Diff for UBL FAQ

Thu, 2014-05-29 01:25 by tim.mcgrathThu, 2014-05-29 04:14 by tim.mcgrath
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">
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<p>
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<a href="#1">1. What is UBL?</a>
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font-size:12.0pt;
+
-
font-family:Cambria;
+
-
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
+
-
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
+
-
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
+
-
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
+
-
</style>
+
-
<![endif]-->
+
-
<!--StartFragment-->
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<!--[if supportFields]><span lang=EN-US><span
+
<a href="#2">2. Where did UBL come from?</a>
-
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
+
-
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>TOC \o &quot;1-3&quot; <span style='mso-element:
+
-
field-separator'></span></span><![endif]--><span><span>1.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span>    </span></span><span>What is UBL?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>2.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span>    </span></span><span>Where did UBL come from?</span>
+
<a href="#3">3. Where does UBL stand at this point?</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>3.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span>    </span></span><span>Where does UBL stand at this point?</span>
+
<a href="#4">4. Is UBL a ‘real’ global standard for electronic business?</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>4.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span>    </span></span><span>Is UBL a ‘real’ global standard for
+
<a href="#5">5. How can I get the UBL 2.1 package, and what's in it?</a>
-
electronic business?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>5.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span>    </span></span><span>How can I get the UBL 2.1 package, and
+
<a href="#6">6. How much will it cost to use UBL?</a>
-
what's in it?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>6.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span>    </span></span><span>How much will it cost to use UBL?</span>
+
<a href="#7">7. Where can I discuss UBL with other users?</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>7.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span>    </span></span><span>Where can I discuss UBL with other users?</span>
+
<a href="#8">8. Who owns UBL?</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>8.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span>    </span></span><span>Who owns UBL?</span>
+
<a href="#9">9. Is the UBL effort still open to participation?</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>9.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span>    </span></span><span>Is the UBL effort still open to
+
<a href="#10">10. Can UBL be customized to meet specific business requirements?</a>
-
participation?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>10.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>Can UBL be customized to meet specific
+
<a href="#11">11. Has UBL been successful in real-world implementations?</a>
-
business requirements?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>11.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>Has UBL been successful in real-world
+
<a href="#12">12. What is the UBL semantic data model?</a>
-
implementations?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>12.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>What is the UBL semantic data model?<span> </span></span>
+
<a href="#13">13. Can I use UBL in other contexts?</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>13.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>Can I use UBL in other contexts?</span>
+
<a href="#14">14. How does UBL facilitate international trade?</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>14.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>How does UBL facilitate international
+
<a href="#15">15. Can I use UBL in a Single Window environment?</a>
-
trade?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>15.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>Can I use UBL in a Single Window
+
<a href="#16">16. What is the relationship of UBL to ebXML?</a>
-
environment?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>16.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>What is the relationship of UBL to ebXML?</span>
+
<a href="#17">17. How does UBL support the European electronic invoicing Directive?</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>17.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>What is the relationship of UBL to ebXML
+
<a href="#18">18. Can I use digital signatures to electronically sign UBL documents?</a>
-
Core Components?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>18.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>How does UBL support the European
+
&nbsp;
-
electronic invoicing Directive?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>Will UBL be the standard European invoice format?</span>
+
<strong><a name="1" title="1"></a>1. What is UBL?<br />
  +
</strong>
  +
UBL, the Universal Business Language, is the product of an international effort to define a royalty-free library of standard electronic XML business documents such as purchase orders and invoices. Developed in an open and accountable OASIS Technical Committee with participation from a variety of industry data standards organizations, UBL is designed to plug directly into existing business, legal, auditing, and records management practices, eliminating the re-keying of data in existing fax- and paper-based supply chains and providing an entry point into electronic business for small and medium-sized businesses.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>Is the Directive asking for yet another standard?</span>
+
<strong><a name="2" title="2"></a>2. Where did UBL come from?<br />
  +
</strong>
  +
The UBL initiative originated in efforts beginning in mid-1999 to create a set of standard XML &quot;office documents&quot; within OASIS. The work of the OASIS OfficeDoc TC under the leadership of Murray Altheim of Sun Microsystems was set aside when OASIS and UN/CEFACT began collaboration on ebXML in December 1999. Interest in the creation of a standard XML syntax for basic commercial documents revived again in May 2000 with the decision in ebXML to omit a standard XML &quot;payload&quot; syntax from the initial set of ebXML deliverables. The working group that came to be known as UBL began in April 2001 as a discussion group sponsored by CommerceNet and was established as an OASIS Technical Committee in November 2001.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>What will a standard European electronic invoice look
+
Rather than starting from scratch the Committee proposed using the xCBL 3.0 business document library (from CommerceOne and SAP) as the basis for creating a new business document library that was a synthesis of existing XML business document libraries based on EDI semantics. It was also based on the ebXML CCTS methodology and thus completed the total ebXML framework of standards for electronic business.
-
like?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc2">
+
<p>
-
<span>Should I delay my electronic invoicing programme until
+
<strong><a name="3" title="3"></a>3. Where does UBL stand at this point?<br />
-
we see what the European semantic standard is?</span>
+
</strong>
  +
UBL 1.0 was released as an OASIS Standard on 8 November 2004 following three years of open development and public review. UBL 2.0, which expanded the scope of UBL to include the commercial collaborations of international trade, was approved in November 2006.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoToc1">
+
<p>
-
<span>19.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal"><span> </span></span><span>Can I use digital signatures to electronically
+
The current version, UBL 2.1 was approved as an OASIS Standard in November 2013 and extends the functionality of UBL 2.0 to include support for collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment; vendor managed inventory; utility billing; tendering; and intermodal freight management.
-
sign UBL documents?</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<h1><!--[if supportFields]><span lang=EN-US><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]--><span> </span></h1>
+
<p>
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973724" title="_Toc262973724"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>1.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">   </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>What is UBL?</span></h1>
+
UBL 2.1 is fully backward compatible with UBL 2.0. It is the intention of the UBL Technical Committee to stabilize on the UBL 2 for the foreseeable future so that subsequent releases of UBL will not affect the validity of any UBL 2.0 (and later) documents.  This means future releases will focus on further extensions to the functionality and will not require changes to existing UBL implementations.
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>UBL, the Universal Business Language, is
+
-
the product of an international effort to define a royalty-free library of
+
-
standard electronic XML business documents such as purchase orders and invoices.
+
-
Developed in an open and accountable OASIS Technical Committee with
+
-
participation from a variety of industry data standards organizations, UBL is
+
-
designed to plug directly into existing business, legal, auditing, and records
+
-
management practices, eliminating the re-keying of data in existing fax- and
+
-
paper-based supply chains and providing an entry point into electronic business
+
-
for small and medium-sized businesses.</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973725" title="_Toc262973725"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>2.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">   </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Where did UBL come from?</span></h1>
+
<p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<strong><a name="4" title="4"></a>4. Is UBL a ‘true’ global standard for electronic business?<br />
-
<span>The UBL initiative originated in efforts
+
</strong>
-
beginning in mid-1999 to create a set of standard XML &quot;office
+
This is a surprisingly difficulty question to answer. Perhaps the clearest summary of what makes 'true' standards comes from a recent article published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
-
documents&quot; within OASIS. The work of the OASIS OfficeDoc TC under the
+
-
leadership of Murray Altheim of Sun Microsystems was set aside when OASIS and
+
-
UN/CEFACT began collaboration on ebXML in December 1999. Interest in the
+
-
creation of a standard XML syntax for basic commercial documents revived again
+
-
in May 2000 with the decision in ebXML to omit a standard XML
+
-
&quot;payload&quot; syntax from the initial set of ebXML deliverables. The
+
-
working group that came to be known as UBL began in April 2001 as a discussion
+
-
