A communiqué from Tom Campisi (STAR Communications Chair) describes the approval of XML standards for the retail automotive industry. Seven new XML specifications have been completed, and will be publicly available on the STAR web site. According to the announcement, STAR (Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail) and OAGI (Open Applications Group, Inc.) have recently approved seven new XML standards for automotive dealer-to-manufacturer transactions. STAR is a North American "non-profit, auto industry-wide initiative to create voluntary IT standards for the data elements and transmission format used by manufacturers, dealers, and retail system providers to communicate with each other. STAR's initiatives will result in a more efficient data exchange between dealers and manufacturers, with lower costs, more accurate and timely data, and increased levels of customer satisfaction. OAGI is a non-profit consortium focused on building reusable, interoperable XML messages." OAGI created the XML message methodology on which STAR standards, called BODs (Business Object Documents) are based. The seven standards govern Parts Order, Parts Pick List, Parts Return, Repair Order, Sales Lead, Vehicle Service History, and Warranty Reconciliation.

Approved XML standards:

1. Parts Order -- Defines the electronic parts order document a dealer sends to its manufacturer for processing.

2. Parts Pick List -- Defines the "e-packing slip" a manufacturer sends to a dealer, outlining the parts the dealer has recently ordered.

3. Parts Return -- Defines the electronic form a dealer sends to its manufacturer on parts it wishes to return due to obsolescence, damage, error, etc.

4. Repair Order -- Defines a vehicle's parts and service information sent electronically from a dealer to manufacturer.

5. Sales Lead -- Defines vehicle and prospect information from an existing or new customer between a dealer and manufacturer.

6. Vehicle Service History -- Defines a vehicle's past history of repair and warranty claim information, which can be accessed by any authorized dealer.

7. Warranty Reconciliation -- Defines the electronic advisory a manufacturer sends a dealer on the status of a warranty claim previously submitted to the manufacturer by the dealer.

From the text of the announcement:

"We are very excited to have 7 published standards ready for adoption in the automotive retail space. This is the culmination of two and a half years of diligent, collaborative work between over 50 STAR members, staff, and OAGI," says Tom Campisi, STAR communications chair.

"We are pleased to be a partner with the STAR organization in building these important XML standards," said David Connelly, CEO of the Open Applications Group. "This work will benefit the automotive retailers, the automotive manufacturers and ultimately the consumer by making business communications more efficient and cost-effective for the dealer."

The Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) organization is the Information Technology (IT) standards organization for the retail automotive industry. The goal of the STAR organization is to use IT standards as a catalyst in fulfilling the business information needs of dealers and manufacturers while reducing the time and effort previously required to support this activity.

The Open Applications Group Inc. is a non-profit consortium organized to promote interoperability among Business Software Applications and to create and/or endorse one or more standards for achieving dramatically easier interoperability of Business Software Applications. They have over 7 years of extensive experience in building industry consensus interoperability specifications for business software applications and have developed a repeatable process for quickly developing high quality business content and XML representations of that content.