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<pre>Board Contacts: Peter Jordan (Kraft Foods),
Tel.: +44 1295 223 301
Ron Griffin (The Home Depot),
Tel.: +1 770 384 2667
Sabine Ritter (EAN Intl.)
Tel.: +49 221 947 14 423

INDUSTRY ISSUES GLOBAL COMMERCE INTERNET PROTOCOL

PARIS, July 31, 2000 – Forty of the world’s leading
manufacturers and retailers met today in Paris with
trade associations representing more than 850,000
companies, large and small, to announce the first
global standards for Internet trading in the consumer
goods industry.

The "Global Commerce Internet Protocol" establishes
the first comprehensive recommendations on the
management of standardised data across the world’s
most important trading Exchanges and other
business-to-business communications via the Internet.

"In recommending preliminary global data and
communications standards, this move eliminates one of
the biggest obstacles to effective Internet trading,"
said Luc Vandevelde, co-chairman of the Global
Commerce Initiative ("GCI") and chairman of Marks &
Spencer plc. "Now, with this recommendation on data
languages, the Internet can begin to realise its
extraordinary potential as a commercial tool."

The Global Commerce Internet Protocol is the first of
a series of major work products of the Global Commerce
Initiative, a voluntary joint effort between consumer
products retailers and manufacturers and international
standards bodies. At its heart is the recognition that
the business benefits of the Internet come from the
instantaneous communication of information that is
accurate and understood.

"We can only process data with confidence through the
application of internationally recognised ‘open’ and
voluntary standards," said

Dr. Mario A. Corti, acting co-chairman of the
Initiative and Executive Vice President of Nestlé S.A.
"These basic standards benefit everyone: without them,
it would be as though the world was full of telephones
unable to talk to each other."

In recent months, Exchanges and other
business-to-business communications have evolved
rapidly around the world, and companies often find
themselves interacting not just with each other but
with a number of different Exchanges or Internet
vehicles. Concerned that non-standardised data
conventions can only cause costly, unnecessary
confusion between users and increase the probability
of processing errors, the member companies and eight
associations represented on the Executive Board of the
Global Commerce Initiative have agreed to a letter of
support for the development of the Global Commerce
Internet Protocol. They have now been joined by the
four major Exchanges presently active in the consumer
goods industry: Transora, the WorldWide Retail
Exchange, GlobalNetXchange, and CPGmarket.com.

The Protocol is concerned with the standardisation of
three fundamental areas: data access and security
(which enables one computer to know which information
it is authorised to share with another); basic data
content (the numbering of products, services and
locations); and basic information flow (the content
and sequence of information in business messages).
Without standardisation, data processing requires
increased human intervention and fails to realise the
high-speed potential of modern Internet technology.

The Global Commerce Initiative stresses that it is
only through underlying standardisation that
individual Exchanges can demonstrate intrinsic
benefits. "Competitive advantage comes from what the
users and the Exchanges choose to do with the
information they are managing – how they present it
and its functionality for their business," said
Christian Koffmann, co-chairman of the Global Commerce
Initiative and worldwide chairman of Johnson &
Johnson, Consumer and Personal Care Group. "Each
Exchange will develop at its own speed and will be
driven by the needs of the business community it
serves. "

Exchanges are independent business ventures," said
Peter Jordan, project leader for the Protocol and
director of European Systems, Kraft Foods Europe. "It
is not the job of the Global Commerce Initiative to
influence the speed and scope of their development.
GCI will of course track their progress and, with
tools like the Global Commerce Internet Protocol, will
continue to support needs for standards development as
they evolve."

The Global Commerce Internet Protocol and the ongoing
work of the Global Commerce Initiative are expected to
benefit all commercial users, irrespective of size.
"The work of the Global Commerce Initiative will not
only address Internet standards," said Mario Corti.
"It will also provide all companies with an
extraordinary fund of expertise in the modelling of
business processes. The Protocol, completed in just
three months, is only the first phase of a substantial
body of work that will provide powerful strategic
tools to all users across industry."

Draft standards for the Global Commerce Internet
Protocol will be available to all interested companies
for proof of concept on August 1, 2000. Following a
period of trials, draft recommendations will be
published as standards by the international standards
bodies, EAN International and UCC, with the
endorsement of the Global Commerce Initiative. The
technical infrastructure standards have been developed
by ebXML and form the basis of the GCI technical
recommendation.