group sponsored by CommerceNet and was established as an OASIS Technical
+
-
Committee in November 2001.</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973726" title="_Toc262973726"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>3.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">   </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Where does UBL stand at this point?</span></h1>
+
<p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<em>“When it comes to international standardization, good practices are measured against the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement Committee Decision[<a href="#TBT">1</a>], which states that the global relevance of a standard is determined by how it was developed, not where. More specifically, the Decision states that the development of international standards must rely upon a number of principles, including openness, impartiality, consensus, transparency, and coherence, among others.
-
<span>UBL 1.0 was released as an OASIS Standard
+
In other words, the global relevance of a standard cannot and should not be measured by which organization developed it. The degree to which a standard is used in the global marketplace is, in ANSI’s view, the best measure of an international standard.”[<a href="#ANSI">2</a>]</em>
-
on 8 November 2004 following three years of open development and public review.
+
-
UBL 2.0, which expanded the scope of UBL to include the commercial
+
-
collaborations of international trade, was approved in November 2006.</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>The current version, UBL 2.1 was
+
Using this description we believe UBL qualifies as an international standard in compliance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement Committee Decision.
-
approved as an OASIS Standard in November 2013 and extends the
+
-
functionality of UBL 2.0 to include support for collaborative planning,
+
-
forecasting, and replenishment; vendor managed inventory; utility billing;
+
-
tendering; and intermodal freight management.</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>UBL 2.1 is fully backward compatible with
+
The strength of UBL (as with any standard) is that:
-
UBL 2.0. It is the intention of the UBL Technical Committee to stabilize on the
+
-
UBL 2 for the foreseeable future so that subsequent releases of UBL will not
+
-
affect the validity of any UBL 2.0 (and later) documents.  This means
+
-
future releases will focus on further extensions to the functionality and will
+
-
not require changes to existing UBL implementations.</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973727" title="_Toc262973727"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>4.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">   </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Is UBL a ‘real’ global standard for electronic business?</span></h1>
+
<ul>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<li>it is an open global standard (from a recognized standards consortium)</li>
-
<span>Perhaps the clearest summary of what makes
+
<li>it exists (the technology works)</li>
-
standards effective comes from a recent article published by the American
+
<li>it is stable (it has good governance)</li>
-
National Standards Institute (ANSI).</span>
+
<li>it is proven to meet business requirements (it has market adoption)</li>
  +
</ul>
  +
UBL has been developed within OASIS (a global standards development consortia) and OASIS has recently submitted UBL 2.1 to the ISO-IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (Information Technology) for publication as an ISO standard.  This will ensure that UBL is both recognized in public sector policies and will also provide additional layers of governance for the long-term sustainability of UBL.
  +
<p>
  +
&nbsp;
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>“When it comes to international
+
In this way UBL is following a typical evolutionary path for effective global standards.
-
standardization, good practices are measured against the World Trade
+
-
Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement Committee
+
-
Decision<strong>[1]</strong>, which states that the global relevance of a standard is
+
-
determined by how it was developed, not where. More specifically, the Decision
+
-
states that the development of international standards must rely upon a number
+
-
of principles, including openness, impartiality, consensus, transparency, and
+
-
coherence, among others.</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>In other words, the global relevance of a
+
<a name="TBT" title="TBT"></a>[1] G/TBT/ 1/REV. 10. “Decision of the Committee on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations with Relation to Articles 2, 5 and Annex 3 of the Agreement”
-
standard cannot and should not be measured by which organization developed it.
+
-
The degree to which a standard is used in the global marketplace is, in ANSI’s
+
-
view, the best measure of an international standard.”<strong>[2]</strong></span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>Using this description we believe UBL
+
<a name="ANSI" title="ANSI"></a>[2] <a href="http://ansi.org/news_publications/news_story.aspx?menuid=7&amp;articleid=3754">ANSI Supports Continued Dialogue on Standards for EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership</a>, New York  October 11, 2013
-
qualifies as an international standard in compliance with the World Trade
+
-
Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement Committee
+
-
Decision.</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>The strength of UBL (as with any standard)
+
<strong><a name="5" title="5"></a>5. How can I get the UBL 2.1 package, and what's in it?<br />
-
is that:</span>
+
</strong>
  +
The UBL 2.1 specification is accessible from <a href="https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ubl#announcements">OASIS</a> in <a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html">HTML</a>, <a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.pdf">PDF</a> and <a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.xml">XML</a> formats.
  +
The entire specification can also be downloaded as a single zip archive from <br />
  +
<a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.zip">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.zip</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
The UBL 2.1 release package contains an overview of the following common business processes:
-
it is an open global standard (from a recognized standards consortium)</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<ul>
-
<span>·        
+
<li>Tendering</li>
-
it exists (the technology works)</span>
+
<li>Catalogue</li>
  +
<li>Quotation</li>
  +
<li>Ordering</li>
  +
<li>Fulfilment</li>
  +
<li>Billing</li>
  +
<li>Freight Billing</li>
  +
<li>Utility Billing</li>
  +
<li>Payment Notification</li>
  +
<li>Report State of Accounts</li>
  +
<li>Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment</li>
  +
<li>Vendor Managed Inventory</li>
  +
<li>International Freight Management</li>
  +
<li>Freight Status Reporting</li>
  +
<li>Certification of Origin of Goods</li>
  +
<li>Intermodal Freight Management</li>
  +
</ul>
  +
And the standard XML Schemas for the documents used in these processes:
  +
<ul>
  +
<li>Application Response</li>
  +
<li>Attached Document</li>
  +
<li>vAwarded Notification</li>
  +
<li>Bill of Lading</li>
  +
<li>Call for Tenders</li>
  +
<li>Catalogue</li>
  +
<li>Catalogue Deletion</li>
  +
<li>Catalogue Item Specification Update</li>
  +
<li>Catalogue Pricing Update</li>
  +
<li>Catalogue Request</li>
  +
<li>Certificate of Origin</li>
  +
<li>Contract Award Notice</li>
  +
<li>Contract Notice</li>
  +
<li>Credit Note</li>
  +
<li>Debit Note</li>
  +
<li>Despatch Advice</li>
  +
<li>Document Status</li>
  +
<li>Document Status Request</li>
  +
<li>Exception Criteria</li>
  +
<li>Exception Notification</li>
  +
<li>Forecast</li>
  +
<li>Forecast Revision</li>
  +
<li>Forwarding Instructions</li>
  +
<li>Freight Invoice</li>
  +
<li>Fulfilment Cancellation</li>
  +
<li>Goods Item Itinerary</li>
  +
<li>Guarantee Certificate</li>
  +
<li>Instruction for Returns</li>
  +
<li>Inventory Report</li>
  +
<li>Invoice</li>
  +
<li>Item Information Request</li>
  +
<li>Order</li>
  +
<li>Order Cancellation</li>
  +
<li>Order Change</li>
  +
<li>Order Response</li>
  +
<li>Order Response Simple</li>
  +
<li>Packing List</li>
  +
<li>Prior Information Notice</li>
  +
<li>Product Activity</li>
  +
<li>Quotation</li>
  +
<li>Receipt Advice</li>
  +
<li>Reminder</li>
  +
<li>Remittance Advice</li>
  +
<li>Request for Quotation</li>
  +
<li>Retail Event</li>
  +
<li>Self Billed Credit Note</li>
  +
<li>Self Billed Invoice</li>
  +
<li>Statement</li>
  +
<li>Stock Availability Report</li>
  +
<li>Tender</li>
  +
<li>Tender Receipt</li>
  +
<li>Tenderer Qualification</li>
  +
<li>Tenderer Qualification Response</li>
  +
<li>Trade Item Location Profile</li>
  +
<li>Transport Execution Plan</li>
  +
<li>Transport Execution Plan Request</li>
  +
<li>Transport Progress Status</li>
  +
<li>Transport Progress Status Request</li>
  +
<li>Transport Service Description</li>
  +
<li>Transport Service Description Request</li>
  +
<li>Transportation Status</li>
  +
<li>Transportation Status Request</li>
  +
<li>Unawarded Notification</li>
  +
<li>Utility Statement</li>
  +
<li>Waybill</li>
  +
</ul>
  +
<p>
  +
&nbsp;
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<strong><a name="6" title="6"></a>6. How much will it cost to use UBL?<br />
-
it is stable (it has good governance)</span>
+
</strong>
  +
The simple answer is that UBL is royalty-free. It can be used without charge by anyone.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
More precisely, the UBL TC operates in the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) mode known as &quot;Royalty Free on Limited Terms,&quot; which &quot;requires all Obligated Parties to license their Essential Claims using the RF licensing elements described in Sections 10.2.1 and 10.2.3&quot; of the <a href="http://www.oasis-open.org/who/intellectualproperty.php">OASIS IPR Policy</a>.
-
it is proven to meet business requirements (it has market adoption). </span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>UBL has been developed within OASIS (a
+
<strong><a name="7" title="7"></a>7. Where can I discuss UBL with other users?<br />
-
global standards development consortia) and OASIS has recently submitted UBL
+
</strong>
-
2.1 to the ISO-IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (Information Technology) for
+
For general discussions and exchanges of ideas there is a web site and wiki for the UBL user community at:<br />
-
publication as an ISO standard.  This will ensure that UBL is both
+
<a href="http://ubl.xml.org">UBL.XML.org</a>.
-
recognized in public sector policies and will also provide additional layers of
+
-
governance for the long-term sustainability of UBL.</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>In this way UBL is following a typical
+
For specific questions regarding UBL a publicly subscribable OASIS ubl-dev list provides a free forum for questions regarding UBL. The ubl-dev archive is located at:
-
evolutionary path for effective global standards.</span>
