EDItEUR News
EDItEUR scores againEDItEUR, the European group for electronic commerce in the book and serials trade, is sponsored by the Federation of European Publishers, the European Booksellers Federation and the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations. It is, despite its name, now a truly international group with 90 members from 17 countries including the US, Canada, Japan and Australia. EDItEUR is helped in its work by the Library Action Programme of the European Union, who have helped fund EDItEUR's work in a programme called IMPRESS (implementation, Maintenance and Promotion of the EDItEUR Standards Set). In addition to promotional activities in specific countries, the programme is underwriting the all important maintenance of the messages, drafting of implementation guides and promotion of the benefits of EDI for the next two years. EDItEUR is particularly proud of its achievements, and those of its members, in three main areas over the last year.
In this edition of the EDItEUR newsletter you will find articles on the implementation guides and serials messages as well as members' reports from Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. EDItEUR has helped stimulate the formation of a number of national book trade EDI groups, along the lines of Book Industry Communication, the UK book trade EDI group that provides the secretariat for EDItEUR. EDIlibro in Italy and EDIBOK in Sweden are by no means unique. Similar book sector EDI groups are operating in Germany (where the activities are led by the Boersenverein, wholesalers KNO and Libri and publisher Bertelsmann), Denmark, Finland, Spain and many other countries. EDItEUR would welcome more reports of members' EDI implementation activities for publication in future issues of the newsletter. Although EDI is and will remain central to EDItEUR's role, there are several other aspects of electronic commerce that are demanding our attention. The timely and accurate provision of product data, both bibliographic and marketing, is a recurring but so far unfulfilled demand in the book trade. EDItEUR is working on standards for both the information that should be supplied and for its electronic communication. The book trades in a number of countries are investigating the possibility of incorporating a standard security tag in the book production process to help remove the enormous burden of book theft. EDItEUR has been deeply involved in this initiative. EDItEUR is also becoming involved in the world of electronic publishing. The use of EDI for trading intellectual property rights, the standards infrastructure for customised and on-demand publishing, the taming of Internet to support rather than replace standards are all issues on EDItEUR's current agenda.
EDItEUR is rapidly becoming the indispensable international umbrella body for book trade electronic commerce, developing the essential underlying standards and assuring their uniform implementation to facilitate more effective and efficient international trading.
EDItEUR goes transatlanticEDItEUR continues to attract support for its EDIFACT message transactions in the US and Canada. The library sector is particularly active, with all the major library integrated systems vendors now in membership of EDItEUR and working on the implementation of EDItEUR messages. Stanford University libraries are likely to be the first US library to implement the EDItEUR messages, working with EDItEUR founder member Harrassowitz to implement the full range of transactions for books. Harrassowitz also report that Kansas State University and their system vendor Endeavour are working with them on implementation of the full set of EDItEUR serials transactions. US subscription agents and book suppliers, including Faxon, Ingram and Baker & Taylor are also currenly implementing the EDItEUR messages. The US book and serials sectors EDI groups, BISAC (Book Industry Systems Advisory Committee) and SISAC (Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee), together with ICEDIS (the International Committee for EDI in Serials) are all providing valuable input to the continuing process of EDItEUR message development and plan to adopt the messages. EDItEUR consultant David Martin led two very successful workshops on the EDItEUR messages for both BISAC and SISAC members in New York in July and discussion are taking place on the best way to continue and enhance the transatlantic cooperation as US users enter the EDIFACT implementation phase. New messages, new guidelinesA new issue of the EDItEUR Manual is in preparation for the last quarter of 1996. A substantial part of the revised and expanded specifications and guidelines will be presented at the EDItEUR meeting in Frankfurt on 2 October. The 1995 Manual was warmly received and has been the basis of a number of important implementations during the last twelve months. There has, however, been a general recognition - shared by the Message Development Group - that its bulk can be intimidating. It stands as an essential reference source, but something else is needed to give users a simpler way in to the elements which they want for a particular application. This need is being met by reshaping new guidelines (Part II in the 1995 Manual) so that they provide shorter and fully self-contained specifications of the message and code list subsets used, together with fuller examples which are specific to the application. As well as containing the first of these new-style application guidelines, the 1996 Manual will add several new messages, including Order Status Enquiry, Request for Quotation, Despatch Advice and possibly Party Information and Inventory Report, which, although not previously on a priority list, have already been brought into use by Centraal Boekhuis and its trading partners during 1996.
