The trials were a joint initiative from Office of Government Commerce (OGC), the Office of e-Envoy (OeE) and the Business Applications Software Developers Association (BASDA).
BASDA is the international software standards body, based in the UK, representing 250 of the world's leading developers and suppliers of business application software. BASDA has developed standards and accreditations for handling business-to-business and business to Government eCommerce, euro compliance and VAT handling. It is a not-for-profit organisation owned by the software industry to provide an information service, seminars and workshops for the benefit of its members and their customers.
OGC recommends that the chosen XML schemas, based upon the OGC Interoperability requirements and the BASDA eBIS-XML open standard, be used by public sector bodies for ‘e-Ordering’ and ‘e-Invoicing’ processes. The schemas have been named UKGOV XML.
OGC’s Executive Director for Supplier and Government Marketplace Development, Martin Sykes, commented:
“I’m delighted that we have had so many enthusiastic partners working with us on the Trials. OGC now intends to do all it can to promote the use of these tools to deliver value to both the public sector and our suppliers”.
John Borras, Director Technology Policy at OeE commented: “XML is a key strategic component of our e-Government Interoperability Framework, which sets the policies and standards for on-line government. I am therefore very pleased to see the prominence of using XML schemas, built upon open standards, in these trials. ”
Commenting on the trial, Dennis Keeling, CEO of BASDA, said:
"This exercise proves that an industry-wide open-standard can meet the UK Government’s eProcurement requirements. The BASDA eBIS-XML standard, that was adapted for these trials, is currently being used by over 100 organisations across Europe. With minor enhancements these organisations will be able to start exchanging orders and invoices with Government departments. We were delighted by the positive feedback we had from all the participating government departments and their suppliers, who found the XML technology very easy to implement and use.”
The Proof of Concept trials of the common IT vocabulary (known as XML) are another example of a growing ‘joined up’ approach between government and the IT Industry to establish common IT standards for eProcurement. These standards will enable suppliers and public sector buyers to conduct business online more easily.
XML Schemas define the messages used for the exchange of information, via a common vocabulary, between different computer systems. In the past, suppliers and public sector customers who used different IT systems encountered difficulties in exchanging information and conducting business effectively.
The ‘common IT language’ approach is in line with OGC’s view that eProcurement can generate substantial value for money improvements across government departments agencies and NDPBs, as well as offering significant process-cost reductions for suppliers.
HM Government, through the work of the OeE, is committed to using IT products that support open standards and specifications in all future IT developments and to avoid lock-in to proprietary IT products and services for both suppliers and the public sector.
The objective of the Proof of Concept trials was for a specialist version of the BASDA eBIS-XML ‘Order and Invoice’ schemas to become compliant with the eGovernment Interoperability Framework (e-GIF). This sets out the policy and standards for interoperability across the public sector and is effectively the Government’s standard system requirement, to which any ‘cross government’ system would need to comply.
The Office of the eEnvoy (OeE) leads on the eGovernment Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) which is an essential component of eGovernment Strategy.
The IT industry is represented within the Proof of Concept trials by BASDA (Business Applications Software Developers Association), whose membership comprises more than 250 international applications software developers and is recognised as the representative body for the software industry by the OECD, United Nations, the European Commission and the UK Government
Benefits from using eProcurement include contractual savings, ‘real time’ financial information on what is being spent with each supplier, lower levels of ‘maverick’ or ‘off-contract’ purchasing and improved commercial relationships with suppliers.
On 18th February 2002 OeE and OGC established the Interoperability Working Group with members drawn from the public sector. The first stage was to formally model the Public Sector procurement process, which was done using UML (Unified Modelling Language) as mandated by e-GIF. The result of this work was the OGC eProcurement Functional Requirements Specification. The Proof of Concept Trials were carried out in 2003-4 to test messages back and forth between various IT applications and to define Order and Invoice XML Schemas based on the BASDA eBIS-XML Data Suite. The BASDA eBIS-XML schemas were adapted to comply with OGC’s eProcurement Functional Requirements Specification. The specification was published on OeE’s consultation website http://www.govtalk.gov.uk last year for public discussion.
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