Founded in October 1999, the Global Commerce
Initiative is the result of joint industry efforts in
North and South America, Europe and Asia where, since
the early-nineties, strategic collaborations have been
developing between stakeholders of all sizes across
the complex supply chain for consumer goods. Made
possible by some of the world’s best-known companies,
they include the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR)
movements in Europe, North and South America and Asia,
together with the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce
Standards Association (VICS) in North America, EAN
International and UCC, CIES – The Food Business Forum,
FMI, AIM – the European Brands Association, and GMA.

Attachment

The Need for Standards

In this illustration, a company is both a buyer and
seller. The complexity of relationships across the
supply chain requires a common understanding of data
and message content. The same principles apply to all
models, including business-to-business transactions
that do not use Exchanges.

Background

STANDARDS BODIES INVOLVED IN THE GLOBAL COMMERCE
INTERNET PROTOCOL

The Global Commerce Initiative is not a standards
body. Its job is to facilitate and encourage the best
possible focused input on business needs on a global
level so that existing standards bodies can work with
the confidence necessary to achieve true
standardisation.

Two key bodies, EAN International and UCC, are
sponsors of the initiative and are jointly responsible
for the development of the Global Commerce Internet
Protocol. They are both actively and intimately
involved in supporting the work of the four groups.

There is currently an agreement between the Global
Commerce Initiative and ebXML to endorse the proposed
ebXML standards for message transportation and
routing. The work the Global Commerce Initiative has
completed will be presented to ebXML as a basis for
the testing and approval of these standards.


[It is important to note that ebXML, which is a
relatively new body established in 1999, is also
working specifically on the development of standards
in the Internet. Several of the GCI groups will work
closely with this new organisation to discuss
agreements on standards. (ebXML is jointly run by
OASIS, the Organisation for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards and UN/CEFACT, the
United Nations body for Trade facilitation and
Electronic Business*.)]

Background

WORKING GROUPS CONTRIBUTING TO THE GCI INTERNET
PROTOCOL

In order to develop the Global Commerce Internet
Protocol, four working groups have been set up to
address each of the three key areas of data access and
security, basic data content and basic information
flow in business-to-business communications. A fourth
group has been established to make recommendations on
the overall process of managing changes to standards.

1. Technical Infrastructure. This group is working on
a recommendation of standards to be used for the
secure transport, routing and packaging of GCI XML
payloads (messages). With the output from the Master
Data Alignment & Core Business Process groups business
process models and Data Attribute definitions, this
group will develop and recommend XML tags & schemas to
be used to communicate messages to be exchanged over
the World Wide Web in a standard format for all
Exchanges.

(XML stands for "eXtensible Markup Language" and is
intended to facilitate the interchange of structured
documents over the World Wide Web).

2. Master Data Alignment. This group is working to
define the basic business process model and data that
will be required in business-to-business
communications related to the products and services
being traded and the parties involved in the
transactions. The group is basing its work on the
Global Data Alignment work carried out by EAN and UCC
to act as guide.

3. Core Business Processes. This group is working to
define the business process models associated in
business-to-business communication. Having determined
the process, it will define the key data items that
make up the transactions. The initial work will
concentrate on the processes of ordering, delivery
notification and payment.

4. Standards Process. The Standards Process group is
working with existing standards bodies to determine
the fastest, most effective procedures for developing
and maintaining standards. This will have to happen
over a substantially accelerated time scale. In the
past, the development and agreement process has
typically taken many months, even years. Because of
the rapid development of the Internet environment,
this is no longer appropriate. Internet developments,
including the abundance of recently formed Exchanges,
will not wait that long.

Background

THE GLOBAL COMMERCE INITIATIVE

The Global Commerce Initiative ("GCI") was created in
1999 to bring manufacturers and retailers together to
promote global supply chain efficiency and enhance
consumer value.

Its mission is "Bridging the gap between the world’s
foremost supply chain standards to better meet the
needs and expectations of consumers around the world."

GCI operates through an Executive Board composed of
senior representatives of more than 40 international
companies drawn equally from the manufacturing and
retailing sides of the consumer goods industry,
together with eight sponsoring organisations.

