NEWSLETTER. From the Executive Director. Inside this issue: April ECCMA Newsletter 1

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1 Inside this issue: From the Executive Director ECCMA Updates Upcoming Events I know I have mentioned it before but in the face of the task ahead it is all too easy to lose sight of just how far we have come. In my younger, fitter days I was part of a small hiking group in the Himalayas and I attribute our success in making it to Sandakphu, (3636m/11926ft) principally to our inability to see what lay ahead through the fog. Had we been able to see our destination towering over us, we probably would not have attempted the climb. Every time we reached a small peak, the prospect of working our way down to the valley below only to have to climb up the other side was made possible because our local guides kept telling us it was the last one. As we assume the responsibility of the United States Coordinator for ISO TC 184 SC4 and look to more countries adopting the eotd as their national standard, I am wondering what really lies ahead. While we are intently focused on delivering the international standards that will allow our members to obtain the master data they need, occasionally we get a glimpse back at how far we have already come. For me this took the form of an from an old friend at the UNDP who was unwittingly responsible for the creation of ECCMA. I thought I would share with you a very brief history of the association and you can judge for yourself. Working with X12, the group accredited by the American National Standards Association (ANSI) to develop and maintain Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards, I was developing a pair of EDI standards; Request for Product Source Information (X12.243) and Product Source Information (X12.244). What I needed was a commodity classification and I found it at a Directory Publisher s conference I was speaking at in Philadelphia (I was speaking on automating directory publishing using tagged data a precursor of what is now called XML, but that is another story). Under an agreement with the Interagency Procurement Services Organization (IAPSO), a UN agency based in Copenhagen, I became the publisher of the United Nations Common Coding System (UNCCS). I successfully applied for the code list to be added as a referenced code list in Table A of the X12 standards so that it could be used in the new X12 standards. At the next X12 conference, I met Dunn and Bradstreet (D&B) and they introduced me to their Standard Product and Services Classification (SPSC) designed to support the spend analysis tools developed by their new Supplier Evaluation division (SEAMS). Looking at the two classifications, it was somewhat obvious that they were duplicative and IAPSO and D&B agreed to merge them together under a single classification to be called the UNSPSC. The attempted merger was an abject failure and after several months of frustration and constantly missed deliverables, a senior executive at Industry Corner Who s Who NEWSLETTER Member Profile D&B decided on a different approach and I was personally given the task of building the new classification. With a small team of researchers, five rented computers in an unused office at an Internet Service Provider that agreed to provide direct high speed access to the Internet backbone, and armed with directories from local supermarkets, office supply and hardware stores as well as a directory of chemicals and pharmaceuticals obtained from a local library, we sat down to rebuild the UNSPSC. Within two weeks the work on version 1 was completed. We knew maintenance would be the key so we built a maintance process using a modified version of the Delphi method that I had researched at university and previously (and unsuccessfully) proposed to X12 to manage the ever growing number of X12 code lists. From the very early days it was obvious that we had a potential success on our hands and the UNDP legal office was increasingly nervous of the use of the UN brand by a commercial company such as D&B. My friend at the UNDP recommended we form a non-profit association to manage the UNSPSC. We created ECCMA, with a mission to develop and manage international standards for data and to support the needs of buyers. The awareness of the UNSPSC was driven by the purchasing card companies American Express, Master Card and VISA as well as later by in store cards such as Office Max and Office Depot. Purchasing cards were being promoted as the answer to low value purchase orders (why spend $50 creating a purchase order for items of less then $50?). While this was true in theory, in practice the weakness of the purchasing cards was their inability to capture line item detail, the $1,500 spent at Staples was not itemized on the credit card statement. To solve the problem, the credit card companies introduced level III merchant reporting that captured line item detail and one company developed an EDI to purchasing card processing link. This opened up a considerable business opportunity providing UNSPSC classification of line item detail. With pricing starting at $4.00 per line for mediocre quality, competition quickly drove down the price and improved the quality. A number of innovative work flow and semi-automated classifications applications rapidly appeared on the market as well. In the rush however it became difficult to distinguish the good from the bad and the very ugly (hence the ECCMA eotd coding benchmarking service). Just like the Sandakphu climb turned out to be a series of ups and downs, so was the development of ECCMA. We realized we had a problem with version control and in fixing it we undermined some commercial business models based on providing a for fee solution. (Continued on Page 2) ECCMA Newsletter 1