+
<br />
  +
<a href="http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-dev/">http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-dev/</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px" class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>[1] G/TBT/ 1/REV. 10. “Decision of the Committee on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations with Relation to Articles 2, 5 and Annex 3 of the Agreement”</span>
+
Subscriptions to ubl-dev can be made through the OASIS list manager at:
  +
<br />
  +
<a href="http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php">http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px" class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>[2] ANSI Supports Continued Dialogue on Standards for EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership<strong>, </strong>New York  October 11, 2013 (<a style="color: #000099; text-decoration: none" href="http://ansi.org/news_publications/news_story.aspx?menuid=7&amp;articleid=3754">http://ansi.org/news_publications/news_story.aspx?menuid=7&amp;articleid=3754</a>)</span> 
+
<strong><a name="8" title="8"></a>8. Who owns UBL?<br />
  +
</strong>
  +
UBL is owned by <a href="https://www.oasis-open.org/">OASIS</a>, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the open development of public XML standards. UBL is maintained by the <a href="https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ubl">OASIS Universal Business Language Technical Committee</a> made up of XML and business experts.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973728" title="_Toc262973728"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>5.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">   </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>How can I get the UBL 2.1 package, and what's in it?</span></h1>
+
<p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<strong><a name="9" title="9"></a>9. Is the UBL effort still open to participation?<br />
-
<span>UBL 2.1 can be downloaded as a single zip
+
</strong>
-
archive from</span>
+
Yes! Anyone interested in the further development of UBL should join OASIS and sign up for the UBL TC. OASIS memberships are available at <br />
  +
<a href="http://www.oasis-open.org/join/">http://www.oasis-open.org/join/</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.zip">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.zip</a></span>
+
<strong><a name="10" title="10"></a>10. Can UBL be customized to meet specific business requirements?<br />
  +
</strong>
  +
In many small-business environments, standard forms can satisfy business requirements well enough to be used without modification. The existence of standard paper forms such as the UN Layout Key proves this. In these environments, UBL can work right out of the box.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>The UBL 2.1 release package contains an
+
Customization is an activity undertaken by implementers of UBL to apply additional business rules and information requirements to documents conforming to the standard UBL schema. UBL does not attempt a complete solution to this problem but instead takes an extremely pragmatic approach that should allow satisfactory solutions in the great majority of real-world cases.
-
overview of identified Business Processes:</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
For example, each UBL schema contains an optional extension area in which trading partners may, by agreement, include any data not already covered by the very extensive predefined UBL data structure. Maintaining this extension area and coordinating its use is, of course, the responsibility of the trading partners. But this simple strategy allows nearly unlimited flexibility in individual trading relationships without requiring modification of the standard UBL schemas.
-
Tendering</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
Implementers of UBL typically use customization techniques to apply extensions, restrictions and other business rules to their documents. To assist in developing these, the UBL Guidelines for Customization are available at:
-
Catalogue</span>
+
<br />
  +
<a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/guidelines/UBL2-Customization1.0cs01.pdf">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/guidelines/UBL2-Customization1.0cs01.pdf</a>
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<strong><a name="11" title="11"></a>11. Has UBL been successful in real-world implementations?<br />
-
Quotation</span>
+
</strong>
  +
Since UBL is publicly available and royalty-free it is impossible to track implementations with any accuracy.  However, over the past 10 years a number of UBL user communities have made themselves known to the UBL Technical Committee.  Some of these are listed below.  Many of these stakeholder communities have also contributed to the ongoing development of UBL.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
From this we can confidently state that UBL has seen significant large-scale, real-world adoption in public procurement programmes, initially in Europe and now in other regions across the public and private sector.   
-
Ordering</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
The first example of this was from Denmark.  Since February 2005, use of the UBL Invoice standard has been mandated by law for all public-sector business in Denmark. Several million UBL invoices are currently exchanged in Denmark every month. The Danish Ministry of Finance estimates savings to the government of 100 million euros annually from use of this one document type. The introduction of their wider-ranging OIOUBL initiative in 2010 affected almost all 440,000 businesses in Denmark and established Denmark as a world leader in electronic invoicing best practice.
-
Fulfilment</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
In 2008, the PEPPOL (Pan European eProcurement Online) initiative scaled UBL adoption across 11 countries: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.  In March 2014 the OpenPEPPOL association, set up to ensure long term sustainability of PEPPOL had one hundred member organisations from the public and private sector, from 18 European countries, including Russia and USA.  In April 2014, the UK National Health Service, the world's largest publicly funded health service and the world’s 5th largest employer, announced that PEPPOL standards (including UBL) would be the basis of its new eProcurement strategy.
-
Billing</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
Government adoption in this way has a stimulating effect on adoption in other communities because government procurement touches on both commercial and policy issues.  In most economies it is the largest procurement activity.  This means standards introduced for public procurement have traction that encourages adoption by other parts of the economy.
-
Freight Billing</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
The current implementations of UBL known to the UBL Technical Committee are…
-
Utility Billing</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
Public Procurement initiatives:
-
Payment Notification</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<ul>
-
<span>·        
+
<li>PEPPOL (Pan-European)</li>
-
Report State of Accounts</span>
+
<li>OIOUBL (Denmark)</li>
  +
<li>EHF (Norway)</li>
  +
<li>Svefaktura (Sweden)</li>
  +
<li>E-Invoicing (Iceland)</li>
  +
<li>ePrior (European Commission)</li>
  +
<li>E-Fatura (Turkey)</li>
  +
<li>Factura Electronica (Peru)</li>
  +
<li>E-Invoicing (Croatia)</li>
  +
<li>National Health Service (UK)</li>
  +
</ul>
  +
Trading Communities:
  +
<ul>
  +
<li>Textile, Clothing and Footwear (eBiz-TCF)</li>
  +
</ul>
  +
Service Providers:
  +
<ul>
  +
<li>eInvoicing (Tradeshift, Accountis/Fundtech, B2BRouter, SimplerInvoicing)</li>
  +
<li>Logistics Services (Freightgate, Electra)</li>
  +
<li>ePurchasing (Ozedi)</li>
  +
<li>Online Retailing (Wehkamp)</li>
  +
<li>Industry Groups (European eInvoice Service Providers Association)</li>
  +
</ul>
  +
Freight Logistics and Transport initiatives:
  +
<ul>
  +
<li>eFreight (European Commission, DG MOVE)</li>
  +
<li>DTTN (Port of Hong Kong)</li>
  +
<li>CertOfOrigin (CrimsonLogic, Singapore)</li>
  +
<li>Electronic Freight Management (US Dept of Transport)</li>
  +
</ul>
  +
<p>
  +
&nbsp;
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<strong><a name="12" title="12"></a>12. What is the UBL semantic data model?<br />
-
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment</span>
+
</strong>
  +
Since its inception UBL has taken a data model approach to designing standardized business documents (that can be expressed in XML).  In fact, all UBL document types are made up of components from a common data model known as the Common Library.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
Using this semantic data model to describe the UBL Common Library has proven beneficial in several ways:
-
Vendor Managed Inventory</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<ul>
-
<span>·        
+
<li>Business experts can work on the semantics of UBL business processes and their data requirements without needing to know XML technology.  This methodology is based on principles of business data analysis and modeling and uses the ebXML Core Component Technical Specification (ISO 15000-5) for its notation. </li>
-
International Freight Management</span>
+
<li>The common data model ensures that the common semantics of the components are not lost when they are re-used in different contexts.  This means a UBL Address is always the same component wherever it appears.</li>
  +
<li>It is possible to automatically generate from the UBL data models not only XML representations of document types such as XML Schema and RelaxNG but also non-XML representations such as ASN.1. This effectively ‘future-proofs’ UBL from changes in notations and syntaxes.</li>
  +
<li>Because the UBL semantic data model is similar to a relational data model, some user communities also use this data model for their own internal data representations.  Why re-invent common data structures from scratch when UBL has already designed a useful starting point?</li>
  +
</ul>
  +
To aid in understanding the UBL semantic data model <a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-2.1-UML/v1.0/UBL-2.1-UML-v1.0.html">UML</a>, <a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/mod/summary/reports/UBL-AllDocuments-2.1.html#Summary">HTML</a> and <a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html#S-THE-UBL-COMMON-LIBRARY">spreadsheet</a> views are provided.  
  +
<p>
  +
&nbsp;
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
For more details see the <a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html#A-THE-UBL-2.1-DATA-MODEL">OASIS UBL 2.1 specification Appendix C The UBL 2.1 Data Model</a>
-
Freight Status Reporting</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
Having a foundation based on a common semantic data model provides long term sustainability for the growing number of communities who are implementing solutions based on UBL.  
-
Certification of Origin of Goods</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<strong><a name="13" title="13"></a>13. Can I use UBL in other contexts?<br />
