MOUNTAIN VIEW, California. October 14, 1998.
Veo Systems, Inc., a pioneer in the development of open commerce networks, today announced the public release of the Common Business Library (CBL).
Built from existing standards, the CBL specification fulfills the promise of XML (Extensible Markup Language) by clearly defining a set of common data elements for the open exchange of catalog content, purchase orders, invoices and other business documents.
Veo Systems' CBL 1.1 was also submitted for review to two important industry ecommerce initiatives, CommerceNet's eCo Framework Project and RosettaNet. The Common Business Library (Version 1.1) is available for free download at www.veosystems.com.
XML is expected to change the landscape for electronic commerce by making it easy to create specialized markup languages for the numerous business documents employed in commerce.
But if every business invented its own XML definitions for product catalogs, request for quotes, purchase orders and invoices, and the like, tomorrow's XML-based Web would be scarcely more usable than today's HTML-based one. CBL was created to alleviate this problem.
CBL includes a recommended base set of XML data elements, attributes, and definitions that are common to many business domains -- such as address, price, quantity, and purchase order. Reusing these components speeds the development of ecommerce standards and applications, and more importantly facilitates their interoperation.
It is important to emphasize that the Common Business Library was created with the realization that there will not be one standard for electronic commerce, but rather many standards. Numerous trading communities are already developing their own XML-based document standards.
Examples include OBI (Open Buying on the Internet) and OTP (Open Trading Protocol) for purchasing, RosettaNet for distributing personal computers, and HL7 for exchanging healthcare records. CBL does not compete with these industry standards initiatives. Rather, it provides a common semantic framework that unifies them; enabling companies that subscribe to different protocols to still do business.
``The public release of Veo's Common Business Library fulfills XML's promise as an enabler of open Internet commerce,'' stated Dr. Jay Tenenbaum, chairman and Chief Scientist of Veo Systems. ``Now companies can exchange self-defining XML business documents that both people and computers can readily understand.
``This approach facilitates spontaneous commerce between trading partners without prior relationships; and provides an incremental path to business automation that eliminates most of the time, costs and risks of traditional systems integration.
``Veo's submission of CBL to these electronic commerce consortia is significant along several dimensions,'' commented Mary Laplante, partner in Fastwater LLP, a research and consulting firm focused on the impact of the Web on business processes and models.
``It brings XML to the attention of business managers and executives who are looking for new ways to successfully address the challenges and opportunities presented by commerce on the Web. And by allowing whole networks of trading partners to do business simply by exchanging business documents, it also has the potential to spur growth of XML-based electronic commerce in the short term.''
About CommerceNet's eCo Framework Project
The eCo Framework project, sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), CommerceNet, and Veo Systems Inc. is dedicated to developing an open framework for interoperability among XML-based application standards and key electronic commerce environments.
The project's working group will develop a specification for content names and definitions in electronic commerce documents, and an interoperable transaction framework specification.
About Common Business Library
Common Business Library is an extensible, public collection of XML-based document modules that companies can customize and assemble to create automatic business interactions on the Web.
CBL is based on established ANSI and ISO standards, and includes the basic business elements used in EDI transactions, as well as those used in emerging Internet standards such as OTP (Open Trading Protocol) and OBI (Open Buying on the Internet). CBL was developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to develop a scaleable interoperability framework for Internet commerce.
About Veo Systems, Inc.
Veo Systems is the leading supplier of products and services to enable open commerce networks. Using Veo's solutions, companies can significantly lower the economics of business-to-business integration by exchanging information using self-describing XML business documents that both people and computers can readily understand.
Veo's world-class technology team pioneered the application of XML to electronic commerce. Veo Systems is located in Mountain View, Calif. and can be reached at +1 650/988-7244 or via the Internet at http://www.veosystems.com.
Contact:
Veo Systems, Inc.
Kimberly Kasper
Tel: +1 650/623-2832
Email: kkasper@veosystems.com
or
Cox Consulting
Bill Cox
Tel: +1 650/593-5860
Email: cox2347@aol.com