B2B Standards Primer
What is a B2B standard?B2B standards define the rules for very specific eBusiness or technical capabilities. Standards and Specifications "Official" B2B standards are approved by international and national standards bodies. Example standards bodies: - International Standards Organization (ISO)
- United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT)
- World Customs Organization (WCO)
There are hundreds of organizations that focus attention on improving eBusiness capabilities for its members. The specifications published by these non-profit organizations describe new eBusiness capabilities or how to use existing standards for B2B. Example standards organizations: Some specifications are presented to a standards body for consideration as an official standard. The standards body manages the community-decision process to declare the specification to be an official standard. The published specifications for industries or large business communities, while not an official standard, are the common practices used for eBusiness. The non-profit organization manages the community activities to create and publish standards approved by its members. Individual companies may define their own B2B specifications that use standards and describe the common practices for their B2B processing network. B2B practices unique to a single company are referred to as proprietary. Standards support InteroperabilityThe goal for interoperability is to allow different IT and B2B solutions to work together. B2B standards describe software or hardware requirements that define common methods for creating B2B solutions. B2B solutions that follow the B2B rules (standards) can communicate with other standards-based solutions. Software that does not use the B2B standards, do not easily operate with other solutions. These are referred to as non-interoperable solutions or non-standard solutions. | 
