In the electronics industry, RosettaNet e-business standards have begun to lay the groundwork for companies to build standards-based global trading networks.

Despite the importance of RosettaNet standards, many trading partners today cannot manage the cost or complexity of implementing RosettaNet-based B2B integration technologies. Among the challenges faced by smaller suppliers are a lack of information technology staff, network infrastructure, the high-cost and complexity of traditional B2B integration technology, unreliable Internet connectivity and the requirement to deal with many different data formats. These challenges make the cost of integrating a small supplier two to five times the cost of integrating a larger, more technically-capable trading partner. The result is that many RosettaNet-based implementations reach only the largest 10-20% of a company’s suppliers, leaving the remaining 80% behind -- usually small and mid-sized suppliers.

A new RosettaNet foundational program called RosettaNet Automated Enablement, or RAE, is designed to help multi-national companies (MNCs) and their suppliers overcome those challenges. Companies involved in defining RAE include some of the industry’s most influential organizations, including Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Menlo Worldwide, Micron, Motorola, Nokia and Texas Instruments. The RAE program was conceived in the fall of 2003 and moved into the investigation and design stages in 2004. Those design activities are now complete and the first RAE solutions have moved into what RosettaNet calls the “validation” stage where the standards are demonstrated in a live, production environment.

For trading partners, RAE offers a low-cost alternative to traditional B2Bi approaches that accelerates the time required to become RosettaNet-enabled while significantly reducing the resources to do so, resulting in much lower costs. RAE makes it economically viable for even the smallest trading partner to become RosettaNet-enabled.

For MNCs, RAE provides a framework to accelerate traditional RosettaNet implementations as well as affordably integrate 100% of their trading partners. That allows MNCs to reap the benefits of broad-scale RosettaNet B2B integration -- including improved data consistency and greater information visibility -- while enabling companies to maximize their existing RosettaNet infrastructure investments across their entire supplier base.

The ultimate goal of RAE, for both MNCs and their suppliers, is to enable small trading partners to B2B integrate in much the same way as large partners -- using the full RosettaNet standards -- but at a much lower cost. Informal surveys of RAE by major electronics manufacturers and their trading partners show potential for RosettaNet deployments at a 95% cost savings with RAE versus traditional integration approaches.