eBIZ phase II: CEN eBIZ Workshop

Objectives

The CEN eBIZ Workshop is an international working group set up in 2012 for 18 months to bring together Fashion companies, IT solutions provider, Fashion retailers and other interested parties to identifying gaps, needs and solutions for wider and common e-Business adoption in Fashion.

The Workshop was run under the CEN rules, the European Committee for Standardization responsible for issuing the EN standards, which guarantees transparency and fair working procedures. The European Commission financed the activities.

The CEN eBIZ Workshop successfully deliveres a new version of Reference Architecture on 24.7.2013

Activities done

The CEN eBIZ Workshop is an open international working group set to upgrade the Reference Architecture in line with new business needs.

Managed by CEN and supported by the European Commission the group works 18 months (January 2012 – June 2013) on the agreed work programme built around three tasks:

Task 1

Gap Analysis

  • to identify gaps for interoperabiliy of digital data exchange (e-Business) in the Textile, Clothing and Footwear industry;
  • to monitor new related standards and to propose solutions to overcome barriers for wider e-Business interoperability.

Task 2

Upgrade of the Reference Architecture:

  • to produce a CEN Workshop Agreement (i.e. the upgraded eBIZ Reference Architecture) which enbale interoperability between different e-Business solutions and systems used in the fashion Industry supply chain.

Task 3

Impact enhancement

  • to increase the CEN eBIZ Workshop impact and effectiveness with communication activities addressing the concerned IT and fashion industry.

Milestones

2012

CEN eBIZ Workshop announcement, January
Launch call for Experts, February/ March
Experts selection and activities start, April
Gap Analysis 1st draft, June
Gap Analysis Final version, September
Start upgrading the Reference Architecture, October

2013

First Proposal to upgrade the Reference Architecture, open for comments, January 2013
Final draft of Proposal to upgrade the Reference Architecture, open for comments, March
Draft of upgraded Reference Architecture for public comment, April / May
Endorsement of the new Reference Architecture by Workshop participants, June
Publication of the new Reference Architecture, 24th July 2013

 

Three Plenary meetings open to all participants takes place : March 2012, October/ November 2012 and June 2013.

Six calls for contributions/ comments and validation by all participants took place in: April, June and September 2012;  January,  March and June 2013

Zoom: The workshop phase (2012)

In January 2012 EURATEX and CEN announce the CEN eBIZ Workshop, an open initiative moving from the eBIZ-TCF results and pursuing a single (harmonised) digital language for data-exchange in the fashion industry.

The CEN eBIZ Workshop lasts 18 months and is a unique opportunity for fashion companies, retailers and IT companies to work together on needs and solutions for wider digital data exchange across the supply chain.

The ultimate goal is to help SMEs (small and medium companies) and large companies to innovate and improve digital communication with both suppliers and clients.

Chaired by the EURATEX Director General Mr. Marchi the kick-off meeting takes place on 29 March in Brussels and is succesfully completed with the final Plenary meeting on 26 June 2013

The CEN eBIZ Workshop (2012-2013) is the second part of the permanent eBIZ initiative which started with the eBIZ-TCF project (2008 – 2010).

2013 CHANGES: HOW WE DID IT?

Thanks to the CEN eBIZ Workshop, a new, upgraded, version of the eBIZ Reference Architecture is released in 2013.

The upgrades address new business needs on digital communication identified through the Gap analysis carried out by the Project Team with contributions by Members of the Workshop.
Based on the Gap Analysis the Project Team elaborated a Roadmap, a simplified extract of the Roadmap (v3.1) is herein shared for transparency. This document summarises the topics, the timing and the who-does-what to produce the new eBIZ Reference Architecture.
In April 2013 the Draft of the upgraded eBIZ Reference Architecture was released on the CEN website and widely advertised. A 60 days public consultation was launched by AENOR and six meetings took place acros Europe gathering about 150 professionals from IT supliers, fashion companies and otehr related organisations.

During the consultation 166 minor comments were received and 163 comments were integrated in the final version.

Based on the consultation results, the Architecture was modified and the new version was approved at the Workshop plenary meeting (June 26).

