Standards Development

Scope

The purpose of this deliverable is to define and describe the reference architecture applied as the basis for the development of Business Interoperability Interface specifications in the eProcurement domain by the CEN/TC 440 technical committee.

Purpose

This document aims at identifying and describing the architectural aspects needed to support the creation of e-Procurement standardization deliverables. It specifically aims to:

1. map the CEN/TC 440 artifacts to the EIRA Architecture of the EU;

2. define a template of the other CEN/TC 440 Deliverables (Choreographies, Transactions, Syntax Mappings).

Justification:

The supply-chain business processes and activities of the post-award processes of public and private e-procurement are widely supported by computer systems, typically in the form of an enterprise source planning (ERP) system. While these systems are aimed at supporting the activities internal to a given organization, the business processes they serve frequently involve sharing and exchanging information with other parties such as: • Making product/price catalogues available as basis for ordering • Sending and receiving orders and order confirmation • Sharing information related to the actual delivery of goods and services In the current market there is no standardized system covering these information exchange processes. As a result, public and private sector market actors instead must rely on a multitude of formats and specifications available. These are typically developed to support specific sectorial requirements, such as those of the electronics sectors, the retail industry, etc. Specifications are also provided by user communities such as OpenPEPPOL, reusing CEN/WS BII specifications based on the UBL 2.1 standard, as well as sector specific specifications provided by other standard developing organizations such as those developed by UN/CEFACT. Without standardized processes, businesses and other organizations face a disparate environment of solutions, both in relation to B2G and B2B post - award procurement processes. These challenges increase when engaging in cross - sector and cross - border e - procurement, where in addition to the different national rules and the language barriers, there is no guarantee of semantic and technical interoperability.

With respect to architecture, this specification will address these issues by establishing a consistent e-procurement architecture that allow for an incremental implementation based on actual user needs. It will provide the needed information for framing the deliverables of the other working groups and will also provide the necessary background information for users of CEN TC 440 specifications.