2 (Continued from page 1) The popularity of the UNSPSC overshadowed other classifications and as a free classification it again undermined the business models of established providers. Just as one of the reasons for the climb to Sandakphu is to get above the clouds, the challenges we faced with the UNSPSC allowed us to realize that the problem was more complex than could be solved with a simple hierarchical classification and this insight gave us the ability to recognize a solution when we were introduced to the NATO codification system. The development of the eotd as a global repository of technical terminology only makes sense if there is an easy way to use this terminology for a specific application and this is the purpose of the eotd Identification Guides. The eotd is not designed as a one size fits all solution but rather it is the ability to select the appropriate terminology through the Identification Guides that makes it useful. ECCMA will provide the administrative support to ensure that it can be used as an effective mapping tool between terminologies as well as provide tools, tables and training that helps its members implement the eotd, but it is important to keep in mind that eotd will only be as good as the quality of its implementations and to ensure this we will have to work closely together as well as work with others that are not part of the association. With this in mind, ECCMA has taken another bold step with the introduction of the new ECCMA 8000 Master Data Quality certification program. This certification and the associated data requirements contract clause could well be the ultimate summit of the mountain we have been climbing, as it provides the data quality and integration capability in a form that is accessible to all companies regardless of their size and location. I was lucky to have known Shepra Tenzing but I never asked him what it felt like to stand on Mount Everest knowing that there was no higher mountain to climb. Somehow I think we probably do not have to look very hard to find more data mountains for us to climb out there. Data requirements contract clause Cataloging data is defined as the minimum number of characteristics required to uniquely identify an item of supply or supply concept. The contractor, sub-contractor or supplier shall supply technical data for cataloging purposes in electronic format on any of the items covered in this contract as follows: The data shall comply with applicable ISO compliant Identification Guides. The data shall be encoded using concept identifiers from the ECCMA* Open Technical Dictionary (eotd), an ISO compliant open technical dictionary. The data shall be provided in eotdr-xml, an ISO compliant Extensible Markup Language (XML) format published by ECCMA*. The data shall be certified as ISO compliant. * The Electronic Commerce Code Management Association (ECCMA) ( is the Dictionary Maintenance Organization for the eotd, a compliant open technical dictionary as defined by ISO and can provide technical assistance in meeting this requirement. ECCMA Newsletter 2

3 ECCMA Appoints New Board Member Mr. George bond was appointed to the ECCMA Board of Directors on February 27, Mr. Bond joined the UKNCB in December 2001 as Head of Business Management and took up the position of the Head of the UKNCB in April He was elected Chairman of AC135 in December Mr. Bond joined the UK Ministry of Defence in 1972 after gaining a MA (Honours) degree in Geography from St. Andrews University and has spent his career in a variety of Personnel and Logistic Support/Policy posts at London, Bath, Broughton Moor, Rosyth, Coulport and Beith. As Office in Charge of the Rosyth Naval Stores Depot, he was responsible for the closure of that establishment and its sub-depots as part of the Defence Re-organization program in the late 90 s. He also spent 2 years on the secondment as Director Scotland of a charity which found employment for people with disabilities. Members It is important that we reach as many companies as possible and make sure they know of our work. You can help, add a hyperlink to linking to your web site or if you know of someone who is struggling with content standardization, electronic catalogs or inventory rationalization issues, send them a copy of our newsletter. On behalf of the entire ECCMA Board of Directors, staff and members, we would like to welcome Mr. George Bond to the Board. To view Mr. Bond s full biography and those of the other ECCMA Board members please visit: new/cwo/board_of_directors/ ECCMA Newsletter 3

