SAN MATEO (02/02/2000) - Initial reports from major members of the RosettaNet consortium confirm that the group and its IT industry partners have been able to demonstrate their readiness for XML-based supply chain management.

RosettaNet slated Feb. 2 as "EConcert Readiness Day," a significant date on which members should be ready to embark upon a form of supply chain automation that rivals that of EDI (electronic data interchange). The promised benefits of RosettaNet-based supply chains are complete integration between business partners, transaction consistency, and the elimination of inefficiencies such as phone, fax, and e-mail communications that can stretch out over days, according to RosettaNet members.

For the customers of the RosettaNet members, "the process of selecting a product will be made immeasurably easier," said Fadi Chehade, the outgoing chief executive officer of RosettaNet. It was announced last month that Chehade will be leaving RosettaNet for Viacore, which will provide a hub service for RosettaNet members.

Intel Corp., 3Com Corp. and CompUSA lead the pack with implementations based upon the Partner Interface Processes (PIPs), the RosettaNet XML-based guidelines for dialogue between business partners. RosettaNet's membership consists of representatives from electronic component and IT manufacturers, software publishers, distributors, resellers, integrators, and end-users.

For the past two days, Intel has had an Internet and XML-based connection to Arrow Electronics governing orders for Intel's network adapter cards, said Colin Evans, director of e-business architectures and operations at Intel.

"We've proven that we can make it work," he said.

Consortium partner Ingram Micro, with CompUSA, has implemented the real-time pricing and availability PIP, said Ed Jurica, vice president of information systems at CompUSA. In order to be ready by EConcert Day, CompUSA had to work with "seven different companies, six different processes, two solutions providers (WebMethods and Extricity) and one dialect," Jurica said.

CompUSA also has a RosettaNet link to 3Com, which is supplying information about 112 product lines to CompUSA, said William Coker, manager for 3Com's e-commerce business-to-business operations. 3Com is also working with Ingram and TechData. "We also got Merisel to look at the RosettaNet standards," Coker said.

In addition to the PIPs, RosettaNet offers data dictionaries, an implementation framework, business process modeling, and analysis "that allows XML to work," Jurica added.

Once the RosettaNet partners agreed to their EConcert projects, development ranged from one to two months, participants said. "The real work was getting everyone to agree on protocols and standards," Jurica said.

RosettaNet, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Ana, California, is at http://www.rosettanet.org/.