e-Commerce initiative would create online global business register

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 10/1/2000

T hree leading software companies have proposed a new electronic-commerce standard that would create an online global business registry. Software giant Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.; e-procurement vendor Ariba of Mountain View, Calif.; and IBM of Armonk, N.Y., are behind the project to promulgate the e-commerce specification called Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI). The new standard would allow companies to publish information about their Web services in an online universal business registry. UDDI would take advantage of extensible markup language (XML), a second-generation code used in e-commerce.

The software vendors believe UDDI is needed to promote e-commerce because current online directories and marketplaces are limited to particular industries or regions. The UDDI registry, on the other hand, would provide one central global database.

"To achieve the kind of fundamental rewiring of the economy that the business-to-business revolution promises, all companies have to be able to let potential buyers know who they are and what their trading requirements are," says Norman Judah, vice president of business development in Microsoft's Business Applications Division. "Accomplishing that clearly requires a standards-based approach, which is why Microsoft, IBM, and Ariba got together to drive development of the first version of UDDI."

The envisioned business directory would be open at no cost to companies. Sellers would participate by providing contact, product, and service information. Buyers would be able to search the registry and locate companies that provide the products or services they want.

The database would have three components. The first-the "white pages"-would provide the text description of a business and its contact information. The second-the "yellow pages" section-would list categories served by a company. It would support three standard categories: geographic, industry type, and product type. The third component-dubbed the "green pages"-would describe how to conduct e-commerce with a listed company.

The three software companies say they will turn over the registry to an international standards body upon completion of the project, slated for next year. At press time, 36 other companies had said they would support the project.

Industry experts have applauded the move to create a global database. AMR analyst John Fontanella says that the project would allow exchanges to "broaden their footprint" and identify new suppliers for buyers. "If I've got a new design spec and it requires components," he says, "[the register would allow me] to describe and locate the kind of supplier I'm looking for."