4 Who s Who? ECCMA, the association dedicated to improving the quality while lowering the cost of Master Data through development and implementation of international standards, would like to welcome some new members and acknowledge members who have renewed their 2007 membership! Sasol Siemens AG Part Solutions Newmont Mining Corporation Fresh Executive Director Peter Benson [email protected] Chief Operating Officer Daniel King [email protected] Membership Manager Amber Davis [email protected] Program Coordinator Melissa Scheib [email protected] Research Analyst Richard Grillo [email protected] Modultek Once again, we thank you for your support of open source content standards and your participation in ECCMA. We will continue to strive to fulfill your needs as a member of the association. President ECCMA India Sheron Koshy [email protected] ECCMA 2980 Linden St. Ste. E2 Bethlehem, PA Coding files eotd and UNSPSC While ECCMA does not provide commercial cataloging services, it can help its members with small files. Send us a spreadsheet with part numbers and descriptions and we will get back to you with Standard Item Name, UNSPSC and abstracted attributes at no charge. If you have your own in-house classification we may be able to help too! Send us the classification and we will map it to the Standard Item Name and the UNSPSC and assign an ESN. This service is free and included in your ECCMA membership that covers research services designed to support standards development, maintenance and implementation. ECCMA Newsletter 4

5 MIT IQ Industry Symposium Information Quality (IQ) is an acknowledged prerequisite to organizational success. However, organizations also face the challenge of balancing quality requirements with the ever increasing volume of information and demands for faster deliver, while contending with constantly changing business environments. The MIT IQ Industry Symposium is designed to help bridge these issues through discussions among practitioners, vendors, and academicians. In addition to presentations and workshops, the Symposium will include topics such as vendor presentation, product announcements and consultancy methods that will complement the annual International Conference on Information Quality at MIT ( Why Participate The MITIQ Industry Symposium will provide a forum to: Address challenges faced by IQ practitioners Our own Peter Benson will be speaking about ISO Enable data quality software vendors and solution providers to meet with practitioners to discuss new capabilities and offertings Introduce new techniques and technologies Demonstrate successful techniques for overcoming IQ issues Discuss successful practices that lead to trusted information Share project successes and lessons learned Promote IQ Initiatives MIT IQ Industry Symposium Cambridge, MA July 18-19th 2007 Provide lessons learned in implementing IQ policies, strategies, standards and assessments Who Should Participate CIO s, CTO s, IT Directors and Managers Business Directors and Managers Process Methodologists/Engineers Information Quality Professionals Project Managers/Consultants Graduate students and scholars in the IQ field Registration Every participant must complete registration with $ by June 1. Register at ECCMA Newsletter 5

6 Additional Upcoming Events on eccma.org Improving the Quality of Master Data ECCMA Technical Short Course This 2 1/2 day course is designed for inventory, procurement and supply chain managers that are looking for better cataloging and content management. Understanding total assets availability and keeping inventory accurate. Course Objectives: To learn the fundamentals of managing master data To understand the fundamentals of data cleaning To introduce the ECCMA Open Technical Dictionary and ISO To introduce ISO 8000 as a tool for promoting cataloging at source To review a range of eotd strategies Course Outline: History of the NATO Codification System and eotd Fundamentals of data modeling, eotd data models, ISO Cataloging; preparing the data and adding the eotd class code Cataloging; abstracting and enriching data Cataloging tools and services Cataloging at source (working with suppliers) Data quality- ISO 8000 Managing a data cleaning project Costing a data cleaning project Developing a cost benefit analysis Service Providers Page Update Course Calendar April 24-26th Detroit, Michigan May 9-11th Sao Paulo, Brazil The ECCMA Service Provider web pages viewable from the Member Directory is now active. If your company offers any of the services in the below categories, or if you have any comments about the service provider web pages please [email protected]. Current Service Provider Categories are as follows: Basic Spend Analysis Cataloging Product Data Management (PDM) Improving the quality of Master, Service or Vendor; Master Data Enhanced Spend Analysis Data Cleaning Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Procurement Contributor Deadlines Issue Closing Date Issue Closing Date Issue Closing Date June 15 June 12 August 15 August 10 October 15 October 11 If you have information on events or activities that you think should be brought to the attention of the other members of ECCMA, please provide it to [email protected] by the closing dates above. ECCMA Newsletter 6