A total of 54 companies / organisations from 14 countries have officially endorsed the Architecture (names are published in the document’s foreword)

The Architecture final version was published by CEN on 24th July 2013 as an official CEN WORKSHOP AGREEMENT (CWA).

The Architecutre is available at this page (CEN Website), name of the file: CEN Workshop Agreement.

Governance

The CEN eBIZ Workshop functions through the CEN secretariat, the elected Chairman, the selected Project Team (Experts Group), the Steering Committee and the Participants.

The Secretariat is managed by the AENOR, the CEN Spanish, member and it is responsible for procedural and administrative activities. The Chairman Mr. Marchi, Director General of EURATEX is elected at the Kick off meeting, Brussels 29th March. The chairman supports the deliveries in line with planned activities, he supports consensus building and chairs the Workshop Plenary Meetings.

The Project Team (Expert Group) is composed by five to six professionals who guide and actively support the achievement of the eBIZ objectives

  • Mauro Scalia, Project Team Expert 5 / Project Leader
  • Martin Baker, Project Team Expert 1
  • Kurt Herregodts, Project Team Expert 2 (until December 2012)
  • Enrique Montiel, Project Team Expert 3
  • Piero de Sabbata, Project Team Expert 4
  • Andreas Schneider, Project Team Expert 6

The Steering Committee is the overall advisory body which, thanks to its members experience and knowledge, provides strategic advices to implement the planned tasks. The Commitee brings in new e-Business requirements and different perspectives.

The Steering Committee consists of the Chairman, the Secretary, the Project Team and a small number of volunteers who represents fashion companies, IT suppliers and support organizations. Three Volunteers join the Steering Committee in January 2013 and therefore enrich governance with more perspectives on the market-needs, the newcomers are:

  • Pim van der Eijk, Sonnenglanz, Consulting company, The Nederlands
  • Per Ole Johansen, Client Computing, IT supplier, Germany
  • Giovanni Marini, Lanificio Cariaggi, Textile manufacturer, Italy

Expert group

The Project team experts has been selected by a joint CEN-AENOR-Euratex panel after an open recruitment process announced on the CEN web site and widely advertised; the CEN rules for the selection and appointment of the experts have been used.

Team Expert 5, Team Leader

Mauro Scalia

Mauro Scalia is Project Manager with EURATEX, the European Apparel and Textile Confederation based in Brussels.

He holds a degree in Political Science with specialization in Politics and Economics. Over the past decade he has been working in the field of international cooperation for research and innovation in private R&D organisations, an industry federation and an institution of the European Union. He has therefore acquired substantial experience in design and management of research or innovation initiatives for the benefit of both SME and large companies. He has also extensive knowledge of R&D policies and cooperation programmes development.

In early 2005 he joined EURATEX where is responsible for management of Research and Innovation projects which are of strategic importance for the Textile and Apparel industry, particularly in the areas of manufacturing,  sustainability and e-Business across the supply chain.

In the CEN eBIZ Workshop Mauro Scalia is Team Expert 5 with the twofold role of: overall coordination of the Workshop activities and coordination of communications with Members and external stakeholders.

Team Expert 1,  e-Business in textile, clothing, and footwear – the Downstream part of the supply chain

Martin Baker

In the CEN eBIZ Workshop Martin Baker is Team Expert 1 with major roles of:  Coordination of the Gap Analysis including consensus building, co-ordination of activities of other experts and other parties involved; support in the upgrade of the Reference Architecture (RA); Identification and definition of any downstream business processes not currently addressed and any additional processes to be included in RA.

Team Expert 2, e-Business in textile, clothing,– the Upstream part of the supply chain

Kurt Herregodts

He holds a degree in Languages. From 1990 till 2007 he worked for VF Europe, one of the largest textile companies worldwide, where he lead numerous EDI implementations with major retailers across Europe. In 2009 he joined GS1 Belgium & Luxembourg, the standards organization, where he was responsible for EDI. Recently he moved to the position of COO.