-
Intermodal Freight Management</span>
+
</strong>
  +
Yes. Many communities have successfully built their own XML schema using UBL as a starting point. Some of these have subsequently been submitted to the UBL Technical Committee as candidates for inclusion in the official UBL standard.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>And XML Schemas for the documents used in
+
Others have used the UBL’s Naming and Design Rules to create completely new messages in domains such as healthcare, education and customs.
-
these processes:</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<strong><a name="14" title="14"></a>14. How does UBL facilitate international trade?<br />
-
Application Response</span>
+
</strong>
  +
One of the challenges with international trade in the digital era is trust. When businesses seek to develop or improve their international supply chains their primary consideration is trust in the complete trade system. Trust in the security, reliability and authenticity of the processes and partners they are dealing with.  Fundamental to establishing this trust are standards.  Using standards creates certainty… and certainty enables trust.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
UBL's contribution to ensuring trust in international trade lies in the definition of a standard set of XML documents that provide the world with standards for the electronic versions of traditional business documents designed in a way that recognizes established commercial and legal practices.
-
Attached Document</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
Exchanging standard UBL documents ensures that the structures and semantics of the information being exchanged are consistent and interoperable with trading partners.
-
Awarded Notification</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<strong><a name="15" title="15"></a>15. Can I use UBL in a Single Window environment?<br />
-
Bill of Lading</span>
+
</strong>
  +
The regulatory Single Window concept has been implemented in many countries around the world as a major platform for collaboration and information exchange among different government agencies involved in international trade. Recognized as effective trade facilitation measures in the recent Bali Ministerial Declaration and WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, regulatory Single Window systems are increasingly being adopted by developed and developing countries.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
However, international trade transactions require a number of different business processes (not just regulatory exchnages with gvernment agencies) and the information used in these processes needs to be aligned.
-
Call for Tenders</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
European projects such as PEPPOL and e-Freight have demonstrated that UBL is a suitable standard for implementing the commercial, transport and freight logistic information exchanges required by processes that complement the use of regulatory Single Windows.
-
Catalogue</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<strong><a name="16" title="16"></a>16. What is the relationship of UBL to ebXML?<br />
-
Catalogue Deletion</span>
+
</strong>
  +
The impetus to begin the UBL TC came from the desire of a number of ebXML participants to define a standard XML payload format for ebXML — that is, an XML counterpart to traditional EDI standards such as ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT. The ebXML suite of specifications, many of them now standardized as ISO 15000, provides a complete, next-generation XML-based infrastructure that enables EDI functionality over the free Internet.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
UBL provides a standard data format for the messages to be exchanged in such an infrastructure. However, UBL is designed to be &quot;agnostic&quot; with respect to the infrastructure, and UBL messages can be used in a very wide range of functional contexts, from complex service-oriented architectures and cloud services to the simple exchange of documents via email.
-
Catalogue Item Specification Update</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<em>What is the relationship of UBL to ebXML Core Components?</em>
-
Catalogue Pricing Update</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
UBL was the first published data format specification produced in full conformance with UN/CEFACT's ebXML Core Components Technical Specification (CCTS) Version 2.01 - ISO TS15000-5:2005.
-
Catalogue Request</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
The UBL library consists of ebXML CCTS Business Information Entities (BIEs). UBL XML schemas are defined through the application of UBL Naming and Design Rules (NDRs) to an underlying data model mapped to the Core Component types.
-
Certificate of Origin</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
For more information please see the UBL Committee Note on “<a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-conformance-to-CCTS/v1.0/cn01/UBL-conformance-to-CCTS-v1.0-cn01.html">UBL Conformance to ebXML CCTS </a>”.
-
Contract Award Notice</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<strong><a name="17" title="17"></a>17. How does UBL support the European electronic invoicing Directive?<br />
-
Contract Notice</span>
+
</strong>
  +
The <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2014:133:FULL&amp;from=EN">European Directive on electronic invoicing in public procurement</a> is a law enacted by the European parliament obliging public authorities in all EU member states to receive electronic invoices.  One aspect of this law is that a common European standard for the semantic data model of the core elements of an electronic invoice (the &quot;European standard on electronic invoicing&quot;) will be developed over the next few years.  When this is published, public sector contracting authorities will be obliged to receive and process electronic invoices formatted using a listed set of syntaxes that comply with the European semantic standard.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
The work of the CEN BII Workshop will be a key foundation for the European standard for electronic invoicing and we expect UBL will be one of the syntaxes identified.
-
Credit Note</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<em> Will UBL be the standard European invoice format?</em>
-
Debit Note</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
Yes (and no). There will not be a standard format or syntax for European invoices.  The European standard on electronic invoicing will not dictate what syntax or format is to be used, only the semantics of the required information.
-
Despatch Advice</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
However, the semantic model of the CEN BII Post-award Profile will be a key foundation of the European semantics and as the combination of BII semantics and UBL format/syntax has been widely adopted in Europe, the expectation is that the established BII user community will be supported by the standard.  
-
Document Status</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
While there will not be a European standard for invoice syntax, the UBL Technical Committee expect that market forces will determine that UBL syntax is the most effective implementation of the European standard on electronic invoicing.
-
Document Status Request</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<em>Is the Directive asking for yet another standard?</em>
-
Exception Criteria</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
No, fortunately this work is already well established and the formal standardization can be seen as the next stage on the natural evolution of standards.  The obligation is for invoices to contain core information elements.  Defining what is required as core information for electronic invoicing is not a new piece of work.  These requirements will be based on existing standardization activities by groups such as the CEN BII Workshop and specifically the semantic data model used in the BII Profiles for post-award processes.
-
Exception Notification</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<em>What will a standard European electronic invoice look like?</em>
-
Forecast</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
The UBL Technical Committee expect that various subsets of the UBL Invoice will be compliant to the new standard.  Valid subsets will contain the core elements of information (the semantics) defined by the European standard on electronic invoicing.
-
Forecast Revision</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<em>Should I delay my electronic invoicing programme until the European semantic standard has been published?</em>
-
Forwarding Instructions</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
Not at all. This is an unnecessary delay and counter to the intention of the Directive. The work of the CEN BII Workshop will be a key foundation on which to develop the European standard for electronic invoicing and UBL will be one of the syntaxes identified. Therefore, the current CEN BII Post-award Profile offers a suitable placeholder for the eventual European standard and so can be implemented with some confidence that this will comply with the Directive.
-
Freight Invoice</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
<strong><a name="1" title="1"></a>18. Can I use digital signatures to electronically sign UBL documents?<br />
-
Fulfilment Cancellation</span>
+
</strong>
  +
The UBL 2.1 electronic signature extension is the first &quot;committee specified extension&quot; and it incorporates the use of the W3C digital signature XML structure. This extension also can be used with UBL 2.0 documents.
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
The UBL 2.1 specification documentats the <a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html#S-UBL-DIGITAL-SIGNATURE">electronic signature extension</a>.
-
Goods Item Itinerary</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
This includes specific provisions to use extensions supporting [XAdES], XML Advanced Electronic Signatures (ETSI TS 101 903), when the electronic signing of UBL documents is necessary to satisfy legal and technical requirements.
-
Guarantee Certificate</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
In essence, support for digital signatures is straightforward, digital signature users embed in the W3C digital signature structure (&quot;<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xmldsig-core-20020212/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xmldsig-core-20020212/</a>&quot;) all their information required for legal and technical requirements. The UBL extension point scaffolding suitably embeds this W3C structure in any UBL instance providing full schema validation of the information and ensuring compliance to UBL.
-
Instruction for Returns</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<p>
-
<span>·        
+
As with all XML documents, electronic signature validation is done outside of schema validation.  Examples of the use of electronic signatures in UBL are found in these digitally-signed UBL documents:
-
Inventory Report</span>
+
 
