Alexandria, Va. - More than 450 attendees moved forward developing electronic data interchange (EDI) standards for a multitude of industries at the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 meeting in Nashville. The work includes maintenance of the ANSI ASC X12 Standard as well as a long list of extensible markup language (XML) based initiatives. Forty-three X12 data maintenance requests were processed. These changes will be included in the next X12 EDI publication scheduled for release in July 2003. Fifteen of those requests are new code additions that were processed using ASC X12's expedited online code maintenance tool, which enables members to incorporate changes to existing standards in as little as six weeks, six times faster than the former process.
"Proactively tackling the needs of today's standards developer and user, ASC X12 has implemented and is actively using expedited standards development and maintenance processes for both X12 EDI standards and XML-based messages," said ASC X12 Chair David R. Barkley of Freddie Mac. "We encourage and invite professionals to take part in the ASC X12 community, which streamlines manual and tedious data exchange transactions and reduces expenses for organizations of all sizes."
ASC X12 is developing XML-based messages and components using the draft X12 XML architecture, called CICA or Context Inspired Component Architecture. This activity is ongoing in each of the ASC X12 subcommittees. ASC X12 is currently organized into nine subcommittees: education administration, finance, government, insurance, materials management, procurement and distribution, and transportation, with communications and controls (architecture) and technical assessment subcommittees to harmonize and provide technical guidance to subcommittee efforts.
Specific new X12 EDI and XML work that arose from the meeting follows:
- The newly formed Energy & Utilities Task Group under the ASC X12 Finance Subcommittee is initiating work on an X12 EDI transaction set to report and transmit metered service activity and information. This new transaction set will allow multiple meter accounts and sub-accounts at multiple billing rates to be reported in a single transaction.
- The Property & Casualty Task Group/Claims Work Group under the ASC X12 Insurance Subcommittee is initiating work on an X12 XML Property & Casualty Collision Assignment Service business message, which will provide loss information between property & casualty insurance companies, agents, service providers, and industry bureaus.
-To fulfill the educational needs of the e-business standards community and ASC X12's membership - more than 30 new members have joined the ASC X12 ranks in 2003 - ASC X12 will host its first-ever kick-off event that will feature industry projections, productive collaborations, case studies, and best practices. This event, with presentations that will help attendees create sound standards and implementation strategies, will take place Sept. 29, 2003 at the beginning of the next ASC X12 meeting, scheduled for Sept. 28 - Oct. 3, 2003 in San Diego. Meeting details will be posted in early July and additional information may also be obtained by calling 703-837-6155.
In addition to the enhanced San Diego meeting agenda, ASC X12 members will elect new leadership at the ASC X12 General Session, immediately following the kick-off event on Sept. 29. Current leadership is ASC X12 Chair David R. Barkley, Director of eCommerce Relations for Freddie Mac, and Vice Chair Ralph Berwanger, Ambassador to Standards for bTrade, Inc.
The Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, accredited by the American National Standards Institute and comprised of cross-industry representation, develops robust e-business exchange standards in X12 EDI and XML formats that interact with a multitude of e-business technologies and serve as the premier tool for integrating electronic applications. Through standards-setting and active participation in emerging and technically relevant initiatives, ASC X12 facilitates the effective exchange of electronic information. Propelling global e-business, ASC X12 is an active contributor to the United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT), an international standard relating to the exchange of trade goods and services. To learn more about ASC X12, visit www.x12.org or call 703-548-7005.
