If you've read any of the books in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, you may remember the truly unique "Babel Fish." By simply plugging this wonderful little creature into your ear, you could immediately understand all of the languages of the galaxy.

The Internet and marketplace exchanges of today have created a business-to-business (B2B) galaxy in which we communicate and do business in entirely new ways. This galaxy is characterized by the challenges of integrating our processes within our companies, with trading partners in the same country, and with trading partners across the world. Added to this is the challenge of integrating technologies from many different technical platforms. Unfortunately, unlike the travelers in the Adams books, we do not have a Babel Fish to help us overcome these integration and communication challenges. But one may be on the way.

For several years now, initiatives have been under way on both regional and global levels to develop a voluntary joint business language for communicating data along the supply chain. Many companies already have adopted these standards and share best practices to remove costs from their operations. Yet despite this progress, substantial process barriers still exist between companies, countries, and continents.

Prominent among these efforts is the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), founded in October 1999. Not yet galactic, but with its feet firmly on the ground, GCI has pioneered the creation of a global platform for communicating supply chain data. The GCI consists of a board supported by a number of working groups. Among the board members are executives from Kraft Foods, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Ahold. Membership on the board implies a willingness to implement the endorsed standards and to support the working groups.

In addition to the member companies, several other organizations are sponsoring the GCI effort. These include EAN International (an organization consisting of 97 countries providing global standards for product numbering, bar coding, and EDI), the Uniform Code Council (UCC), the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards Association (VICS), the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), and the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA).

The GCI's goal is to improve the performance of the international supply chain for the benefit of the final consumer through the collaborative development and endorsement of recommended standards and best business practices. In essence, GCI seeks to create a truly global business language.

To see how the GCI fits into the supply chain, let's follow the purchase of a single product—say, a towel with the words "Don't Panic" on it—from a newly established exchange.

You would first browse through the catalog to check the different attributes of the product such as its origin, colors, logo, and measurements. You might also check to see whether or not the cotton used was organically grown. This search requires a number of criteria, foremost being the identification and classification of the product.

Identifying and Classifying the Product

One of the preconditions for any local, regional, or global transaction between partners is that the product have a global unique identification. The Global Trading Identification Number (GTIN), already in effect, is the global standard. To enable scanning and tracking of the product, this number is represented in a bar-code symbol, which also holds the key to all related product information and master data stored in databases. Against a backdrop of differing local standards and implementation procedures, GCI member companies are working with standards bodies to ensure a common global implementation for the GTIN and associated bar codes. It will then be possible to uniformly scan the bar code of any product (like our towel) and communicate that information anywhere in the world. The United States, in fact, has set a date of 2005 for U.S. manufacturers and retailers to support the global standard.

An alternative to using bar codes for identification is the intelligent tag. This technology can significantly improve production processes, logistics activities, store operations, product authentication, and shrinkage control. The Global Commerce Initiative is working with the EAN and UCC standards organizations as well as with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a global protocol to govern the use of radio frequency tags. The protocol will cover the technical specification of the tags, wavelength standards, and data content.

If consumers are going to be able to search for our towel and get the right one, that towel now needs to be classified. The GCI is developing a globally adaptable, flexible product classification system that serves the general merchandise and grocery business for the item set-up, maintenance, authorization, and query. A draft for food, beverages, and general merchandise is currently under review by the group's user community. The Babel Fish is on its way!

Pinpointing the Location

Now that we have the proper classification and identification, how do I know my towel will be delivered to the right place? To drive delivery consistency through any e-business partnership, we need a uniform way of identifying parties or locations. This can be accomplished via the EAN·UCC Global Location Number (GLN). The Global Commerce Initiative is committed to the implementation of the GLN on a global basis.

Working With the Same Data

How do I know that my towel is coded the same in all of the systems that it touches? Prior to any transactions between trading partners, all parties need to know the "what, who, and where" of the transaction. The integrity and timeliness of master data is critical for the uninterrupted flow of goods throughout the supply chain. Developing the supporting structures and systems so that master data are complete remains a major challenge within companies. A related challenge is how to make these data available to trading partners.

Essentially, we need the catalog Babel Fish. And it may well be coming in the form of the Global Data Alignment System (GDAS), an international standard published in January 2000 to enable commonality of data. The GCI is now working on the processes and procedures required to enable global data synchronization between trading partners to satisfy e-business requirements.

Communicating the Business Processes

We have now found our towel and want to order it. This will trigger a string of events starting with the order, tracking through the logistics activities, raising an invoice, and then making a final payment. These events all can be based on electronic data exchange. If everything goes as it should in this B2B Galaxy, we now have our new towel (with the "Don't Panic" logo) and are satisfied with the purchasing experience.

Toward this end, the GCI has pushed hard to develop a new approach to doing business electronically by promoting "simpl-ebusiness." Under this approach, all master data are aligned prior to a transaction's taking place and the messages contain only transactional information. Based on business models that describe the core business requirements, data definitions, and data relationships, these models can be converted into electronic commerce solutions that remain independent of any specific message syntax or data carrier structure (that is, you can either use XML—or EANCOM—the international EDI standard provided by EAN—to exchange your data).

Why Is All This Important?

In the B2B galaxy, the simple purchase of an item like a towel will be part of the millions of transactions taking place. The GCI recommendations and the endorsed EAN·UCC standards offer companies the potential to cope with these millions of transactions and to integrate their processes, systems, and people throughout the supply chain.

The Babel Fish of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would be of little use if you did not put it in your ear. Similarly, the work of the Global Commerce Initiative will be of little use if the recommended standards are not implemented in a globally consistent way. This is the next challenge, to get companies to drop a Babel Fish into all of their systems.

Authors note: For more information on the organizations and initiatives discussed here, visit the following Web sites: www.ean-int.org, www.uc-council.org, and www.globalcommerceinitiative.org.