Partner Press Release
Edifecs provides SpecBuilder, CommerceDesk.Com and gXML to assist in building and enabling RosettaNet's ebusiness framework and PIPs

gXML - Open Exchange of E-business Schemas: An open XML based model for storing schemas and achieving interoperability between schema consuming applications.

For Release June 9, 1999

Bellevue, WA -- Rapid development of RosettaNet's framework, including establishing content and transaction standards, has been achieved by an unprecedented collaboration among the IT supply chain, the availability of tools and services, and the use of open standards. Edifecs is providing RosettaNet members with SpecBuilder for creation of guidelines, CommerceDesk.Com for hosting, distribution and retrieval of guidelines, Guideline XML (gXML) as a standard for storing and exchanging guidelines to achieve interoperability between guideline consuming applications and validation components for testing RosettaNet messages.

RosettaNet is using Edifecs' pioneering and market-leading specification development suite, SpecBuilder, for creating implementation guidelines.

Edifecs Commerce, the leader in EDI and electronic commerce modeling and collaboration tools, SpecBuilder allows users to create guidelines quickly and accurately, and publish those guidelines for distribution in a variety of formats including XML, RTF and PDF. It also allows eConcert users to generate guideline-compliant test data and analyze messages against the published guidelines.Additionally, SpecBuilder will allow users to compare and identify differences between their existing and RosettaNet implementation guidelines.

Once the guidelines are created, users need an easy-to-use, readily accessible and comprehensive facility for distribution of those implementation guidelines. Edifecs is providing CommerceDesk.Com as a facility for hosting and worldwide distribution of specifications and other relevant information. Users can currently view and download the RosettaNet specifications from the site (www.CommerceDesk.Com).

Edifecs announced the immediate availability of Guideline XML (gXML) for the open exchange of electronic commerce guidelines.Guideline XML is a file structure that allows the open exchange of electronic commerce guidelines, otherwise known as EDITransaction Sets and Schemas. Guideline XML (GgXML) is the world's first standards-based exchange format specifically designed to simplify the integration of EDI translators, validation engines, forms builders, and specification tools.

"The gXML specification makes a real contribution to electronic commerce. It provides a means for companies to publish their EDI specifications database directly to the Web and thus make them more readily available to trading partners," said Alan Kotok, Administrator of the XML-EDI Group and Vice-President of Graphic Communications Association.said Alan Kotok, and founder of the XML-EDI group. "Following the XML/EDI Guidelines ensures their compliance with standards-based solutions."Among other things, it is imperative that the ebusiness community adopts one single standard for exchanging schemas between applications such as Mappers. RosettaNet has been defining XML-based message structures and storing them in gXML format as part of their mission to define common business interfaces between the IT supply chain partners. gXML is a file structure that allows the open exchange of electronic commerce guidelines, otherwise known as Transaction Sets and Schemas.

Guideline XML (gXML) is the world's first XML standards-based exchange format specifically designed to simplify the integration of translators, validation engines, forms, and specification tools. Widespread use and support for gXML will generate tremendous savings and bring the ebusiness community one step closer to automating the exchange of information between applications.

Arthur Greef, Chief Architect for RosettaNet states, "gXML is significant in that it has enabled RosettaNet to distribute message guideline specifications to all partners in a machine-readable format. Partners who develop message validation solutions around gXML will be able to implement PIPs at RosettaNet speed."

"RosettaNet is a very important initiative and could very well lay the foundation for all other industry ebusiness frameworks being implemented today and in the future. To get an ebusiness implementation off the ground, it is imperative that companies, consortiums and industry groups have access to a rich set of tools and services. Edifecs Commerce is committed to and glad to beworking closely with RosettaNet as an architect partner, and in providing its solutions to assist in the creation, development, ramp up and execution of this important initiative," states Sunny Singh, CEO of Edifecs.