7 ECCMA India The eotd March version includes the addition of 520 new concepts with the bulk of these in the form of property values. We have also released the eotd Abbreviations table, which includes 3127 abbreviations submitted by the Services Industry Content Standards Council (SICSC). The abbreviations are linked to the termid found in the Term table of the eotd Core Model. Over the next few months, you will start to see images in the eotd. The first images to appear in the eotd will be from the Federal Cataloging Systems (FCS) Reference Drawing Groups (RDGs). In the past few months, ECCMA s R&D facility was focused on the creation of eotd Identification Guides (IGs) for the second phase of the NATO Smart Step Codification project. The Identification Guides are being created from numerous Federal Item Identification Guides (FIIGs). So far, the team has created about 40 of the 50 IGs required for the project. When all of the IGs have been created, validated and approved they will be released on the ECCMA Website. Any questions can be directed to [email protected] or [email protected]. ISO 8000 Executive Breakfast Briefings This two hour briefing focuses on the fundamentals of ISO 8000 compliance and the steps necessary for data quality to your hometown. Each briefing is designed to answer questions as to the scope and compliance requirements as well as collect input for the standard developers as we put the final touches to the standard itself. If you receive data from your suppliers, this new ISO standard will not only help you get the data you need but ensure that it will be a reliable integration into your systems at a low cost. If you provide data to your customers, this new ISO standard will allow you to identify yourself as a provider of quality data. For all, this is a unique opportunity to learn about ISO 8000 from the project leader as well as influence the development of the standard itself. Please contact Amber Davis for more information about our Breakfast Briefings. Farewell Richard Grillo is leaving us at the end of this month having completed a very successful internship. Rich came to us from Lehigh Carbon Community College where he is studying Business Management. He demonstrated that he was indeed a fast learner and had not overstated his computer skills. Rich took over responsibility for improving our internal databases, contributed to our website and most importantly he demonstrated a unique ability for Internet research. We wish Rich well in his career and commend him for his contribution to the Association. Rich was intrigued by the burgeoning industry of Master Data Quality, the process of developing international standards through ISO and their implementation in government and industry. As he starts out on his career path he is looking for opportunities and challenges, he can be contacted at: [email protected] ECCMA Newsletter 7

8 ECCMA Member Profile Bharaniraj L Title (Position): Director Country: India Years in Data Quality: I started working on this subject in 1995 as material cataloger. Q: Describe your career path. How did you get to where you are today? I have started my career as a quality controller in a manufacturing industry, then customer support engineer with a telecom industry then got into the field of data management. Caarpus D26, Nelson Chambers, 115 Nelson Manickam Rd. Aminjikarai Chennai, Tamilnadu , India Q: What about your particular career path do you find is of most value in your role as a cataloger? My background is in dealing with industrial engineering spare parts (MRO items) which involves data cleansing, formatting to create structured material catalog (using class and characteristics) and coding (w.r.t. the industry vertical). In this process I have associated with vendors, suppliers, service providers, production & procurement engineers which helped me to gain knowledge on total SCM. Q: What is the biggest challenge catalogers face today? Most of the organization implementing various EAM, SCM, SRM, etc. in this process they have to migrate their legacy data to new system structure. The GAP between both is significantly high, mainly catalogers face lots of difficulty to align themselves to learn about the new system navigation, constraints as well as capture/migrate data inline with new system. Q: What is most rewarding about your job? Continuous relationship with the client based on our quality deliverables. Q: Favorite outside interests? Family, Music & Sports! Q: Are you working on any projects that include the use of eotd, if so what are they? We are discussing with a couple of clients who wish to clean, categorize, normalize & deduping. Want to be Included? If you would like to be included in a future Member Profile, please contact [email protected]. ECCMA Newsletter 8