TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is a B2B standard?

What does a B2B standard include?

How to get started with B2B standards?

What are B2B vocabulary standards?

What are B2B technology standards?

What are B2B process standards?

How to access B2B standards?

B2B Standards Primer

What are B2B vocabulary standards?

B2B vocabulary standards define all of the business terms, phrases and B2B documents.  Many organizations create eBusiness language and specifications to help companies communicate in a common way. 

Business Document Standards

B2B processing involves exchanging business documents with partners.  Each step in the process workflow will require new documents

The business document standards define what B2B information is to be included and the overall structure of the document.

Document standards will specify the business information that is required (mandatory) and the information that is optional.  The part of the specification that defines if the information is required or option is referred to as cardinality. Any data in a business document standard with optional cardinality requires the partners to determine and agree if they will or will not use that part of the standard.  The cardinality (total number of data elements) will be determined through partner negotiation. 

Example business document standards:

• BODs - OAGi Business Object Documents
• UBL - OASIS Universal Business Language
• PIPs^® - RosettaNet Partner Interface Processes^®

Terminology Definition Standards

The business documents are created using the terminology definition standards.  These are the building blocks of the B2B language.  Each standards organization names and publishes terminology standards in a different way.  Here are the common types of B2B terminology that is specified:

Single Terms - Defines each term's name, description, data format and possibly its relationship to other terms.

Data Block - Defines a collection of single terms that are structured into a logical grouping for easy reference and consistent usage.

Code List - Defines a collection of single terms that are related to each other for a common use to become values for another single term.  One or more terms are selected from a code list as valid choices.

Unique Identifier - Defines a reference (data key) that is guaranteed to be the only one for a specific item.  Like a code list, these unique IDs are the values for a single term.

eBusiness Dictionary Standards

The eBusiness dictionary standards define a broad collection of B2B vocabulary published in an electronic file.  Each eBusiness dictionary standard includes terminology definitions, business uses, technical rules and restrictions.  These standards are typically published as a spreadsheet, database and/or table in a technical specification document.

There are two types of eBusiness dictionaries:

Terminology Dictionary - Defines what each single term means, describes how it is formatted and how it is used individually, in a data block or a business document.   Example: CCL - UN/CEFACT Core Components Library.

Characteristic Dictionary - Provides a way to describe products using common attributes and related values to distinguish on product (item) from another.   Example: RNTD - RosettaNet Technical Dictionary.