</p>
 
</p>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
<ul>
-
<span>·        
+
<li><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Enveloped.xml">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Enveloped.xml</a></li>
-
Invoice</span>
+
<li><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Detached.xml">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Detached.xml</a></li>
-
</p>
+
<li><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Detached-Signature.xml">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Detached-Signature.xml</a></li>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Item Information Request</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Order</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Order Cancellation</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Order Change</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Order Response</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Order Response Simple</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Packing List</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Prior Information Notice</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Product Activity</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Quotation</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Receipt Advice</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Reminder</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Remittance Advice</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Request for Quotation</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Retail Event</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Self Billed Credit Note</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Self Billed Invoice</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Statement</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Stock Availability Report</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Tender</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Tender Receipt</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Tenderer Qualification</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Tenderer Qualification Response</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Trade Item Location Profile</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Transport Execution Plan</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Transport Execution Plan Request</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Transport Progress Status</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Transport Progress Status Request</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Transport Service Description</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Transport Service Description Request</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Transportation Status</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Transportation Status Request</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Unawarded Notification</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Utility Statement</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>·        
+
-
Waybill</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973729" title="_Toc262973729"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>6.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">   </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>How much will it cost to use UBL?</span></h1>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>The simple answer is that UBL is
+
-
royalty-free. It can be used without charge by anyone.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>More precisely, the UBL TC operates in the
+
-
OASIS Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) mode known as &quot;Royalty Free on
+
-
Limited Terms,&quot; which &quot;requires all Obligated Parties to license
+
-
their Essential Claims using the RF licensing elements described in Sections
+
-
10.2.1 and 10.2.3&quot; of the OASIS IPR Policy, a copy of which can be found
+
-
at:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span><a href="http://www.oasis-open.org/who/intellectualproperty.php">http://www.oasis-open.org/who/intellectualproperty.php</a></span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973730" title="_Toc262973730"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>7.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">   </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Where can I discuss UBL with other users?</span></h1>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>For general discussions and exchanges of
+
-
ideas there is a web site and wiki for the UBL user community at <a href="/">ubl.xml.org</a>.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>For specifc questions regarding UBL a
+
-
publicly subscribable OASIS ubl-dev list provides a free forum for questions
+
-
regarding UBL. The ubl-dev archive is located at:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span><a href="http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-dev/">http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-dev/</a></span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Subscriptions to ubl-dev can be made
+
-
through the OASIS list manager at:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span><a href="http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php">http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php</a></span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973731" title="_Toc262973731"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>8.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">   </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Who owns UBL?</span></h1>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>UBL is owned by OASIS, a nonprofit
+
-
organization dedicated to the open development of public XML standards. UBL is
+
-
maintained by an OASIS Technical Committee made up of XML and business experts.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973732" title="_Toc262973732"></a><a name="_Toc262970495" title="_Toc262970495"></a><span><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>9.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">   </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Is the UBL effort still open to participation?</span></span></h1>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Yes! Anyone interested in the further
+
-
development of UBL should join OASIS and sign up for the UBL TC. OASIS
+
-
memberships are available at the following URL:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span><a href="http://www.oasis-open.org/join/">http://www.oasis-open.org/join/</a></span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973733" title="_Toc262973733"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>10.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Can UBL be customized to meet
+
-
specific business requirements?</span></h1>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>In many small-business environments,
+
-
standard forms can satisfy business requirements well enough to be used without
+
-
modification. The existence of standard paper forms such as the UN Layout Key
+
-
proves this. In these environments, UBL can work right out of the box.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Customization is an activity undertaken by
+
-
implementers of UBL to apply additional business rules and information
+
-
requirements to documents conforming to the standard UBL schema. UBL does not
+
-
attempt a complete solution to this problem but instead takes an extremely
+
-
pragmatic approach that should allow satisfactory solutions in the great
+
-
majority of real-world cases.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>For example, each UBL schema contains an
+
-
optional extension area in which trading partners may, by agreement, include
+
-
any data not already covered by the very extensive predefined UBL data
+
-
structure. Maintaining this extension area and coordinating its use is, of
+
-
course, the responsibility of the trading partners. But this simple strategy
+
-
allows nearly unlimited flexibility in individual trading relationships without
+
-
requiring modification of the standard UBL schemas.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Implementers of UBL typically use
+
-
customization techniques to apply extensions, restrictions and other business
+
-
rules to their documents. To assist in developing these, the UBL Guidelines for
+
-
Customization are available at:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/guidelines/UBL2-Customization1.0cs01.pdf">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/guidelines/UBL2-Customization1.0cs01.pdf</a></span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973734" title="_Toc262973734"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>11.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Has UBL been successful in
+
-
real-world implementations?</span></h1>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Since UBL is publicly available and
+
-
royalty-free it is impossible to track implementations with any accuracy. 
+
-
However, over the past 10 years a number of UBL user communities have made
+
-
themselves known to the UBL Technical Committee.  Some of these are listed
+
-
below.  Many of these stakeholder communities have also contributed to the
+
-
ongoing development of UBL.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>From this we can confidently state that UBL
+
-
has seen significant large-scale, real-world adoption in public procurement
+
-
programmes, initially in Europe and now in other regions across the public and
+
-
private sector.   </span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>The first example of this was from
+
-
Denmark.  Since February 2005, use of the UBL Invoice standard has been
+
-
mandated by law for all public-sector business in Denmark. Several million UBL
+
-
invoices are currently exchanged in Denmark every month. The Danish Ministry of
+
-
Finance estimates savings to the government of 100 million euros annually from
+
-
use of this one document type. The introduction of their wider-ranging <a href="http://www.oioubl.info/classes/en/index.html">OIOUBL initiative</a> in
+
-
2010 affected almost all 440,000 businesses in Denmark and established Denmark
+
-
as a world leader in electronic invoicing best practice.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>In 2008, the PEPPOL (Pan European
+
-
eProcurement Online) initiative scaled UBL adoption across 11 countries:
+
-
Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal,
+
-
Sweden, and the United Kingdom.  In March 2014 the OpenPEPPOL association,
+
-
set up to ensure long term sustainability of PEPPOL had one hundred member
+
-
organisations from the public and private sector, from 18 European countries,
+
-
including Russia and USA.  In April 2014, the UK National Health Service,
+
-
the world's largest publicly funded health service and the world’s 5th largest
+
-
employer, announced that PEPPOL standards (including UBL) would be the basis of
+
-
its new eProcurement strategy.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Government adoption in this way has a
+
-
stimulating effect on adoption in other communities because government
+
-
procurement touches on both commercial and policy issues.  In most
+
-
economies it is the largest procurement activity.  This means standards
+
-
introduced for public procurement have traction that encourages adoption by
+
-
other parts of the economy.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>The current implementations of UBL known to
+
-
the UBL Technical Committee are…</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Public Procurement initiatives:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.peppol.eu/">PEPPOL</a> (Pan-European)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.oioubl.info/classes/da/index.html">OIOUBL</a> (Denmark)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.difi.no/artikkel/2012/11/papirfakturaens-tid-er-forbi">EHF</a>
+
-
(Norway)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.sfti.se/specifikationer/svefaktura">Svefaktura</a> (Sweden)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.icepro.is/Pages/NewsInfo.aspx?id=83">E-Invoicing</a> (Iceland)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/informatics/supplier_portal/index_en.htm">ePrior</a>
+
-
(European Commission)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.efatura.gov.tr/anasayfa.html">E-Fatura</a> (Turkey)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://orientacion.sunat.gob.pe/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=849&amp;Itemid=155">Factura
+
-
Electronica</a> (Peru)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.e-invoice-gateway.net/knowledgebase/countryrelated/compare?country1=332&amp;country2=332">E-Invoicing</a>
+
-
(Croatia)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-e-procurement-strategy">National
+
-
Health Service</a> (UK)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Trading Communities:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraph">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Textile, Clothing and Footwear
+
-
(<a href="http://ebiz-tcf.eu/">eBiz-TCF</a>)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Service Providers:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>eInvoicing (<a href="http://tradeshift.com/">Tradeshift</a>, <a href="http://www.fundtech.com/products/cash-management/accountis-eipp/?redirect_source=accountis.com">Accountis</a>,
+
-
<a href="https://www.b2brouter.net/">B2BRouter</a>, <a href="http://www.simplerinvoicing.org/">SimplerInvoicing</a>)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Logistics Services (<a href="http://www.freightgate.com/">Freightgate</a>, <a href="http://www.electra.se/">Electra</a>)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>ePurchasing (<a href="http://www.ozedi.com.au/">Ozedi</a>)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Online Retailing (<a href="http://www.wehkamp.nl/">Wehkamp</a>)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Industry Groups (<a href="http://www.eespa.eu/content/interoperability">European eInvoice Service
+
-
Providers Association</a>)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Freight Logistics and Transport
+
-
initiatives:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.efreightproject.eu/">eFreight</a> (European Commission, DG
+
-
MOVE)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.hk-dttn.com/home/english/home.html">DTTN</a> (Port of Hong
+
-
Kong)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="https://www.certoforigin.com/tnlcoo/pfk/PfkMainServlet?pContents=/coo/CooWalkinUrl.jsp&amp;pPortalId=COO">CertOfOrigin</a>
+
-
(CrimsonLogic, Singapore)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
+
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>     <a href="http://www.its.dot.gov/efm/">Electronic Freight Management</a> (US Dept
+
-
of Transport)</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973735" title="_Toc262973735"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>12.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
+
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>What is the UBL semantic data
+
-
model?</span></h1>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Since its inception in 2002, UBL has taken
+
-
a data model approach to designing standardized business documents (that can be
+
-
expressed in XML).  In fact, all UBL document types are made up of
+
-
components from a common data model we call the Common Library.</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
+
-
<span>Using a semantic data model to describe the
+
-
UBL Common Library has proven beneficial in several ways:</span>
+
-
</p>
+
-
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm">
+
-
<li class="MsoNormal"><span>Business
+
-
experts can work on the semantics of UBL business processes and their data
+
-
requirements without needing to know XML technology.  This
+
-
methodology is based on principles of business data analysis and modeling
+
-
and uses the ebXML Core Component Technical Specification (ISO 15000-5)
+
-
for its notation. </span></li>
+
-
<li class="MsoNormal"><span>The
+
-
common data model ensures that the common semantics of the components are
+
-
not lost when they are re-used in different contexts.  This means a
+
-
UBL Address is always the same component wherever it appears.</span></li>
+
-
<li class="MsoNormal"><span>It is
+
-
possible to automatically generate from the UBL data models not only XML
+
-
representations of document types such as XML Schema and RelaxNG but also
+
-
non-XML representations such as ASN.1. This effectively ‘future-proofs’
+
-
UBL from changes in notations and syntaxes. </span></li>
+
-
<li class="MsoNormal"><span>Because
+
-
the UBL semantic data model is similar to a relational data model, some
+
-
user communities also use this data model for their own internal data
+
-
representations.  Why re-invent common data structures from scratch
+
-
when UBL has already designed a useful starting point?</span></li>
+
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>To aid in understanding the UBL semantic data
  
-
model UML, HTML and spreadsheet views are provided.  For more details:</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>OASIS UBL 2.1 specification Appendix C The
  
-
UBL 2.1 Data Model (<a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html#A-THE-UBL-2.1-DATA-MODEL">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html#A-THE-UBL-2.1-DAT...</a>)</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>Having a foundation based on a common
  
-
semantic data model provides long term sustainability for the growing number of
  
-
communities who are implementing solutions based on UBL.  </span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973736" title="_Toc262973736"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>13.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Can I use UBL in other
  
-
contexts?</span></h1>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>Yes. Many communities have successfully
  
-
built their own XML schema using UBL as a starting point. Some of these have
  
-
subsequently been submitted to the UBL Technical Committee as candidates for
  
-
inclusion in the official UBL standard.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>Others have used the UBL’s Naming and
  
-
Design Rules to create completely new messages in domains such as healthcare,
  
-
education and customs.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973737" title="_Toc262973737"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>14.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>How does UBL facilitate
  
-
international trade?</span></h1>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>One of the challenges with international
  