In the CEN eBIZ Workshop Kurt Herregodts is Team Expert 2 for elleven months with major roles of:  Support in the coordination of the Gap Analysis and on upgrade of the Reference Architecture (RA); identification and definition of any Textile Clothing upstream business processes not currently addressed and any additional processes to be included in RA. Identification and definition of any standards applicable to Textile Clothing supply chain, coordinate collection of contributions from all Workshop participants for the topics of his concern, recommendations for modifications to Textile Clothing upstream aspects of the RA.

The role undertaken until December 2012

Expert 3, e-Business in footwear,– the Upstream part of the supply chain

Enrique Montiel

In the CEN eBIZ Workshop Enrique Montiel is Team Expert 3 with major roles of:  Support in the coordination of the Gap Analysis and on upgrade of the Reference Architecture (RA); identification and definition of any footwear upstream business processes not currently addressed and any additional processes to be included in RA. Identification and definition of any standards applicable to the footwear upstream supply chain, coordinate collection of contributions from all Workshop participants for the topics of his concern, recommendations for modifications to footwear upstream aspects of the RA.

In early 2005 he joined EURATEX where is responsible for management of Research and Innovation projects which are of strategic importance for the Textile and Apparel industry, particularly in the areas of manufacturing,  sustainability and e-Business across the supply chain.

In the CEN eBIZ Workshop Mauro Scalia is Team Expert 5 with the twofold role of: overall coordination of the Workshop activities and coordination of communications with Members and external stakeholders.

Expert 4, e-Business in textile, clothing, and footwear – the Downstream and Upstream parts of the supply chain

Piero De Sabbata

Since 1986 Piero De Sabbata works in ENEA (the Italian national agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development) in the field of interoperability and data exchange standards and is involved in both research and technology transfer activities.

He holds a degree in Electronic Engineering and he has a specific experience in technology transfer initiatives in industrial districts of sectors characterised by a large presence of SMEs, like Tiles and Textile-Clothing, and  is responsible of  the CROSS-TEC laboratory at the Bologna regional Technopole of ENEA.

He participated with different roles also standardisation initiatives related to eBusiness for manufacturing industry (for example he chaired CEN WS “Standardisation and Interoperability in the Textile Supply Chain Integrated Networks-TexWeave”, promoted by Euratex -European Apparel and Textile Industry Association-) in the framework of CEN/ISSS -European Committee for Standardisation/Information Society Standardisation System).

In parallel his research interests address the issues related to ICT standards for intercompany collaboration, their lifecycle, the means and requirements for their widespread diffusion and adoption and related methodologies.

During the first eBIZ phase (2008-2010) he was coordinating the development of all versions of the eBIZ Reference Architecture.

In the CEN eBIZ Workshop Piero De Sabbata is Team Expert 4 with major roles of: Coordination of the upgrade of the Reference Architecture including consensus building, co-ordination of activities of other experts and other parties involved; provision of reports and other documentation, preparation of implementation of the upgrade of the Reference Architecture (RA), software artifacts supporting the updated specifications, definition of an interoperability testing procedure.

Expert 6, ICT

Andreas Schneider

Andreas Schneider is a textile engineer and was manager in clothing companies for many years. He is Managing Partner of GCS and is actively involved in the special activities of GCS in the area of RFID. GCS is a Munich, Germany based consulting company focusing on the textile, clothing and footwear industries. GCS founded and coordinates the so called fashionGroup RFID, a unique round table of fashion producers and retailers exchanging hands on RFID front end experiences. GCS is cooperation partner of GS1 Germany developing jointly important Supply chain and process standards for Fashion Retailers and Fashion Industry.

In the CEN eBIZ Workshop Andreas Schneider has been appointed Team Expert 6 with major roles of:  Co-ordinate activities of other IT participants and IT stakeholders involved in three tasks of Gap Analysis, upgrade of the Reference Architecture and Communication; support timely consideration of fashion IT operators.

Steering committee

As of January 2013 the Steering Committee is enriched by the following volunteer professionals :

Pim van der Eijk
Sonnenglanz, Consulting company, Holland

Pim van der Eijk own company participated in one of the pilots in the 1st phase of eBIZ (the eBIZ-TCF project 2008-2010) ith textile industry partners in Greece and Hungary and is working on open source solutions for SMEs.

