The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) is about to launch a stakeholder questionnaire to consult standards implementers, international organisations and other stakeholders on their expectations for open international standards for electronic trade messages.
Following the suspension of the UNeDocs project earlier this year, CEFACT has established three gap analysis projects that are seeking stakeholder responses on the following issues:
- What are the priority electronic message standards that stakeholders would like to see CEFACT develop? Are the original “documents” (commercial invoice, purchase order, quotation, despatch note, export cargo shipping instruction and waybill), on which SITPRO started work several years ago, still the right priorities?
- How familiar are stakeholders with the CEFACT Core Components Library and how usable is it?
- What gaps are there in the technical specifications that underpin message assembly and assure messages can be interpreted by different systems?
Stakeholders include those already involved in CEFACT's work, as well as companies that have not previously been involved. Responses are to be requested by mid-January 2010, with stakeholders encouraged to send responses before Christmas if they can. The questionnaire will be available shortly and can be requested directly from SITPRO by emailing nina.wilkins@sitpro.org.uk.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 70, Autumn 2009