-
trade in the digital era is trust. When businesses seek to develop or improve
  
-
their international supply chains their primary consideration is trust in the
  
-
complete trade system. Trust in the security, reliability and authenticity of
  
-
the processes and partners they are dealing with.  Fundamental to
  
-
establishing this trust are standards.  Using standards creates certainty…
  
-
and certainty enables trust.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>UBL's contribution to ensuring trust in
  
-
international trade lies in the definition of a standard set of XML documents
  
-
that provide the world with standards for the electronic versions of
  
-
traditional business documents designed in a way that recognizes established
  
-
commercial and legal practices.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>Exchanging standard UBL documents ensures
  
-
that the structures and semantics of the information being exchanged are
  
-
consistent and interoperable with trading partners.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973738" title="_Toc262973738"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>15.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Can I use UBL in a Single
  
-
Window environment?</span></h1>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>The regulatory Single Window concept has
  
-
been implemented in many developing countries around the world as a major
  
-
platform for collaboration and information exchange among different government
  
-
agencies involved in international trade. Recognized as effective trade facilitation
  
-
measures in the recent Bali Ministerial Declaration and WTO Trade Facilitation
  
-
Agreement, regulatory Single Window systems are increasingly being adopted by
  
-
developed and developing countries.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>However, international trade transactions
  
-
require a number of different business processes (not just regulatory) that
  
-
need to be coordinated.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>European projects such as PEPPOL and
  
-
e-Freight have demonstrated that UBL is a suitable standard for implementing
  
-
the commercial, transport and freight logistic documents required by processes
  
-
that complement regulatory Single Windows.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973739" title="_Toc262973739"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>16.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>What is the relationship of UBL
  
-
to ebXML?</span></h1>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>The impetus to begin the UBL TC came from
  
-
the desire of a number of ebXML participants to define a standard XML payload
  
-
format for ebXML — that is, an XML counterpart to traditional EDI standards
  
-
such as ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT. The ebXML suite of specifications, many of
  
-
them now standardized as ISO 15000, provides a complete, next-generation
  
-
XML-based infrastructure that enables EDI functionality over the free Internet.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>UBL provides a standard data format for the
  
-
messages to be exchanged in such an infrastructure. However, UBL is designed to
  
-
be &quot;agnostic&quot; with respect to the infrastructure, and UBL messages
  
-
can be used in a very wide range of functional contexts, from complex
  
-
service-oriented architectures and cloud services to the simple exchange of
  
-
documents via email.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973740" title="_Toc262973740"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>17.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>What is the relationship of UBL
  
-
to ebXML Core Components?</span></h1>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>UBL was the first published data format
  
-
specification produced in full conformance with UN/CEFACT's ebXML Core
  
-
Components Technical Specification (CCTS) Version 2.01 - ISO TS15000-5:2005.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>The UBL library consists of ebXML CCTS
  
-
Business Information Entities (BIEs). UBL XML schemas are defined through the
  
-
application of UBL Naming and Design Rules (NDRs) to an underlying data model
  
-
mapped to the Core Component types.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>For more information please see the UBL
  
-
Committee Note on “UBL Conformance to ebXML CCTS” at:</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-conformance-to-CCTS/v1.0/cn01/UBL-conformance-to-CCTS-v1.0-cn01.html">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-conformance-to-CCTS/v1.0/cn01/UBL-conformance-to-CCTS-v1.0-cn01.html</a></span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973741" title="_Toc262973741"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>18.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>How does UBL support the
  
-
European electronic invoicing Directive?</span></h1>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>The European Directive on electronic
  
-
invoicing in public procurement is a law enacted by the European parliament
  
-
obliging public authorities in all EU member states to receive electronic
  
-
invoices.  One aspect of this law is that a common European standard for
  
-
the semantic data model of the core elements of an electronic invoice (the
  
-
‘European standard on electronic invoicing’) will be developed over the next
  
-
few years.  When this is published, public sector contracting authorities
  
-
will be obliged to receive and process electronic invoices formatted using a
  
-
listed set of syntaxes that comply with the European semantic standard.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>The work of the CEN BII Workshop will be a
  
-
key foundation for the European standard for electronic invoicing and we expect
  
-
UBL will be one of the syntaxes identified.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h2><a name="_Toc262973742" title="_Toc262973742"></a><span>Will UBL be the standard European
  
-
invoice format?</span></h2>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>Yes (and no). There will not be a standard
  
-
format or syntax for European invoices.  The European standard on
  
-
electronic invoicing will not dictate what syntax or format is to be used, only
  
-
the semantics of the required information.  </span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>However, the semantic model of the CEN BII
  
-
Post-award Profile will be a key foundation of the European semantics and as
  
-
the combination of BII semantics and UBL format/syntax has been widely adopted
  
-
in Europe, the expectation is that the established BII user community will be
  
-
supported by the standard.  </span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>While there will not be a European standard
  
-
for invoice syntax, we expect that market forces will determine that UBL syntax
  
-
is the most effective implementation of the European standard on electronic
  
-
invoicing.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h2><a name="_Toc262973743" title="_Toc262973743"></a><span>Is the Directive asking for yet
  
-
another standard?</span></h2>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>No, fortunately this work is already well
  
-
established and the formal standardization can be seen as the next stage on the
  
-
natural evolution of standards.  The obligation is for invoices to contain
  
-
core information elements.  Defining what is required as core information
  
-
is not a new piece of work.  These requirements will be based on existing
  
-
standardization activities by groups such as the CEN BII Workshop and the
  
-
semantic data model used in the BII Profiles for post-award processes.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h2><a name="_Toc262973744" title="_Toc262973744"></a><span>What will a standard European
  
-
electronic invoice look like?</span></h2>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>We expect that various subsets of the UBL
  
-
Invoice will be compliant to the new standard.  Valid subsets will contain
  
-
the core elements of information (the semantics) defined by the European
  
-
standard on electronic invoicing.  </span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h2><a name="_Toc262973745" title="_Toc262973745"></a><span>Should I delay my electronic
  
-
invoicing programme until we see what the European semantic standard is?</span></h2>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>Not at all. This is unnecessary and counter
  
-
to the intention of the Directive. The work of the CEN BII Workshop will be a
  
-
key foundation on which to develop the European standard for electronic
  
-
invoicing and UBL will be one of the syntaxes identified. Therefore, the
  
-
current CEN BII Post-award Profile offers a suitable placeholder for the
  
-
eventual European standard and so can be implemented with some confidence that
  
-
this will comply with the Directive.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<h1 style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt"><a name="_Toc262973746" title="_Toc262973746"></a><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span>19.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">                
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span>Can I use digital signatures to
  
-
electronically sign UBL documents?</span></h1>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>The UBL 2.1 electronic signature extension
  
-
is the first &quot;committee specified extension&quot; and it incorporates the
  
-
use of the W3C digital signature XML structure. This extension also can be used
  
-
with UBL 2.0 documents.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>The documentation of the electronic
  
-
signature extension is found in the UBL 2.1 specification here:</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html%23S-UBL-DIGITAL-SIGNATURE">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html#S-UBL-DIGITAL-SIGNATURE</a>
  
-
</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>... where one reads:</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>&quot;These include specific provisions to
  
-
use extensions supporting [XAdES], XML Advanced Electronic Signatures (ETSI TS
  
-
101 903), when the electronic signing of UBL documents is necessary to satisfy
  
-
legal and technical requirements.”</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>In essence, support for digital signatures
  
-
is straightforward, thus ensuring a compliant implementation in OASIS
  
-
UBL:  digital signature users embed in the W3C digital signature structure
  
-
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xmldsig-core-20020212/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xmldsig-core-20020212/</a>
  
-
all their information required for legal and technical requirements, and the
  
-
UBL extension point scaffolding suitably embeds this W3C structure in any UBL
  
-
instance providing full schema validation of the information.</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span>As with all XML documents, electronic
  
-
signature validation is done outside of schema validation.  Examples of
  
-
the use of electronic signatures in UBL are found in these digitally-signed UBL
  
-
documents:</span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst">
  
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Enveloped.xml">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Enveloped.xml</a></span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
  
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Detached.xml">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Detached.xml</a></span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p style="text-indent: -18pt" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
  
-
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'">     
  
-
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span><a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Detached-Signature.xml">http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/xml/UBL-Invoice-2.0-Detached-Signature.xml</a></span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span> </span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
<span> </span>
  
-
</p>
  
-
<p class="MsoNormal">
  
-
&nbsp;
  
-
</p>
  
-
<!--EndFragment-->
  
 
<p>
 
<p>
 
&nbsp;
 
&nbsp;
 
</p>
 
</p>
 
 
Revision of Thu, 2014-05-29 04:14:

UBL FAQ

1. What is UBL?

2. Where did UBL come from?

3. Where does UBL stand at this point?

4. Is UBL a ‘real’ global standard for electronic business?

5. How can I get the UBL 2.1 package, and what's in it?

6. How much will it cost to use UBL?

7. Where can I discuss UBL with other users?

8. Who owns UBL?

9. Is the UBL effort still open to participation?

10. Can UBL be customized to meet specific business requirements?

11. Has UBL been successful in real-world implementations?

12. What is the UBL semantic data model?

13. Can I use UBL in other contexts?

14. How does UBL facilitate international trade?

15. Can I use UBL in a Single Window environment?

16. What is the relationship of UBL to ebXML?

17. How does UBL support the European electronic invoicing Directive?

18. Can I use digital signatures to electronically sign UBL documents?

 

1. What is UBL?
 UBL, the Universal Business Language, is the product of an international effort to define a royalty-free library of standard electronic XML business documents such as purchase orders and invoices. Developed in an open and accountable OASIS Technical Committee with participation from a variety of industry data standards organizations, UBL is designed to plug directly into existing business, legal, auditing, and records management practices, eliminating the re-keying of data in existing fax- and paper-based supply chains and providing an entry point into electronic business for small and medium-sized businesses.

