ISO/TC 154 Business Plan
This page is the canonical, web-rendered edition of the ISO/TC 154 Business Plan. The committee last approved the plan by ballot in document N993; the published record is N1001, dated 2018-11-18. The PDF linked above remains the authoritative copy for citation and distribution.
Executive summary
It is the vision of ISO/TC 154 that all parties in the supply and value chain use standardized data exchange to reduce cost in managing the processes in the private and public domain and to foster trade facilitation.
The mission of ISO/TC 154 is both to undertake and to facilitate the development and maintenance of international standards for electronic business in the supply and value chain.
These standards cover data exchange regardless of the media used.
Wherever possible, ISO/TC 154 fosters harmonisation between and within international standards development organizations, particularly through the Memorandum of Understanding between the International Electrotechnical Commission, the International Organization for Standardization, the International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe concerning standardization in the field of electronic business.
1. Introduction
1.1 ISO technical committees and business planning
The extension of formal business planning to ISO Technical Committees (ISO/TCs) is an important measure which forms part of a major review of business. The aim is to align the ISO work programme with expressed business environment needs and trends, and to allow ISO/TCs to prioritize among different projects, to identify the benefits expected from the availability of International Standards, and to ensure adequate resources for projects throughout their development.
1.2 International standardization and the role of ISO
The foremost aim of international standardization is to facilitate the exchange of goods and services through the elimination of technical barriers to trade.
Three bodies are responsible for the planning, development and adoption of International Standards: ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is responsible for all sectors excluding Electrotechnical, which is the responsibility of IEC (International Electrotechnical Committee), and most of the Telecommunications Technologies, which are largely the responsibility of ITU (International Telecommunication Union).
ISO is a legal association, the members of which are the National Standards Bodies (NSBs) of some 161 countries — organizations representing social and economic interests at the international level — supported by a Central Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The principal deliverable of ISO is the International Standard.
An International Standard embodies the essential principles of global openness and transparency, consensus and technical coherence. These are safeguarded through its development in an ISO Technical Committee (ISO/TC), representative of all interested parties, supported by a public comment phase (the ISO Technical Enquiry). ISO and its Technical Committees are also able to offer the ISO Technical Specification (ISO/TS), the ISO Publicly Available Specification (ISO/PAS) and the ISO Technical Report (ISO/TR) as solutions to market needs. These ISO products represent lower levels of consensus and have therefore not the same status as an International Standard.
ISO also offers the International Workshop Agreement (IWA) as a deliverable, which aims to bridge the gap between the activities of consortia and the formal process of standardization represented by ISO and its national members. An important distinction is that the IWA is developed by ISO workshops and fora, comprising only participants with direct interest, and so it is not accorded the status of an International Standard.
2. Business environment of the ISO/TC
2.1 Description of the business environment
The following political, economic, technical, regulatory, legal and social dynamics describe the business environment of the industry sector, products, materials, disciplines or practices related to the scope of this ISO/TC, and they may significantly influence how the relevant standards development processes are conducted and the content of the resulting standards:
International standards in the documentary, processes and information aspects are explicitly recognized by the WTO/TBT (Technical Barriers to Trade) Agreement 1994 — "Where technical regulations are required and relevant International Standards exist… Members shall use them… as a basis for technical regulations."
Use of international standards, uniform documentation requirements, exchange of information and so on, are explicitly recognized by the "Protocol amending the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO 2014"; Members are encouraged to use relevant international standards or parts thereof as a basis.
Important changes have taken place in the way trade, transport and administrative data is produced, dispatched and processed.
Currently there is a multitude of sectorial, governmental, intergovernmental and standards development organizations involved in the creation of standards aimed at the open interchange of data in the value chain.[1]
The rapid development of online trade also requires globally recognized international standards for electronic data exchange among e-commerce enterprises, service providers, logistics providers, and relevant government and inter-government departments.
2.2 Quantitative indicators
The following list of quantitative indicators describes the business environment in order to provide adequate information to support actions of the ISO/TC:
It is widely recognized that billions of dollars can be saved by electronic data interchange.
The Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. With regard to trading across borders the project tracks main indicators:
number of all documents required to export/import goods,
time necessary to comply with all procedures required to export/import goods, and
cost associated with all the procedures required to export/import goods.
In the field of electronic business, from the Doing Business project’s "Trading Across Borders (2017)" report, by implementing standardized electric data interchange techniques and submission of electronic data for export and import border compliance, efficiency can improve significantly: in the Philippines, customs custody time was reduced to 4–6 hours for "green channel" shipments (from 6–8 days previously).
3. Benefits expected from the work of the ISO/TC
The introduction of standards for data exchange in international trade significantly reduces transaction costs and time. It facilitates enhanced security and transparency to combat fraud and other illegal activities, and reduces paperwork. In addition, data exchange systems provide an important migration path for MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), developing and transition countries into the global economy.