In the CEN eBIZ Worlshop Pim van der Eijk is a volunteer member of the Steering committee and provides contributions in particular on “Communications / Transport Protocols” with a specific contribution on protocols supporting web services.

Per Ole Johansen
Client Computing, ICT company, Germany

Per Ole Johansen has been for 20 years general manager in an IT service company, providing e-business solutions within all business sectors. In the last four years special attention has been given to the downstream part of the fashion business in Germany, i.e. information integration between suppliers and retail shop.

In the CEN eBIZ Worlshop Per Ole Johansen is a volunteer member of the Steering committee and provides contributions in particular on “How to use RA” chapter in relationship with the experience from the point of view of the IT expert in order to facilitate the implementation of eBIZ compliant applications.

Giovanni Marini
Cariaggi, Textile manufacturer, Italy

Giovanni Marini is IT specialist since 1978. In 1984 he became IT Manager for the listed Textile Group Arnaldo Caprai and since 2005 he is IT and business management consultant for the wool mill Lanificio Cariaggi, a listed company. He has gained substantial experience in the textile sector (Arnaldo Caprai Textile Group and Tintoria Ferrini dyeing company), in the clothing sector (Maglital – Cruciani) as well as in other sectors not related to textiles. In 2007 he is appointed Director of the project titled “Planning and Development of an enhanced cooperation system for the wool industry value-chain by means of modern ICT” by the IPSA consortium, which is coordinated by Lanificio Cariaggi SpA.

In the CEN eBIZ Worlshop Giovanni Marini is a volunteer member of the Steering committee and provides contributions in particular on “Yarn Production” with a focus on the aspects related to Yarn features and quality declaration (and the related eBusiness process).

Participants

Participation to the CEN eBIZ Workshop is open free of charges to any interested stakeholder.

Professionals and companies joining the CEN eBIZ Workshop benefit of the opportunity to propose and influence the work items such as needs and solutions for wider and interoperable digital data exchange (e-Business).

Once the work-items are defined, participants are welcome to provide contributions in line with their business interests and competences.

Every participant’s point of view is welcome and addressed, transparency of decision making is guaranteed by the CEN standard procedures.

Participants were invited to respond by e-mail to six consultations launched in 2012 (April, June and September) and 2013 (January, March and June).

Participants were equally welcomed to join three planned plenary meetings (March 2012 , November 2012, June 2013) and to collaborate in any public activity such as meetings, round-table with clients, local workshop and conferences.

At the end of the CEN eBIZ Workshop, participants have freely decided whether reject or validate the new eBIZ Reference Architecture based on their own interests and preferences.

56 companies and organisations from 14 European countries endorse the new eBIZ Reference Architecture.

The Gap Analysis

The CEN eBIZ Workshop started with an analysis of the state of the art and requirements for the digital supply chain in the Textile Clothing and Footwear sectors.

Technological developments and business processes not yet addressed in the eBIZ phase 1 (Pilot 2010) were considered, including: the use of RFID tags in product identification and logistic, the use of e-invoicing, the business models and flow of goods as well as development of product classification standards.

The analysis also identifes barriers to interoperability, barriers for the adoption and requirements for wider acceptance throughout Europe.

The analysis results were used to add and modify many parts of the eBIZ Reference Architecture, as well as to define new standards/specifications where appropriate.

The Gap Analysis report recommending additions/modifications to the eBIZ Reference Architecture was timely compleated in October 2012.

The new reference architcture

A major outcome of the CEN eBIZ Workshop was the upgraded version the eBIZ Reference Architecture (RA) for wider eBusiness adoption and interoperability of the e-Business communications in the fashion supply chain.

The new Architecture was elaborated based on the requirements / specifications identified in the Gap Analysis and following technical meetings with stakeholders including eBIZ users.

back-compatibility with the previous (2010) version of the Architecture was considered be a requirement for upgraded developments and improvements.

The resulting new, upgraded Reference Architecture with detailed technical specifications: process description, data models and document templates (XML Schemas) completed with a reference validation procedure and a testing tool for stakeholders tests and public demonstrations.