2. Where did UBL come from?
 The UBL initiative originated in efforts beginning in mid-1999 to create a set of standard XML "office documents" within OASIS. The work of the OASIS OfficeDoc TC under the leadership of Murray Altheim of Sun Microsystems was set aside when OASIS and UN/CEFACT began collaboration on ebXML in December 1999. Interest in the creation of a standard XML syntax for basic commercial documents revived again in May 2000 with the decision in ebXML to omit a standard XML "payload" syntax from the initial set of ebXML deliverables. The working group that came to be known as UBL began in April 2001 as a discussion group sponsored by CommerceNet and was established as an OASIS Technical Committee in November 2001.

Rather than starting from scratch the Committee proposed using the xCBL 3.0 business document library (from CommerceOne and SAP) as the basis for creating a new business document library that was a synthesis of existing XML business document libraries based on EDI semantics. It was also based on the ebXML CCTS methodology and thus completed the total ebXML framework of standards for electronic business.

3. Where does UBL stand at this point?
 UBL 1.0 was released as an OASIS Standard on 8 November 2004 following three years of open development and public review. UBL 2.0, which expanded the scope of UBL to include the commercial collaborations of international trade, was approved in November 2006.

The current version, UBL 2.1 was approved as an OASIS Standard in November 2013 and extends the functionality of UBL 2.0 to include support for collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment; vendor managed inventory; utility billing; tendering; and intermodal freight management.

UBL 2.1 is fully backward compatible with UBL 2.0. It is the intention of the UBL Technical Committee to stabilize on the UBL 2 for the foreseeable future so that subsequent releases of UBL will not affect the validity of any UBL 2.0 (and later) documents.  This means future releases will focus on further extensions to the functionality and will not require changes to existing UBL implementations.

4. Is UBL a ‘true’ global standard for electronic business?
 This is a surprisingly difficulty question to answer. Perhaps the clearest summary of what makes 'true' standards comes from a recent article published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

“When it comes to international standardization, good practices are measured against the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement Committee Decision[1], which states that the global relevance of a standard is determined by how it was developed, not where. More specifically, the Decision states that the development of international standards must rely upon a number of principles, including openness, impartiality, consensus, transparency, and coherence, among others. In other words, the global relevance of a standard cannot and should not be measured by which organization developed it. The degree to which a standard is used in the global marketplace is, in ANSI’s view, the best measure of an international standard.”[2]

Using this description we believe UBL qualifies as an international standard in compliance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement Committee Decision.

The strength of UBL (as with any standard) is that:

  • it is an open global standard (from a recognized standards consortium)
  • it exists (the technology works)
  • it is stable (it has good governance)
  • it is proven to meet business requirements (it has market adoption)
UBL has been developed within OASIS (a global standards development consortia) and OASIS has recently submitted UBL 2.1 to the ISO-IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (Information Technology) for publication as an ISO standard.  This will ensure that UBL is both recognized in public sector policies and will also provide additional layers of governance for the long-term sustainability of UBL.

 

In this way UBL is following a typical evolutionary path for effective global standards.

[1] G/TBT/ 1/REV. 10. “Decision of the Committee on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations with Relation to Articles 2, 5 and Annex 3 of the Agreement”

[2] ANSI Supports Continued Dialogue on Standards for EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, New York  October 11, 2013

5. How can I get the UBL 2.1 package, and what's in it?
 The UBL 2.1 specification is accessible from OASIS in HTML, PDF and XML formats. The entire specification can also be downloaded as a single zip archive from
http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.zip

The UBL 2.1 release package contains an overview of the following common business processes:

  • Tendering
  • Catalogue
  • Quotation
  • Ordering
  • Fulfilment
  • Billing
  • Freight Billing
  • Utility Billing
  • Payment Notification
  • Report State of Accounts
  • Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment
  • Vendor Managed Inventory
  • International Freight Management
  • Freight Status Reporting
  • Certification of Origin of Goods
  • Intermodal Freight Management
And the standard XML Schemas for the documents used in these processes:
  • Application Response
  • Attached Document
  • vAwarded Notification
  • Bill of Lading
  • Call for Tenders
  • Catalogue
  • Catalogue Deletion
  • Catalogue Item Specification Update
  • Catalogue Pricing Update
  • Catalogue Request
  • Certificate of Origin
  • Contract Award Notice
  • Contract Notice
  • Credit Note
  • Debit Note
  • Despatch Advice
  • Document Status
  • Document Status Request
  • Exception Criteria
  • Exception Notification
  • Forecast
  • Forecast Revision
  • Forwarding Instructions
  • Freight Invoice
  • Fulfilment Cancellation
  • Goods Item Itinerary
  • Guarantee Certificate
  • Instruction for Returns
  • Inventory Report
  • Invoice
  • Item Information Request
  • Order
  • Order Cancellation
  • Order Change
  • Order Response
  • Order Response Simple
  • Packing List
  • Prior Information Notice
  • Product Activity
  • Quotation
  • Receipt Advice
  • Reminder
  • Remittance Advice
  • Request for Quotation
  • Retail Event
  • Self Billed Credit Note
  • Self Billed Invoice
  • Statement
  • Stock Availability Report
  • Tender
  • Tender Receipt
  • Tenderer Qualification
  • Tenderer Qualification Response
  • Trade Item Location Profile
  • Transport Execution Plan
  • Transport Execution Plan Request
  • Transport Progress Status
  • Transport Progress Status Request
  • Transport Service Description
  • Transport Service Description Request
  • Transportation Status
  • Transportation Status Request
  • Unawarded Notification
  • Utility Statement
  • Waybill

 

6. How much will it cost to use UBL?
 The simple answer is that UBL is royalty-free. It can be used without charge by anyone.

More precisely, the UBL TC operates in the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) mode known as "Royalty Free on Limited Terms," which "requires all Obligated Parties to license their Essential Claims using the RF licensing elements described in Sections 10.2.1 and 10.2.3" of the OASIS IPR Policy.

7. Where can I discuss UBL with other users?
 For general discussions and exchanges of ideas there is a web site and wiki for the UBL user community at:
UBL.XML.org.

For specific questions regarding UBL a publicly subscribable OASIS ubl-dev list provides a free forum for questions regarding UBL. The ubl-dev archive is located at:
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-dev/

Subscriptions to ubl-dev can be made through the OASIS list manager at:
http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php

8. Who owns UBL?
 UBL is owned by OASIS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the open development of public XML standards. UBL is maintained by the OASIS Universal Business Language Technical Committee made up of XML and business experts.

9. Is the UBL effort still open to participation?
 Yes! Anyone interested in the further development of UBL should join OASIS and sign up for the UBL TC. OASIS memberships are available at
http://www.oasis-open.org/join/

10. Can UBL be customized to meet specific business requirements?
 In many small-business environments, standard forms can satisfy business requirements well enough to be used without modification. The existence of standard paper forms such as the UN Layout Key proves this. In these environments, UBL can work right out of the box.

Customization is an activity undertaken by implementers of UBL to apply additional business rules and information requirements to documents conforming to the standard UBL schema. UBL does not attempt a complete solution to this problem but instead takes an extremely pragmatic approach that should allow satisfactory solutions in the great majority of real-world cases.

For example, each UBL schema contains an optional extension area in which trading partners may, by agreement, include any data not already covered by the very extensive predefined UBL data structure. Maintaining this extension area and coordinating its use is, of course, the responsibility of the trading partners. But this simple strategy allows nearly unlimited flexibility in individual trading relationships without requiring modification of the standard UBL schemas.

Implementers of UBL typically use customization techniques to apply extensions, restrictions and other business rules to their documents. To assist in developing these, the UBL Guidelines for Customization are available at:
http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/guidelines/UBL2-Customization1.0cs01.pdf

11. Has UBL been successful in real-world implementations?
 Since UBL is publicly available and royalty-free it is impossible to track implementations with any accuracy.  However, over the past 10 years a number of UBL user communities have made themselves known to the UBL Technical Committee.  Some of these are listed below.  Many of these stakeholder communities have also contributed to the ongoing development of UBL.

From this we can confidently state that UBL has seen significant large-scale, real-world adoption in public procurement programmes, initially in Europe and now in other regions across the public and private sector.   

The first example of this was from Denmark.  Since February 2005, use of the UBL Invoice standard has been mandated by law for all public-sector business in Denmark. Several million UBL invoices are currently exchanged in Denmark every month. The Danish Ministry of Finance estimates savings to the government of 100 million euros annually from use of this one document type. The introduction of their wider-ranging OIOUBL initiative in 2010 affected almost all 440,000 businesses in Denmark and established Denmark as a world leader in electronic invoicing best practice.

