VANs are developing new asymetrical e-commerce systems which are capable to exchange business messages using XMLXSL messages on the one hand, and traditional EDI on the other hand. This trend toward the use of systems based upon XML and associated emerging technologies is accelerating according with the announcement of the Global Commerce Initiative. In consequence it makes sense to confirm the basic assumption in favour of XML, already made in the framework of EF0NET 1. A project known as EFNET 1 (European Footwear Network) has already developed a set of business rules and common EDI profiles including XML and HTML version for use in the sector but most existing legacy projects had already started or were planned before the publication of t0hese results. All of these legacy projects are now aware of, and support the concept of European wide standards but have not been able to develop plans or resources to make the necessary modifications to adopt them. Their priorities are to extend the use of electronic commerce in the local, to involve new e-business partners - in particular SMEs, thanks to the use of low cost solution permitted by XML Combined with the development of bridges between the different national e-commerce systems in existence to broaden the domain within e- business partners can be found. The minimum of changes will be made to legacy systems, the new solutions taking the best advantage of existing EDIFACT/EANCOM standards as it is recommend by ebxml (UNEDACT and OASIS). The EFNET2 pilot project (which will run in parallel with the FINEC Workshop) will implement the EDI profiles to these existing local networks and will also provide a way to migrate to them. A large number of organisations, many of them SMEs, in several European countries, already using or planning to use electronic commerce, would therefore participate in the pro0ject. A number of electronic commerce networks will adopt standard procedures to ensure inter-operability between them. These networks involve both large organisations and SMEs in the footwear sector and electronic commerce solutions providers. EFNET 3 will concentrate on the B2B part of the supply chain and will harmonise it with the EFNET 2 results that cover the other par0t of the chain.
b) Workshop Objectives The Workshop will be held under the patronage of CEN/ISSS and will be open to all interested parties willing to contribute to the success of the initiative. The national Federations, who are all affiliated to CEC, representing footwear manufacturers and retailers, will promote the initiative among their members, thus involving a great number of organisations in the sector throughout Europe. The FINEC Workshop (FINEC/WS) will validate the results of the two pilot projects - EFNET2 and EFNET3 - within an open e-commerce environment, with the participation of CAD producers, footwear manufacturers and their customers, the footwear retailers. The aim is to help the sector to reduce the administrative-related costs connected to their trading activities. The results will also make the production and the updating of electronic catalogues easier, increase potential commercial transactions and facilitate the creation of a large single European product database. The CEN/ISSS FINEC Workshop will produce data representation standard based on XML that form an open commerce environment, will cover the relationships among manufacturers (last makers, component suppliers, mould makers for the injected soles, insole and foot-bed manufacturers, heel makers and, last but not least, the shoe design team and the shoe design engineering department). The CEN/ISSS FINEC Workshop will also produce an electronic commerce framework comprising guidance material, technical specifications and other deliverables based on the requirements presented by the representatives of the various footwear associations. This framework will cover all the aspects necessary to practice B2B e-commerce including the specifications covering the 7 layers of the OSI model and defining security services. The emphasis of FINEC will be on the use of specifications already developed, working in conjunction with existing national networ0ks. Additionally, the FINEC Workshop will establish links with related CEN/ISSS activities such as the Electronic Commerce Workshop (EC/WS), the XML/EDI Workshop (XML-EDI/WS), and the other appropriate sector Workshops established under the ECOM-IS programme. The FINEC Workshop will be open to all who wish to participate. The Workshop will undertake the following tasks: Identification of specification requirements for standardization of Electronic Commerce networks in the footwear sector: Preparation of reports, guidance material and technical proposals; Preparation and validation of CEN Workshop Agreements (CWAs); Maintenance of FINEC Web Pages on the CEN Web Site; Liaison with other organisations, including the CEN/ISSS Forum, and other CEN/ISSS Workshops;
Approval of amendments to definition of CWAs and Workshop deliverables in the business plan; Approval of amendments to the scope, resources or timescale in the business plan; Consider suggestions for new projects or initiatives in the sector Promotion and encouragement of participation in the Workshop. c) Workshop working methods The FINEC/WS will work within the CEN/ISSS Workshop Rules and Guidelines. A Steering Committee will be set up to manage the Workshop activities. Nominations from the European and national federations of Footwear are welcomed. FINEC outputs will be available in the public domain. Where appropriate, these outputs will be published as CEN Workshop Agreements. The precise status of the FINEC outputs will be decided by the Workshop participants, in consultation with the CEN/ISSS Director, and recorded in the Business Plan. The working language of the Workshop will be English. 3. Detailed Workshop contents, deliverables and timescales The Workshop will consider the requirements to create a technical environment where Electronic Commerce networks serving the footwear sector in different European countries can inter-operate. It will also consider the requirements to enable these networks to migrate to a common set of Electronic Commerce standards and to ensure that applications running on the networks conform to these standard0s. Transactions submitted to these networks will include supplier and product data, electronic catalogues, electronic ordering, acknowledgement of orders, despatch advices, sales reports, invoices and payments. The EFNET pilot projects that are running in parallel with the Workshop, will provide information through Progress Reports to Workshop participants regarding the day to day operation of the network, with particular regard to the issues of inter-operability and migration to common standards. 0 The projects will deliver draft deliverables that will form the basis for CEN Workshop Agreements (CWAs). A complete programme of CWAs will be presented to the Workshop at the second plenary meeting in Marc0h 2002.