EDIFACT for serialsDuring 1996 a major effort has gone into the annotation of a range of existing EDItEUR messages - and, so far, two new messages - for use in journal supply between publishers, subscription agents, and libraries. The work has taken as its starting point the X12 standards which have been published by SISAC/CSISAC and ICEDIS, and has been carried out with the support of a number of key sponsors in this sector. The first application guidelines to be completed in draft form are for despatch notification and claims handling, and for the subscription renewals process. Others will cover new subscriptions, product information and price lists. Despatch notification and claims handling are covered by a rather straightforward use of the Despatch Advice, Order Status Enquiry, and Purchase Order Response messages (the last-named having been considered more appropriate for claim responses than the EDIFACT Order Status Report). Almost all of the functionality provided in the SISAC X12 equivalents has proved to be easily mapped into EDIFACT. For subscription renewals, a more radical approach has been taken, based initially on discussions at a meeting between EDItEUR and SISAC in New York in July 1996. The proposed EDI cycle starts with a renewal quotation (EDIFACT QUOTES) sent by the supplier to the library. The library responds with one or more Purchase Order Change (ORDCHG) messages to notify cancellations, additions and amendments. Finally, the supplier invoices for the changed requirement using the INVOIC message. Centraal Boekhuis and EDICentraal Boekhuis B.V. is a company providing information as well as distribution, warehousing and transport services for books and logistically related goods, catering for almost 100% of all booksellers and a vast majority of the publishers in the Netherlands. Centraal Boekhuis traces its history back to the 19th century, where it was founded in Amsterdam by the Dutch trade organisation (KVB). In 1973 the Association of Dutch Booksellers (NBB), the association of Dutch publishers (KNUB) and the DVB decided to establish Centraal Boekhuis at Culemborg, a small town in the central part of the Netherlands. In September 1995 Centraal Boekhuis started their first EDI project implementing the EANCOM Order message in co-operation with Vroom and Dressmann (a well known department store in the Netherlands). The purpose was to streamline the order flow from Vroom and Dressman to Centraal Boekhuis and to handle the orders faster and with more efficiency. After our first experience with EDI, it was not difficult to define more EDI projects. Centraal Boekhuis and three Wholesalers in the United Kingdom (Bertram Books, Gardners Books and Heathcote Books) had the idea to set up a Wholesaler Service. The responsibility of Centraal Boekhuis in this service is to act as an intermediary between the Dutch booksellers and the Wholesalers concerning the orders, the money involved and the transportation of the goods in the Netherlands. The main part of this service is the exchange of information and so it was logical to use EDI as the communication concept. Four EDI messages have been implemented. The Party Information message (PARTIN) to provide the Wholesalers about information of the Dutch booksellers (for example name, address, phone-number and VAT number). The Order message (ORDERS) to get order details from the Dutch booksellers to the Wholesaler and the Invoice message (INVOIC) as a copy of the original paper invoice (for collection purpose). The Inventory Report message (INVRPT) is also used to inform Centraal Boekhuis about the availability and price of the products of the Wholesalers. This information will be stored on a CD-rom and will be used by the Dutch booksellers in a order and information systems (CB-Link). The Wholesaler Service has been active since April 1996. At this moment Centraal Boekhuis is working to set up a similar service with Wholesalers in the United States and in the future Centraal Boekhuis intends to implement more EDI use messages (for example the Despatch Advice and Order Response) and to expand the of EDI with more business partners.
EDIlibroThe "Associazione italiana per l'EDI nel settore del libro", EDIlibro, was formally established by nearly forty founder members on 28 March 1996 in Milan. With the support of EDItEUR, a preliminary meeting was held on 21 March 1995 at the British Council in Rome. The aim was to co-ordinate the interest in establishing an awareness centre for the EDI standard in the Italian book sector. In the following months numerous meetings ensued with the participation of the three associations AIE (Italian Publishers Association), AIB (Italian Library Association) and ALI (ITalian Booksellers Association); the Regione Lombardia, Aster, the publishers Mondadori, Rissoli, Editrice Bibliografica, Informazioni Editoriali as well as the exporter Casalini Libri and the distributor Messaggerie Libri. In these meetings the EDIlibro statute was conceived and the Association's main objectives were defined. The main objectives of EDIlibro are:
The development of a co-ordinated plan of action with EDItEUR and with parallel associations in other countries will be a determining factor in the rapid and effective diffusion of the EDI standard throughout the book sector within each country.
Joining EDItEURNow you have read about EDItEUR's many and varied activities, you may wish to become part of the International Book Trade EDI Community. Membership of EDItEUR is open to any book or serials sector organisation, including systems and service providers. The annual subscription is £150 plus UK VAT (currently 17.5%). EDItEUR members receive the manual of EDI messages, implementation guides and updates. Members are invited to attend at least two open steering meetings each year (at the Frankfurt and London Book Fairs) and receive regular news and information bulletins. Members also receive individual implementation advice and can take advantage of EDItEUR electronic mail help line to resolve any EDI queries they may have.
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