In 2008, the PEPPOL (Pan European eProcurement Online) initiative scaled UBL adoption across 11 countries: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.  In March 2014 the OpenPEPPOL association, set up to ensure long term sustainability of PEPPOL had one hundred member organisations from the public and private sector, from 18 European countries, including Russia and USA.  In April 2014, the UK National Health Service, the world's largest publicly funded health service and the world’s 5th largest employer, announced that PEPPOL standards (including UBL) would be the basis of its new eProcurement strategy.

Government adoption in this way has a stimulating effect on adoption in other communities because government procurement touches on both commercial and policy issues.  In most economies it is the largest procurement activity.  This means standards introduced for public procurement have traction that encourages adoption by other parts of the economy.

The current implementations of UBL known to the UBL Technical Committee are…

Public Procurement initiatives:

  • PEPPOL (Pan-European)
  • OIOUBL (Denmark)
  • EHF (Norway)
  • Svefaktura (Sweden)
  • E-Invoicing (Iceland)
  • ePrior (European Commission)
  • E-Fatura (Turkey)
  • Factura Electronica (Peru)
  • E-Invoicing (Croatia)
  • National Health Service (UK)
Trading Communities:
  • Textile, Clothing and Footwear (eBiz-TCF)
Service Providers:
  • eInvoicing (Tradeshift, Accountis/Fundtech, B2BRouter, SimplerInvoicing)
  • Logistics Services (Freightgate, Electra)
  • ePurchasing (Ozedi)
  • Online Retailing (Wehkamp)
  • Industry Groups (European eInvoice Service Providers Association)
Freight Logistics and Transport initiatives:
  • eFreight (European Commission, DG MOVE)
  • DTTN (Port of Hong Kong)
  • CertOfOrigin (CrimsonLogic, Singapore)
  • Electronic Freight Management (US Dept of Transport)

 

12. What is the UBL semantic data model?
 Since its inception UBL has taken a data model approach to designing standardized business documents (that can be expressed in XML).  In fact, all UBL document types are made up of components from a common data model known as the Common Library.

Using this semantic data model to describe the UBL Common Library has proven beneficial in several ways:

  • Business experts can work on the semantics of UBL business processes and their data requirements without needing to know XML technology.  This methodology is based on principles of business data analysis and modeling and uses the ebXML Core Component Technical Specification (ISO 15000-5) for its notation. 
  • The common data model ensures that the common semantics of the components are not lost when they are re-used in different contexts.  This means a UBL Address is always the same component wherever it appears.
  • It is possible to automatically generate from the UBL data models not only XML representations of document types such as XML Schema and RelaxNG but also non-XML representations such as ASN.1. This effectively ‘future-proofs’ UBL from changes in notations and syntaxes.
  • Because the UBL semantic data model is similar to a relational data model, some user communities also use this data model for their own internal data representations.  Why re-invent common data structures from scratch when UBL has already designed a useful starting point?
To aid in understanding the UBL semantic data model UML, HTML and spreadsheet views are provided.  

 

For more details see the OASIS UBL 2.1 specification Appendix C The UBL 2.1 Data Model

Having a foundation based on a common semantic data model provides long term sustainability for the growing number of communities who are implementing solutions based on UBL.  

13. Can I use UBL in other contexts?
 Yes. Many communities have successfully built their own XML schema using UBL as a starting point. Some of these have subsequently been submitted to the UBL Technical Committee as candidates for inclusion in the official UBL standard.

Others have used the UBL’s Naming and Design Rules to create completely new messages in domains such as healthcare, education and customs.

14. How does UBL facilitate international trade?
 One of the challenges with international trade in the digital era is trust. When businesses seek to develop or improve their international supply chains their primary consideration is trust in the complete trade system. Trust in the security, reliability and authenticity of the processes and partners they are dealing with.  Fundamental to establishing this trust are standards.  Using standards creates certainty… and certainty enables trust.

UBL's contribution to ensuring trust in international trade lies in the definition of a standard set of XML documents that provide the world with standards for the electronic versions of traditional business documents designed in a way that recognizes established commercial and legal practices.

Exchanging standard UBL documents ensures that the structures and semantics of the information being exchanged are consistent and interoperable with trading partners.

15. Can I use UBL in a Single Window environment?
 The regulatory Single Window concept has been implemented in many countries around the world as a major platform for collaboration and information exchange among different government agencies involved in international trade. Recognized as effective trade facilitation measures in the recent Bali Ministerial Declaration and WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, regulatory Single Window systems are increasingly being adopted by developed and developing countries.

However, international trade transactions require a number of different business processes (not just regulatory exchnages with gvernment agencies) and the information used in these processes needs to be aligned.

European projects such as PEPPOL and e-Freight have demonstrated that UBL is a suitable standard for implementing the commercial, transport and freight logistic information exchanges required by processes that complement the use of regulatory Single Windows.

16. What is the relationship of UBL to ebXML?
 The impetus to begin the UBL TC came from the desire of a number of ebXML participants to define a standard XML payload format for ebXML — that is, an XML counterpart to traditional EDI standards such as ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT. The ebXML suite of specifications, many of them now standardized as ISO 15000, provides a complete, next-generation XML-based infrastructure that enables EDI functionality over the free Internet.

UBL provides a standard data format for the messages to be exchanged in such an infrastructure. However, UBL is designed to be "agnostic" with respect to the infrastructure, and UBL messages can be used in a very wide range of functional contexts, from complex service-oriented architectures and cloud services to the simple exchange of documents via email.

What is the relationship of UBL to ebXML Core Components?

UBL was the first published data format specification produced in full conformance with UN/CEFACT's ebXML Core Components Technical Specification (CCTS) Version 2.01 - ISO TS15000-5:2005.

The UBL library consists of ebXML CCTS Business Information Entities (BIEs). UBL XML schemas are defined through the application of UBL Naming and Design Rules (NDRs) to an underlying data model mapped to the Core Component types.

For more information please see the UBL Committee Note on “UBL Conformance to ebXML CCTS ”.

17. How does UBL support the European electronic invoicing Directive?
 The European Directive on electronic invoicing in public procurement is a law enacted by the European parliament obliging public authorities in all EU member states to receive electronic invoices.  One aspect of this law is that a common European standard for the semantic data model of the core elements of an electronic invoice (the "European standard on electronic invoicing") will be developed over the next few years.  When this is published, public sector contracting authorities will be obliged to receive and process electronic invoices formatted using a listed set of syntaxes that comply with the European semantic standard.

The work of the CEN BII Workshop will be a key foundation for the European standard for electronic invoicing and we expect UBL will be one of the syntaxes identified.

Will UBL be the standard European invoice format?

Yes (and no). There will not be a standard format or syntax for European invoices.  The European standard on electronic invoicing will not dictate what syntax or format is to be used, only the semantics of the required information.

However, the semantic model of the CEN BII Post-award Profile will be a key foundation of the European semantics and as the combination of BII semantics and UBL format/syntax has been widely adopted in Europe, the expectation is that the established BII user community will be supported by the standard.  

While there will not be a European standard for invoice syntax, the UBL Technical Committee expect that market forces will determine that UBL syntax is the most effective implementation of the European standard on electronic invoicing.

Is the Directive asking for yet another standard?

No, fortunately this work is already well established and the formal standardization can be seen as the next stage on the natural evolution of standards.  The obligation is for invoices to contain core information elements.  Defining what is required as core information for electronic invoicing is not a new piece of work.  These requirements will be based on existing standardization activities by groups such as the CEN BII Workshop and specifically the semantic data model used in the BII Profiles for post-award processes.

What will a standard European electronic invoice look like?

The UBL Technical Committee expect that various subsets of the UBL Invoice will be compliant to the new standard.  Valid subsets will contain the core elements of information (the semantics) defined by the European standard on electronic invoicing.

Should I delay my electronic invoicing programme until the European semantic standard has been published?

Not at all. This is an unnecessary delay and counter to the intention of the Directive. The work of the CEN BII Workshop will be a key foundation on which to develop the European standard for electronic invoicing and UBL will be one of the syntaxes identified. Therefore, the current CEN BII Post-award Profile offers a suitable placeholder for the eventual European standard and so can be implemented with some confidence that this will comply with the Directive.

18. Can I use digital signatures to electronically sign UBL documents?
 The UBL 2.1 electronic signature extension is the first "committee specified extension" and it incorporates the use of the W3C digital signature XML structure. This extension also can be used with UBL 2.0 documents.

The UBL 2.1 specification documentats the electronic signature extension.

This includes specific provisions to use extensions supporting [XAdES], XML Advanced Electronic Signatures (ETSI TS 101 903), when the electronic signing of UBL documents is necessary to satisfy legal and technical requirements.

In essence, support for digital signatures is straightforward, digital signature users embed in the W3C digital signature structure ("http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xmldsig-core-20020212/") all their information required for legal and technical requirements. The UBL extension point scaffolding suitably embeds this W3C structure in any UBL instance providing full schema validation of the information and ensuring compliance to UBL.

As with all XML documents, electronic signature validation is done outside of schema validation.  Examples of the use of electronic signatures in UBL are found in these digitally-signed UBL documents:

 

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