As the new co-chairs of the Global Commerce Initiative, Cees van der Hoeven (Ahold) and Antony Burgmans (Unilever) are the figureheads of this platform, which aims to connect the global food industry to the benefit of all.
Elsevier Food International, Vol. 5, Number 2, May 2002
Pascal Kuipers

"I imagine a product bar code 'ready to scan' in any country. Or a common language for electronic business ... unleashing the power of the Internet and allowing retailers and manufacturers to process orders and forecast demand across continents. A simpler way to manage the supply chain across continents soon will be reality."

The 'About Us' section of the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI) website starts with a vision. And vision is what's needed if GCI -established in October 1999 - is to reach its stated global goal: "to improve the performance of the international supply chain for consumer goods through the collaborative development and endorsement of recommended standards and key business processes.
Trying to harmonise different electronic languages and dialects into one globally agreed standard is no easy task. That's why GCI was created: to facilitate and encourage the best possible input on business processes and standards. GCI consists of eight sponsoring organisations that represent the interests of one million large and small businesses. Retailers and manufacturers are represented via the organisations AIM, ClES, GMA and FMI. Two sponsors (VICS and the combined ECR movements of Europe, the US, Latin America, Asia and Africa) are developing working tools to manage collaboratively the supply chain. The other two sponsors are the principal standards organisations EAN International and the Uniform Code Council (UCC).
The barriers to reaching global standards occur due to differing understandings and definition: of business processes. These barriers are:

* Different standards for electronic messages. I the United States it's ANSI X/12 and in Europe and the rest of the world, the language is EDIFACT. Within these two electronic languages, many variations/dialects exist.

* Lack of implementation of existing standard:
Even though some global standards, such as Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN), have existed for quite some time, many companies still haven't implemented them.

* No single global standard maintenance process. Until recently UCC and EAN had different standard maintenance processes. Industry-wide around the globe, there were many different standards.

* VICS/ECR have been unsuccessful in developing global standards, such as a global standard for a product classification hierarch

"Since its inception in 1999, GCI has made significant, measurable progress in achieving in key objective," says Antony Burgmans, CEO of Unilever and co-chairman of GCI. His peer on the retail side is Ahold's President and CEO Cees van der Hoeven, who points out the progress GCI has made. "With GCI's leadershi UCC and EAN teamed up to create one global standard maintenance process. To date, they have finalised the process and are in the midst of populating working groups. Also progress has been made with regard to creating a global standard for a product classification hierarchy.
A GCI user group reviewed existing models within the industry. After comprehensive review and input from manufacturer and retail members, GCI is in the process of finalising this global classification hierarchy."
Burgmans confirms that his company will gain a great deal of efficiency once global standards are agreed upon. "The need for a global language is not just for outward communication," he says. "Unilever as a company increasingly operates internally on a global basis, even if most of our retail customers or even suppliers are still national." Ahold uses ANSI X/12 in the US and EDIFACT in Europe, Latin America and Asia. "In addition, each region uses a variation or dialect of the language," Van der Hoeven says. "We operate in 28 countries, so potentially we use 28 variations" The Ahold boss acknowledges that as far as the diversity of electronic languages is concerned" ... the situation has not improved in the last five years. As Ahold grows in different regions worldwide, the number of trading partners increases and so will the amount of electronic languages, variations and processes. "

One of GCI's key principles is that members must be committed to trialing new standards and must have every intention of implementing them. How good an example do GCI's co-chairs set for other companies in this respect?

"We are actively engaged," says Van der Hoeven. "For instance, we did a trial with Johnson & Johnson to exchange an XML purchase order over the Internet, with operating units in the US, Europe and Argentina." "Unilever has several pilots underway in the three main areas of GCI interest," says Burgmans. "Several programmes are in place that use the GCI Global Data Synchronisation model, and those pilots contribute 10 the refinement of the model. Unilever also has pilots that will use GCI endorsed XML standards and we will take a lead role in feeding back from the pilot to the continual development of the standard. In several other GCI areas of interest, Unilever participates in industry pilots on CPFR and Intelligent Tagging."

Have B2B exchanges like WWRE, GNX, CPGmarkel or Transora had a stimulating effect on the process of creating a global common language for electronic business? Or have exchanges slowed this process down?

Van der Hoeven: "The exchanges accelerated the process of developing and implementing a common language for electronic business. It's an issue that exchanges like the World Wide Retail Exchange and GlobalnetXchange agree upon, and they co-operate openly as Gel members." Burgmans: "The exchanges had, and still have, a very stimulating effect on the process of creating both a global common language for electronic businesses and the development of best business practices, like global data synchronisation. They have been very actively involved in the GCI Working Groups from their very beginning."

Will a global standard speed up the integration of different B2B exchanges?

Burgrnans: "Integration will help business but integration of the exchanges is not an objective of GCI."

Van der Hoeven: "Not necessarily. The exchanges have different focus, product and service offerings. A global standard will speed up the ability of exchanges to connect with each other and their trading partners."

What level of knowledge transfer between the different continents is actually happening within GCI? Isn't this foremost a US-European dialogue?

Burgmans: "No. GCI is composed of companies and industry associations operating across the world and representing the interests of close to a million businesses large and small. The work of GCI is expressly designed to be applicable in all markets, wherever they may be."
Van der Hoeven: "The dialogue relating to developing and implementing a common standard does have a United States/Europe focus. However, GCI member companies represent countries from all over the world. For example, GCI developments and updates are communicated to Ahold's associates worldwide through a number of internal communication channels, including internal newsletters, e-updates, etc. In addition, associates can give feedback through the company's knowledge exchange intranet, Ahold Networking."

When will GCI's mission be accomplished, and will this see the end of GCI, or is there a long term vision on GCI's future positioning?

Van der Hoeven: "Even as GCI's co-chairs we are unable to predict the realisation of GCI's mission. However, we do believe there will always be a need for a global user group to monitor the global standards development and implementation process. In addition, a global user group will be needed to lead project groups for new initiatives."
Burgmans: "As the single unifying force bringing manufacturers and retailers together on a worldwide parity basis, GCI is driving the global implementation of standards for the identification of products, locations and shipments, for the electronic exchange of data and the global synchronisation of data. This is an extensive and ambitious task and we see no time limit to the work. It is hard to predict where we will stand in, say, five years time but with the groundwork that is now being laid by GCI a lot of progress will be achieved."