Edifecs is working with major industry solution providers and standards bodies to evolve gXML and make it a standard. Guidelines for ATA and CompTIAtia, Edifact, and X12 are available for immediate download in gXML from CommerceDesk.com. GgXML is also supported in Edifecs SpecBuilder 3.6 guideline creation and model suite.

EDI Tool Integration

Guideline XML was first and foremost designed to be simple; each document is completely self-contained and follows the logical structure of the message to be exchanged. As a result, vendors standardizing on gXML can load schemas directly into their e-business products and users can open and edit guidelines directly in a web browser or XML editor. As an increasing number of applications publish their XML-based interfaces, gXML can be used to automatically import convert those schemas into products like mappers, schema editors, and validators.

"Edifecs Commerce is very excited about releasing gXML," states Sunny Singh, CEO of Edifecs. "In the e-business/EDI world today, there is a lot of duplication of effort in defining guidelines. Industry groups, companies and trading partners are all redoing the same work. gXML offers a standard for exchanging schemas that can automatically be imported into gXML compliant products thus eliminating the need for re-creating schemas manually."

Complete Developer Solution

Guideline XML is a file structure that allows the open exchange of electronic commerce guidelines, otherwise known as EDITransaction Sets and Schemas, in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) data format. By providing an easy to use, extensible format for exchanging specifications, gXML paves the way for greater tool integration and interoperability.

The GgXML Technical Specification is designed for review and implementation by independent software providers that deal with electronic commerce, standards bodies, industry associations, and other electronic commerce professionals working with business-to-business interchange schemas.

The gXML Technical Specification contains the file structure and node definitions required for creating a gXML compliant document. In addition, the specification provides detailed instructions and examples to aide in actually creating gXML files, a DTD which can be used to validate that any guideline is gXML compliant, and an example XSL that can be used to transform the gXML file into a web-ready format. This specification is available on CommerceDesk at www.commercedesk.com.

About Edifecs Commerce
Edifecs Commerce is the leading provider of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and business-to-business electronic commerce and electronic data interchange software products, tools and services.

Enabling & Managing the Extended EnterpriseBusiness Communities

"Edifecs' tools automate the time consuming and costly tasks of e-business/ EDI modeling, collaboration and testing. SpecBuilder, the most popular EDI E-Business schema creation tool, includes a graphical editor, an Analyzer for validating data, a Migrator for moving between versions, a Specification Generator for creating schemas from existing EDI E-Business data, and a Data Generator for creating test data from specifications. Mediate facilitates partner management, interaction and collaboration. CommerceDesk.Com provides a web-based facility for document hosting, document certification and e-business data compliance checking.

First offered in 1996, Edifecs' tools have become the preferred choice of ED-BusinessI and ECDI professionals worldwide, and are used by over 25 national and international associations and standards setting organizations. For more information call 425-895-3020 or visit Edifecs' web site at www.edifecs.com. For business alliances email partnersecpn@edifecs.com For sales information or free guideline hosting on CommerceDesk.com, email sales@edifecs.com. CommerceDesk.Com is hosted on www.commercedesk.com.

About RosettaNet
Founded in 1998, RosettaNet is an independent, self-funded, non-profit consortium dedicated to the development and deployment of standard electronic commerce interfaces to align the processes between IT supply chain partners on a global basis. RosettaNet can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.rosettanet.org.

The RosettaNet Managing Board now consists of 34 CEOs, CIOs, and executives representing global members of the IT supply chain, including: American Express, Arrow Electronics, Avnet, CHS Electronics, Cisco Systems, CompUSA, Compaq, Computacenter, Deutsche Financial Services, EDS, Federal Express, GE Information Services, GSA, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Inacom, Ingram Micro Inc., Insight, Intel, Marshall Industries, Microage, Microsoft, Netscape, NEC Technologies, Office Depot, Oracle, pcOrder, SAP AG, Siemens, Solectron, Tech Data, 3Com, Toshiba Information Systems and United Parcel Service.