Edifecs Adds B2B Standards Expertise to Universal
E-commerce Initiative
Becomes latest key technology company
to join pioneering UDDI Project
Bellevue, WA (October 13, 2000) --
Edifecs, a provider of B2B technology
solutions and services driving the
global adoption of e-commerce, today
announced the company has become an
official Advisor to the Universal
Description, Discovery and Integration
(UDDI) Project.
The UDDI Project (www.uddi.org),
a collaboration of Ariba, IBM and
Microsoft, is the first cross-industry
effort by platform and software providers,
marketplace operators, and e-business
leaders to create a platform-independent,
open framework for describing services,
discovering businesses, and integrating
business services using the Internet.
UDDI specifies the standards on which
online trading partners--buyers and
sellers of goods and services--integrate
their systems and seamlessly manage
transactions. The UDDI Project will
enable companies to publish information
about the Web services they offer
in a Universal Business Registry accessible
by anyone.
Wider adoption of universal standards
such as UDDI holds great promise for
accelerating the growth of online
commerce. By participating and contributing
to this industry initiative, Edifecs
joins other early Project members
in becoming catalysts to quickly develop
the UDDI standard.
"From our inception in 1996,
Edifecs has been 100 percent focused
on supporting our mission of driving
B2B participation," said Greg
Gilles, Vice President for CommerceDesk,
Edifecs. "The UDDI initiative
is sure to make a significant impact
on widespread adoption of business-to-business
standards across all sectors, and
will provide a natural extension for
our Net market and e-business partner-enablement
solution."
Increasing numbers of B2B e-commerce
companies are bringing their business
applications, procurement processes
and supply chains onto the Internet.
Registering them as services in UDDI
will enable other businesses to discover
those applications and integrate with
them. The UDDI Project's Business
Registry will support large corporations'
efforts to connect with tens of thousands
of trading partners, suppliers and
customers online. The Registry also
provides small businesses with a means
of integrating into online marketplaces.
Taking advantage of standard technologies
such as eXtensible Markup Language
(XML) and HTTP and Domain Name System
(DNS) protocols, the UDDI standard
will enable businesses to quickly
and easily find, and transact with,
one another using their preferred
applications. The UDDI registry is
XML-based but the services it describes
can be implemented using HTML, XML,
Java, CORBA, Microsoft.NET or any
other programming model or language.
Cross-platform programming features
are addressed by adopting early versions
of the proposed Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP) messaging specifications.
About Edifecs
Edifecs (www.edifecs.com) is dedicated
to expediting business-to-business
e-commerce through two primary product
lines: its CommerceDesk partner-enablement
system, designed to automate and accelerate
the deployment of trading networks,
and its Business Collaboration Services,
which optimize value-net business
models by providing collaboration-modeling
services to supply-chain partnerships.
Founded in 1996, Edifecs serves an
installed base of more than 1,000
customers including Boeing, Microsoft,
IBM, Gillette, Eastman Kodak, Sony,
Barnes & Noble, and Dura Automotive.
The company partners with numerous
B2B providers such as GE Global eXchange
Services, iPlanet and Sterling Commerce,
and is a technology-solution partner
for more than 30 industry consortia
including RosettaNet, CompTIA, and
the Supply Chain Council. Based in
Bellevue, Washington, Edifecs is privately
held, with investment from General
Electric.
Edifecs and CommerceDesk are registered
trademarks of Edifecs.
All other company and product names
are the property of their respective
owners.
