Over the last 30 years, a number of standards for electronic data exchange between business partners have been created in order to standardise it, often with the aim of adapting it to the business processes of an industry. These standards, which are now well established, have contributed significantly to the fact that companies today save costs by using standardised data exchange formats. After this successful innovation push through B2B standards in electronic data exchange, the search continues for new, innovative and more efficient solutions to further optimise data exchange.
GS1 has taken the next step with the development and publication of the “GS1 Semantic Data Dictionary” (SDD). The semantic data model was developed to define all business-relevant data needed for the exchange of EDI messages in the supply chain, such as purchase order, order confirmation, invoice and other messages. Unlike syntaxes such as UN/EDIFACT, XML Schema, X12, the message structure does not matter: GS1 SDDs focus on the semantic content of the business processes. This creates a comprehensive, higher-level data model that acts as a dictionary and library.
How does the GS1 SDD model benefit users?
Generally speaking, any number of subsets can be derived from the GS1 SDD model and/or the subsets for the supply chain processes. Users leverage the GS1 SDD data model to develop data models tailored to their own use case, containing only the information that the user actually needs. Irrespective of the technical aspects of data exchange, this further improves harmonisation, maintainability, consistency and interoperability of the data. In GEFEG.FX, these subsets can be created as model guides and used with the usual range of functions such as documentation, structural adjustments, mapping options.
Based on the data model, users can develop their APIs or, in the next step, they can link the user-specific data model with a logical mapping to the data formats of the eBusiness standards used, e.g. GS1 EANCOM® or GS1 XML.
Another advantage for users: In case of future updates of the data model, changes can be transferred to the already linked data formats with little effort. Users can manage their interfaces with business partners even more efficiently.
GS1 SDD as a new data module in the GEFEG Distribution
With great commitment, GEFEG has participated in the development process of the GS1 SDD and contributed to the release of this data model. As of now, we offer the GS1 SDD data model as an additional data module in the distribution of GEFEG.FX. The data package also contains the model subsets of the Orders, Invoice and Order Response processes. In addition, it contains detailed mappings for supply chain messages to the GS1 EANCOM®, GS1 XML and SCRDM CII data formats of the same name.
The new data package allows you to easily integrate the GS1 SDD into your existing message formats using the included mappings and to communicate smoothly between different data formats.
Should you require further information or support, we will be happy to assist you. We look forward to introducing you to the advantages of the new GEFEG.FX data package and assisting you with the implementation.
