Greg
RosettaNet Plots Official Launch
Menlo Park, Calif. -- RosettaNet, the massive PC industry
effort to standardize e-business processes, yesterday formally
moved into its pilot stage with a launch event here.
The group, made up of literally all the major PC industry
players, said that 30 companies have committed to make use
of the RosettaNet standards by February 2, 2000, a day the
group called eConcert Readiness Day.
The standards effort, spearheaded by group leader and Ingram
Micro executive Fadi Chehade, defined so-called partner
interface processes, or PIPs, between member companies.
The PIPs define how transactions are conducted up and down
the IT supply chain, including between manufacturers,
software publishers, distributors, resellers, integrators and end
users.
For the pilot phase of eConcert, RosettaNet has developed nine
PIPs relating to catalog updates and purchasing processes.
The first three PIP pilots are scheduled for June 25, with five
more partner link-ups slated for August. By next February, all
the 30 eConcert companies will be in full production mode.
RosettaNet has also released a dictionary of common, unified
e-business language standards--built using the Extensible
Markup Language--that serve as the foundation for the
individual partner interfaces. -- Richard Karpinski
http://www.internetwk.com/story/INW19990610S0005