Event Summary
Visa International
has introduced a new specification to automate business-to-business (B2B) purchasing
functions and monitor travel and entertainment (T&E) expenses worldwide - both
on the Internet and in the physical world.
The
new Visa Global Invoice Specification uses Extensible Markup Language (XML)
to exchange invoice and payment data across industries and technical processing
platforms. Implementation of the specification enables corporations to negotiate
prices and control costs, as well as increase productivity by eliminating manual
processes. It is being introduced as an open standard in the global commercial
marketplace.
The
new Visa Global XML Invoice Specification was developed with Visa technology
partners Commerce One, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and ValiCert, Inc. These
partners provided Visa with an extensive review, validating Visa's efforts to
use XML technology and supporting Visa's contribution to the buyer/supplier
value chain of enhanced data.
Visa
is promoting the specification to software and system developers. With its use,
corporate clients will have a standard way to process detailed information on
procurement transactions, as well as T&E spending on airline travel, hotels
and car rental. Visa plans to expand the specification to support other merchant
sectors including healthcare, maintenance, repair & operations (MRO), and fleet
services.
The
specification may also be used by any system developer seeking a standard and
interoperable definition for processing invoice data using XML. It provides
a cross-industry, interoperable message format that enables processing of enhanced
data across regions and industry sectors.
Market
Impact
As
the growth of e-commerce has exploded, Visa has been involved with both the
consumer and commercial B2B markets to establish common standards and platforms.
Examples of these efforts include: Open Platform; Common Electronic Purse Specification
(CEPS); EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) standard for chip, credit and debit
cards; SET (Secure Electronic Transaction), and the new Visa Global Invoice
Specification based on XML.
Visa
used the Commerce One Common Business Library (xCBL) as the foundation for the
Visa Global XML Invoice Specification and is working with several international
XML governing bodies, including ebXML, for its official adoption as a standard.
Other international standards organizations include Oasis/XML.org, and Microsoft
BizTalk.
Visa's
announcement has significant potential. Today, nomenclature, languages, and
the terminology used to "describe" goods and services inhibit computers from
openly sharing information.
Organizations
such as Commerce One, Ariba, Oracle and SAP are creating partnerships with industry
leaders. The consortia listed above are working to develop e-business standards.
Should Visa, or any of industry leaders, require their business partners and
supply chain to embrace a particular standard the "acceptance" would be exponential.
As
these industry leaders and consortia continue their efforts, we expect to see
multiple standards serving a breadth of industries. If accepted, Visa's standard
could represent a piece of a larger whole; serving multiple markets and companies.
User
Recommendations
Organizations developing their own e-commerce solutions:
Standards
affect how business transactions occur today and the form they will take tomorrow.
Endorsing the right standard today might save development dollars tomorrow.
Without a crystal ball it's difficult to pin point the right one. To learn more,
there is a plethora of information available on our site and from the various
consortia. Aligning your business in the "right" general direction may help
reduce costs later.
Organizations
considering an e-commerce application:
Ask
your solution provider what standards they are endorsing and what costs are
involved if a new or different standard emerges. Be sure to understand who is
responsible for updating and maintaining the application now and in the future.