Standards Development

Scope

This document describes the ISO/IEC 15000 AS4 Profile, which is Part 2 of the ISO/IEC 15000 series of International Standards. The AS4 Profile provides a subset of the functionality ISO/15000 ebXML Messaging Services Version 3.0 Core Specification, which is Part 1 of the ISO/IEC 15000:2019 series, along with implementation guidelines based on the “just-enough” design principles and electronic data interchange functional requirements to trim down ebMS 3.0 into a more simplified specification for Web Services business-to-business messaging.

It specifies:

-Three Conformance Profiles of the ISO/15000 ebXML Messaging Services Version 3.0 Core Specification (see section 4)

-A number of AS4 Additional Features (see section 5).

-Complementary Requirements for the AS4 Multi-Hop Profile (see section 6).

-AS4 Usage Profile of ebXML Messaging Services Version 3.0 Core Specification (see section 7)

This International Standard is applicable to all types of organizations (e.g., commercial enterprises, government agencies, not-for-profit organizations) that exchange documents or data electronically using messaging.

Purpose

The ISO 15000 series was established in 2004 as a multi-part technical specification for electronic business. The inputs to ISO 15000 were specifications developed within OASIS and UN/CEFACT. Over the years, these specifications have been adopted globally in a wide variety of domains, both in the private and public sector. The submission to ISO was made in response to requests from end users of these specifications for whom ISO recognition was important.

Within OASIS, two successor specifications have been developed to the original ISO 15000-2 part, ebXML Messaging Services version 2.0. These are ebXML Messaging Services version 3.0, Core Specification and the AS4 profile of ebMS 3.0. These specifications solve the problem of securely and reliably exchanging business documents and data electronically in an interoperable way. The ebMS 3.0 and AS4 specifications are increasingly being adopted by end users, sometimes as more modern replacement for the earlier ebMS 2.0 specification, but also for new application domains. End users of ebMS 3.0 and AS4 include governmental organizations that are using the specifications for national or cross-border data exchange. Some express a desire to be able to make legal reference to them as ISO specifications. For this reason, OASIS is submitting these newer specifications for inclusion in the ISO 15000 series.