The output of the Workshop will include: A proposal for the migration from existing private legacy specifications to the open common specifications; A proposal for inter-operating between the existing networks; Recommendations for standards for processes not covered in the existing work; Recommendations for modifications to the existing standards with regard to changes in business processes or technological change. A proposal for mapping functions to translate EDI messages from standard formats to local formats and vice versa; Recommendations for Application Testing Tools to test conformance of software to these specifications; A proposal for storing and retrieving product data on existing networks and sharing this data with other networks following rules agreed to safeguard the confidentiality of individual company data; A proposal for storing and retrieving sales data on existing networks and sharing this data with other networks following rules agreed to safeguard the confidentiality of individual company data; Comments and recommendations for any additional projects or initiatives considered by the Workshop. Comments on the Guidelines for Pilot Site Project implementations. Through its representatives the Workshop will: Review project specifications, prototypes and operational services following regular reports made by the project manager; Advise project implementors regarding conformance to requirements and suggest corrective action where appropriate; Promote the incorporation of standards recommended by FINEC Liase with CEN / ISSS Electronic Commerce Workshop, and other bodies and industrial groupings active in this area, to avoid duplication of work and accelerate development of the widest possible consensus; The Workshop and the EFNET 2 and 3 pilot projects will be carried out as closely parallel activities. Timescale ITEM DATE WORKSHOP KICK-OFF MEETING MARCH 01 - MADRID DRAFT CWAS SUMMER 2002 MARCH 2003 WORKSHOP PLENARY MEETINGS MARCH 02 - MILAN SEPTEMBER 02 - DÜSSELDORF APRIL 03 OR JULY 03
4. Funding and resource requirements a) Secretariat UNINFO, the Italian Standardization body affiliated to UNI, will provide the necessary resources to support the Workshop and its plenary meet0ings. This Secretariat will carry out the operational and administrative tasks required by the Workshop, reporting to the Workshop Chair and to the CEN/ISSS Workshop Manager, in consultation with the CEN/ISSS Director as re0quired. The Secretariat will perform the following functions: Organise and administer Plenary meetings, in association with the Workshop Steering Committee; Produce meeting agendas, minutes and action lists within two weeks of Plenary meetings; Produce and distribute appropriate reports; Distribute updated Business Plans as required; Act as a help desk and advisory function for Workshop issues; Act as an administrative contact point for the Workshop b) Workshop Chair and Vice-Chairs The duties of the Chair will include: Presiding at Plenary and other meetings as appropriate; Ensuring that FINEC carries out the functions prescribed in the present Business Plan in the appropriate manner and in conjunction with the Workshop Manager. Additionally the Chair and/or Vice-Chair will: Represent the Workshop at appropriate external meetings; Direct the focus of the Workshop; Liase with the Project Manager; Liase with the Workshop Manager and as appropriate with the CEN/ISSS Director concerning the administration and strategic issues of the Workshop; Produce regular management reports for the Workshop and the CEN/ISSS Forum. c) Financing The Workshop is a fully open forum whose activities will be carried out by participants, including those of the Chair and Vice Chair, are performed on a voluntary basis. The Project will be co-financed by industry and by a European Commission support contract for sectoral electronic commerce.
5. External Liaisons The Workshop will establish and maintain formal and informal liaisons with related CEN/ISSS activities such as the Electronic Commerce Workshop (WS/EC), the XML/EDI Workshop, and the other appropriate sector Workshops established under the EDCOM-IS programme. The Workshop will liase with other bodies engaged in the development and maintenance of Electronic Commerce standards including EAN International, IETF, W3C, UNCEFACT and ebxml. Formal and informal liaisons will be established with the appropriate organisations engaged in the development of Electronic Commerce in the footwear sector outside Europe and with organisations engaged in the development of Electronic Commerce in related sectors in Europe such as textiles and leather goods. 6. Contact points Rémy Marchand API -EDI Tour Eve 1004-1 Place du Sud 92800 Puteaux France 0033 4 91 315221 E:mail: API-EDI@wanadoo.fr Jean-Luc Tanghe Conféderation Européene de l Industrie de la Chaussure (CEC) 0 Rue François Bossaerts, 53 1030 Brussels Belgium Tel.: (+32) 2 736 5810 Fax: (+32) 2 736 1276 E:mail: jltanghe@vidac.be Massimo Actis Dato UNINFO Corso Galileo Ferraris, 93 10128 Torino - ITALY Tel: ++39 011 501027 - Fax: +39 011 501837 Email: dato@uninfo.polito.it Barbara Gatti CEN/ISSS Rue Stassard, 36 1050 Brussels Belgium Tel.: (+32) 2 550 08 34 Fax: (+32) 2 550 09 66 E-mail: barbara.gatti@cenorm.be