CIDX announces completion of chemicals XML standards

29 January 2001 21:42  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (CNI)--The Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX) announced Monday completion of Phase II of the Chemical e-Standards initiative to facilitate on-line, business-to-business (B2B) data exchange on a global basis.

New York City-based CIDX, a consortium of chemicals manufacturers and services firms, said the collaborative effort has produced a "broad set of non-proprietary eXtensible Markup Language (XML) standards."

The new XML standards enable Internet-based exchange of structured commercial data such as spreadsheets, configuration parameters, financial information, technical specifications and other trading data regardless of users' respective software or platform profiles.

As a result of an initiative launched in July last year by BASF, Dow Chemical and DuPont and later adopted by CIDX, the XML standards now include more than 700 data elements that support more than 50 transaction types, CIDX noted. Phase II development focused on logistics, invoicing, forecasting, exchange and multinational interactions, the group said.

The XML standards are backed up, CIDX said, by more than 1000 pages of standards documentation containing technical and implementation information.

CIDX pronounced the chemicals industry XML standards "ready for use." Any company wishing to use the XML standards for on-line business can obtain the vendor-neutral standards free of charge at the CIDX Web site, http://www.cidx.org/.

Beth Hough, interim executive director of CIDX, termed the XML project "a resounding success" and said that "Suppliers and their customers can now use these standards as a framework to reduce implementation times and the cost associated with business-to-business integration."

While the XML standards set is now complete and operational, Hough said, the standards will undergo enhancements at appropriate times as experience and practice help refine and expand the XML set.

To help advance industry use of the XML standards, CIDX is hosting a conference on Chemicals eStandards support at Clearwater, Florida on 5-8 February. The four-day conference will feature educational seminars and the formation of work committees. Additional information on the conference can be obtained on the CIDX Web site or by addressing an e-mail query to Info@ChemeStandards.com.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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