From the "Trading Across Borders (2017)" report: employing standardized digital platforms — such as port community systems — to ensure the smooth and reliable transfer of information between all members of the seaport network can improve trade efficiency and reduce shipping cost significantly. Improving port efficiency from the 25th to the 75th percentile reduces shipping costs by around 12%.
The expected benefits of the use of the standards published by ISO/TC 154 are:
improved administrative and business functions,
lower transaction costs,
increased transparency, and
integration of developing and transition economies into the international value chain.
In 2015, the UN published the Sustainable Development Goals (15-year plan) to address some of the most pressing issues faced by the world. ISO recently updated the Form 04 template to support SDGs. The deliverables of ISO/TC 154 will support possible SDGs, such as:
SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 9 — Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities and Communities
4. Representation and participation
4.1 P-, O- and Liaison-members
Currently the committee comprises 14 P- and 25 O-members, together with 17 internal (ISO and JTC 1) and 17 external (e.g. UNECE, FIATA and WCO) Liaison-members from all areas of the world. Many high-ranking international organizations are kept informed of the work done by the committee through the extensive use of electronic means to disseminate information.
The full, current roster of:
is maintained on this site and reconciled with the ISO committee page.
4.2 Coordination with other bodies
The coordination, liaison review and management with other ISO/TCs, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SCs, UNECE and other main international standardisation bodies are mainly relying on the activities of the e-business MoU — the Memorandum of Understanding between IEC, ISO, ITU and UNECE concerning standardization in the field of electronic business. The e-business MoU has specified a framework of cooperation among the bodies in the field of electronic business; Annex A of the MoU sets out the division of responsibilities.
ISO/TC 154 will play an active role as a member of the ISO delegation to the e-business MoU/MG.
5. Objectives and strategies
5.1 Defined objectives
Vision statement. It is the vision of ISO/TC 154 that all parties in the supply and value chain use standardized data exchange to reduce cost in managing the processes in the private and public domain and to foster trade facilitation.
Mission statement. The mission of ISO/TC 154 is both to undertake and to facilitate the development and maintenance of international standards for data exchange in the supply and value chain.
These standards will consider syntax-specific aspects — such as the standards of UN/EDIFACT — or any standards based on XML, etc.
Wherever possible, ISO/TC 154 fosters harmonisation between and within international standards development organizations, particularly through the e-business MoU/MG.
5.2 Strategies
- Strategies
Offer a platform for collaboration on data exchange standards.
Encourage all relevant stakeholders to participate.
Promote the use of ISO/TC 154 deliverables.
- Action points
Develop and maintain active liaisons with relevant stakeholder organisations.
Actively monitor developments that impact the data exchange between parties in the supply and value chain.
Promote the role of ISO/TC 154 to the National Standards Bodies in order to give them the possibilities to involve stakeholders.
6. Factors affecting completion and implementation
The following factors could affect the completion and implementation of the work programme of ISO/TC 154:
A lack of resources and the lack of active participation in ISO/TC 154.
The missing links between National Standards Bodies and interested stakeholders.
The lack of up-to-date and complete data directories.
The inconsistency in procedures (particularly maintenance and development) and the multiplication of working platforms across relevant stakeholder organizations.
The lack of stakeholder awareness of the activities and the benefits of the deliverables of ISO/TC 154.
7. Structure, current projects and publications
7.1 Structure of the ISO committee
The committee’s work is organized through the following bodies. The current rosters, current projects, and active resolutions for each group are linked from the corresponding group page.
- Coordination Advisory Group (CAG)
An advisory body — not a decision-making body. Its detailed function is defined in document N607.
- JWG 1 — Joint syntax working group (with UNECE)
Established by ISO/TC 154 in collaboration with UNECE through UN/CEFACT. Scope: the maintenance, update and extension of ISO 9735 (EDIFACT application level syntax rules).
- WG 5 — Date and time
Scope: to provide a common platform for all date and time stakeholders, to enable unified, interoperable representation of date and time across populations and systems. Specifically, the work involves the standardization of concepts and semantics related to date and time, systems and processes that use or measure date and time, and the interoperability of information systems that utilize date and time.
- WG 6 — Trusted eCommunications
Scope: relates to business transactions of TC 154 scope such as e-commerce, e-industry and e-administration. It focuses on reliable and identifiable methods, requirements and technology which can be retained — such as legally binding e-transactions between communication entities — for long periods. WG 6 also covers considerations about trusted e-communications in the environment of mobile, IoT and cloud, aligned with the development of emerging ICT technology.
- WG 7 — Digital business
Scope: a key task is to enhance interoperability by developing technical specifications in support of semantics, digital innovations and associated concepts that enable standardized cross-enterprise solutions. The provision of accessible or open data and related frameworks in the field of e-commerce helps to align business processes and foster global collaboration and interchange.
- JWG 8 — Logistics data contents and process
Established by ISO/TC 154 in collaboration with UNECE through UN/CEFACT. Scope: to develop the process and data-element-related standards used for data exchange between e-commerce platforms and related logistics information service providers, to facilitate on-line trade.