Annual Report 2009-2010 - GS1

GS1 eCom
GS1 Products & Solutions
26
Helping businesses save money
By allowing organisations to reduce or even completely
eliminate manual document handling and manual data
entry, GS1 eCom business messaging standards help
them save money.
GS1 eCom standards allow companies to exchange
structured, clear data from one computer application
to another with a minimum of human intervention.
GS1 eCom provides two complementary standards for
business messaging: GS1 XML and GS1 EANCOM®.
Benefits for supply and for procurement
GS1 eCom standards allow a direct link between the
physical flow of goods and information related to them,
and are a key component of just-in-time manufacturing
and quick response customer-supplier links. With GS1
eCom standards in place in the supply chain, processes
move more quickly and more smoothly. There are lower
administration and processing costs, increased accuracy,
reduced lead-time and better inventory management.
“We recently launched a service
called ‘CashEDI’ to provide access
to the exchange of standardised
business data for ordering, receipt
and delivery of banknotes and
coins to commercial banks, cashin-transit
companies and retailers
in Germany. This high-security
solution was developed using GS1
EANCOM and GS1 XML standards.
Our users are seeing a variety of
benefits, including reduced fees,
faster processing and a massive
reduction of handling errors, all in
a fundamentally safer and more
transparent environment.”
Thomas B. Langer
Bundesbankdirector, Cash Department,
Deutsche Bundesbank
GS1 eCom in the procurement process also results in
lower costs, and enables smoother compliance clearance
and automated invoice controls.
Making it easier to be green
With GS1 eCom, companies use much less paper because
they can exchange orders, dispatch notices, receipt
notices, invoices, payment notices and more electronically
instead of by postal mail. Archiving is electronic as well,
which leads to cost savings and a reduced need to take
up so much space with boxes of aging paper documents.
Used and useful in a wide range of sectors
GS1 eCom is helping businesses in a very diverse range
of industry sectors boost their efficiency and save money.
In the past twelve months, there have been dozens of
exciting GS1 eCom success stories across the world – in
retail, consumer goods, footwear, banking, healthcare,
construction, breweries, the textile industry, the public
sector, the armed forces and more. GS1 eCom can bring
benefits to just about every kind of business.
Focused on interoperability with EANCOM
GS1 EANCOM is a highly interoperable form of electronic
commerce. It is in fact a subset of the United Nations EDI
international standard for electronic data interchange
known as UN/EDIFACT. The past several years have seen
adoption and implementation of GS1 EANCOM grow
significantly. Indeed, adoption doubled between 2005
and 2009 from 50,000 to 100,000 user companies; and in
2009 adoption grew by another 10%.
Active work on XML standards with UN/CEFACT
To build on this successful adoption of GS1 EANCOM
– a success due in great part to its compliance with
the UN/EDIFACT standard – a number of GS1 staff
members participate actively on the development of a
UN XML standard for electronic exchange of business
data, via work with standard development groups and
management teams at UN/CEFACT.
UN/CEFACT is the United Nations Centre for Trade
Facilitation and Electronic Business. UN/CEFACT supports
activities dedicated to improving the ability of business,
trade and administrative organizations, from developed,