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Overview of the Most Important IndustryStandards for the Transportation andLogistics Services Industry

Industry standards are the foundation for business process interoperability between SAPand non-SAP applications and platforms. Industry standards define a common businesslanguage, which is a required to cost-effectively enable business process integrationbetween systems, both inside an organization and across the value chain. Standardsenable business process flexibility by providing concrete rules for integration that have beendeveloped by representatives of the travel and logistics services community. SAP has deepdomain experience in building solutions for transportation and logistics services. SAP hasworked with numerous industry standards organizations to advance business semantics toenable more efficient business processes and to maximize supply chain flexibility.

The following organizations produce standards that SAP customers in the Transportationand Logistics Services industry have found to be most useful in enabling businessprocesses between applications as well as the systems of their trading partners. Thestandards produced by these organizations are frequently leveraged in SAP businesssolutions packages.

SPEC2000

SPEC 2000 is both a set of eBusiness standards and an eBusiness system to supportthe airline industry. Developed by 12 international industry associations from airlines,manufacturers, suppliers and repair agencies, SPEC 2000 is administered by the AirTransport Association (ATA) of America. The SPEC 2000 suite of standards can be brokendown into three categories: E-Commerce, File, and Traceability.

• The E-Commerce standards encompass Order Administration and Invoicing, Repair Order Administration,and Warranty Claims.

• The File standards encompass Provisioning, Delivery Configuration, Inventory Consumption, PerformanceReporting and Reliability Data Collection and Exchange.

• The Traceability standards are Bar Code/RFID based and include Bar Coded Shipping Label, Bar CodedParts Identification, RFID Parts Identification and Traceability Data.

The SPEC 2000 eBusiness System includes these three categories of standards and theAviation Marketplace. The Aviation Marketplace is a virtual market for Airline Industry tradingpartners to display and find parts pricing, repair and availability information. The marketplaceencompasses 5 interrelated databases: Procurement; Repair; Surplus; Tools; Test & GroundEquipment; and Needs.

Overview of the Most Important Industry Standards for the Transportation and Logistics Services Industry

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The SPEC2000 standards define the formats, data structure and rules for exchangingelectronic purchase orders, requests for quotes, shipping messages, invoices, repair orders,warranty claims and much more. Today, the overwhelming majority of spares parts ordersare placed using Spec 2000 standards with most major airlines and suppliers handling 60to 90 percent of their orders electronically. The Spec 2000 formats most commonly in usehave been adapted to EDI and EDIFACT and are frequently exchanged over ARINC/SITA.More information on this EDI network can be found at Multilink, a Blue Flag TechnologiesCompany. Today, there are now XML representations for a number of the SPEC 2000standards that are published but not yet widely adopted.

Air Transport Association (ATA)

The Air Transport Association is a non-profit organization that addresses issues concernsof the United States airline industry. The core mission of the ATA is to champion safety inthe US air transportation system. Their activities include transmitting technical expertiseand operational knowledge to improve safety, service and efficiency; advocating fair airlinetaxation and regulation worldwide to foster a healthy, competitive industry; and developingand coordinating industry actions that are environmentally beneficial, economicallyreasonable and technologically feasible.

The association's fundamental purpose is to foster a business and regulatory environmentthat ensures safe and secure air transportation and permits U.S. airlines to flourish,stimulating economic growth locally, nationally and internationally. The ATA works withmembers in the technical, legal and political arenas and leads industry efforts to fashioncrucial policy and supports measures that enhance aviation safety, security and well-being.

Of particular interest to the information technology industry is the ATA e-business Program.This program creates standards for information exchange to support engineering,maintenance, materiel management and flight operations. Members of the e-businessprogram include airlines, aerospace manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, repair agencies,software providers and consultants who jointly develop a variety of standards used to makeinformation exchange easier and more efficient. SAP is a technology provider / consultant ofthe e-Business Program.

EPCglobal

EPCglobal was founded in 2003 as a joint venture between GS1 Global and the GS1Member Organization for the United States, called GS1 US. The two organizationspurchased the intellectual property created by the Auto-ID Labs at MIT. The result is a newglobal standards system that combines RFID (radio frequency identification) technology andthe Electronic Product Code (EPC). EPC is a proprietary numbering system that provides anID for uniquely identifying a physical item. This is similar to a UPC or barcode but the EPC

Overview of the Most Important Industry Standards for the Transportation and Logistics Services Industry

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number system provides additional information that enables the unique identification andtracking of an item through the supply chain, resulting in improved efficiency and visibility.

The GS1 funding model is based on selling unique numbers, either UPCs or EPCs.Companies that would like to use RFID in their supply chain business processes shouldcontact EPCglobal to gain entry to the EPC numbering system otherwise companies mayconsider the ISO numbering system which is offered at a fraction of the price. EPCglobal iscurrently in the process of defining the standards for the EPCglobal Network architecture.The objective of the EPCglobal Network is to enable the visibility of physical objects inmotion in the supply chain. This is typically called track-and-trace and many of the moreadvanced value propositions for using RFID are based on this capability around tracking inlogistics. Business processes that can leverage track and trace include inventory visibilityand control, counterfeit drug tracking or asset tracking and maintenance.

OAGi

The Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGi) is a not-for-profit open standards organizationthat defines process-based XML standards called Business Objects Documents (BODs) thatspan both B2B and A2A integration scenarios. The Open Applications Group was formedin late 1994 as one of the first post-EDI organizations focusing on improving the state ofapplication integration. Today, OAGi has defined more than 400 BODs that address a widevariety of business applications. While there is generally a focus on manufacturing, manyBODs are developed for very specific applications. OAGi BODs are used in many of theindustries that are served by SAP solutions, and are beginning to see adoption in variousBusiness Transformation initiatives that involve transportation and logistics. SAP is a boardmember of OAGi and is helping OAGi work towards alignment of the various manufacturingcommunity standards and towards adopting a single methodology.

ANSI ASC X12

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Committee (ASC)X12 is the North American organization that develops cross-industry standards. The veryfirst specifications were developed to manage the exchange of data for railways. ANSI is theUS representative body to the International Standards Organization (ISO). It is well knownfor the X12 syntax based Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transactions. EDI transactionsare well-adopted in an extremely wide variety of industries, particularly in North Americawhereas the EDIFACT, and EDI dialect is more common in the European Union. The typicalEDI transactions are targeted at demand replenishment and involve the movement ofphysical goods across the supply chain.

FIATA

Overview of the Most Important Industry Standards for the Transportation and Logistics Services Industry

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FIATA, a non-governmental organization, represents today an industry coveringapproximately 40,000 forwarding and logistics firms, also known as the "Architects ofTransport", employing around 8 - 10 million people in 150 countries. FIATA has consultativestatus with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (inter aliaECE, ESCAP, ESCWA), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD), and the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). It isrecognized as representing the freight forwarding industry by many other governmentalorganisations, governmental authorities, private international organisations in the fieldof transport such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International AirTransport Association (IATA), the International Union of Railways (UIC), the InternationalRoad Transport Union (IRU), the World Customs Organization (WCO), the WorldTrade Organization (WTO), etc. SAP has solutions that comply with some of the FIATAspecifications.

Japan Institute of Logistics Systems

The Japan Logistics Management Association (JLA) and the Japanese Council of LogisticsManagement (JCLM), each with 22 years of experience, merged to establish the JapanInstitute of Logistics Systems (JILS) to promote efficiency and advancements in logistics.SAP is engaged in the organization and was a member of the steering committee for theSCM 2007 event.