The world's largest retailers and manufacturers have moved a step
closer to agreeing international standards for e-business Internet
exchanges as part of an initiative to push down the costs of global
supply chains.
Bill GoodwinThe Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), which represents 40 major
manufacturers and retailers worldwide, including Unilever, Tesco
and Walmart, is attempting to develop the first
internationally-agreed protocols for electronic trading.
The GCI has opted to use the message transportation and routing
standards, developed by ebXML - an initiative to enable
organisations of any size to trade using XML - into international
standards for Internet exchanges.
"It will mean that manufacturers and retailers around the world
will be using the same standards. Small suppliers will not have to
use two or three different standards to talk to us and other
manufactures," said Peter Jordan, director of European operations
for Kraft Foods, one of the members of the GCI.
"It is clear to us that ebXML will soon become the standard for
all global trade," he added.