Software makers issue standard for ASNs

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 1/1/2001

The Open Applications Group (OAG), a non-profit consortium of software makers, has issued an XML (extensible markup language) standard for Advance Shipment Notices (ASNs). The move is part of the OAG's ongoing initiative to develop non-proprietary XML-based standards called "Business Object Documents" for common commercial messages. This would allow these messages to be sent across the Internet and to be understood by multiple trading partners. (XML provides special tags that allow Web browsers to identify a packet of data as a commercial message.)

At a gathering of 20 technology providers in Cambridge, Mass., this past month, OAG personnel demonstrated the XML standard for ASNs, which the group has dubbed "show shipment." The software consortium, one of a half-dozen groups that are developing XML-based standards for commercial messages, is also working on XML standards for other documents such as the bill of lading.