GCI has built a collaborative inter-business process
that will endorse a set of recommended open and
voluntary standards, enabling technologies and best
practices with worldwide application. Its work is
intended to benefit all users, large and small,
wherever they operate. This global approach will be
developed and documented together with international
standardisation organisations.

GCI is encouraging and facilitating dialogue between
trade associations and organisations representing the
850,000 large and small companies that utilise current
EAN· UCC standards. These companies, either
individually or through their trade organisations, are
committed to endorsing global standards.

The Executive Board of GCI has established five
working groups to address some of the key issues:

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Industry Extranets
Product Identification
Intelligent Tagging
Global Scorecard
The global working groups meet frequently to create a
shared understanding of good business practices and
endorse recommended business standards, enabling
technologies and implementation guidelines with
worldwide application.

Their common goals are to:

Simplify business processes
Provide benefits to all users, large and small,
wherever they operate
The working groups are guided by the following
principles:

Co-chairs are appointed from different industry
sectors and continents
Members of "core" groups are balanced across industry
types and geographical territories
Global "virtual" members have Website access to ensure
the widest possible representation
Working groups operate with recognised standards
bodies
Solutions are viewed as neutral and impartial with
respect to vendors, technologies and Exchanges

Background

ASSOCIATIONS SUPPORTING THE GLOBAL COMMERCE INITIATIVE



AIM, the European brands association, represents the
vast majority of European manufacturers of branded
fast-moving consumer goods through its network of 19
national associations and 50 corporate members,
representing altogether 1600 companies of all sizes.

CIES - The Food Business Forum, is a unique, global
food business network, strategically placed at the
interface between retailers and suppliers. Membership,
which is on a company basis, is made up of 250 major
food retailing companies drawn from 48 countries and
an equal number of their suppliers world-wide.

EAN International is the worldwide leader in
identification and e-commerce. They manage and provide
standards for the unique and non-ambiguous
identification and communication of products,
transport units, assets and locations. The EAN-UCC
system offers multi-sectorial solutions to improve
business efficiency and productivity. EAN
International has representatives in 94 countries. The
system is used by over 850,000 user companies.

ECR is a global supply chain initiative devoted to
"fulfilling consumer wishes better, faster and at less
cost". Beginning in North America in 1992 and in
Europe the following year, ECR practices now extend
across the world.

FMI, the Food Marketing Institute, is a non-profit
association conducting programmes in research,
education, industry relations and public affairs on
behalf of food retailers, wholesalers and their
customers in the United States and around the world.

GMA is the world’s largest association of food,
beverage and consumer product companies. GMA applies
legal, scientific, and political expertise from its
member companies to vital food, nutrition and public
policy issues affecting the industry. The association
also leads efforts to increase productivity,
efficiency and growth in the CPG industry.

UCC is a leader in the establishment and promotion of
multi-industry standards for product identification
and related electronic communication. The
organisation’s goal is to enhance supply chain
management thus contributing added value to the
consumer. UCC and EAN co-manage the EAN.UCC system –
the global language of business.

VICS is a global organisation focused on the
improvement of the flow of product and information
throughout the entire supply chain in the retail
industry.

Background

CORPORATE MEMBERS OF THE GLOBAL COMMERCE INITIATIVE
BOARD



Retailers

AHOLD

AMC

AUCHAN

CARREFOUR

COSTCO CORP.

DELHAIZE GROUP

FEDERATED DEPARTMENT STORES

GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPORATION

THE HOME DEPOT

KINGFISHER

MARKS & SPENCER

METRO

SEARS ROEBUCK

TESCO

WAL*MART STORES INC.

Manufacturers

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO

THE COCA-COLA COMPANY

DANONE GROUP

GILLETTE

HENKEL

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

KAO CORPORATION

KODAK

KRAFT FOODS

MARS

NESTLE S.A.

NEWELL RUBBERMAID

PHILIPS

PROCTER & GAMBLE

RALPH LAUREN

SARA LEE/DE

UNILEVER

VF CORPORATION

WARNER LAMBERT


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Constantine Alexander
http://www.PapasHaven.com/
Where Olive Oil is a Passion
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