By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 18 -- The chemicals, petroleum, and agricultural industries plan to collaborate on the development and support of common platform-independent electronic business data communications standards in an effort to reduce costs and improve operating efficiencies.
The Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX), Petroleum Industry Data Exchange (PIDX), and Rapid Inc., a nonprofit trade association representing the agricultural industry, signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on information, technology, and process standardization within and among their respective industries.
Together, the three bodies will:
-- Define a set of voluntary vertical industry standards for trade within and among their respective industries.
-- Represent the "voice of the combined industries" to cross-industry XML (extensible markup language) standards initiatives.
-- Work to accelerate development and implementation of improved technologies to support the common standards.
-- Share implementation knowledge, case studies, and support materials.
"Our collective industries are important trading partners to one another, and this collaboration between standards bodies is a natural evolution of the work each organization has completed independently," said Patricia B. Simmons, CIDX executive director. "We intend to leverage our individual experiences and best practices to improve the flow of electronic transactions between our industries."
Randy Clark, PIDX chair, said that the chemical, petroleum, and agricultural industries share many common processes and practices. "By jointly working toward common standards, we reduce costs and improve business operating efficiencies across our industries."
A joint collaboration advisory team comprised of management representatives from each organization will establish the scope of all projects. Together, the three groups will manage, maintain, and disseminate the common standards to ensure integrity and availability.
Separately, each organization will assess its own needs and priorities, funneling the information back to a joint collaboration advisory team. The shared electronic standards will be free to all interested businesses.
CIDX is a global trade association and standards body, whose mission is to improve the ease, speed, and cost of conducting business electronically between chemical companies and their trading partners. The American Petroleum Institute's Electronic Commerce Committee, the PIDX, was formed in 1987 to develop and promote the implementation of electronic standards for the oil and natural gas industry. Rapid is a nonprofit trade association formed in 1995 to promote standardized electronic connectivity in the agricultural industry.