Al Jones reported that the MEMA board has approved a motion of support of the ACEC with the following resolution:

The Aftermarket Council on Electronic Commerce (ACEC) is a volunteer-supported committee composed of representatives of most major automotive aftermarket trade associations. Its mission is to promote the coordination of electronic commerce standardization activities among all industry segments in an effort to encourage the adoption of universal industry standards throughout the vehicle aftermarket.

The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) Board of Directors recognizes the need for electronic commerce standardization across the many aftermarket segments. It recognizes and supports the ACEC and its efforts to oversee industry efforts to develop standards that are consistent and considerate of the needs of the companies and markets represented on the council and the overall automotive aftermarket. MEMA commits to providing representation and leadership to the council and to promoting its mission.

Scott Luckett reported that the AAIA board took the following action:

Joe Register informed the AAIA board that the Aftermarket Council on Electronic Commerce (ACEC) is a voluntary consortium of e-commerce committees from across the aftermarket industry. The ACEC allows trade associations to review and approve the e-commerce and technology standards developed by one of the participants. This coordination will accelerate the development of e-commerce in our industry and ensure that resulting standards serve the broadest number of constituents. Mr. Register asked for a resolution of support from the Board of Directors for continued AAIA participation in the activities of the ACEC. Mr. Swoboda motioned to accept as stated by Mr. Register. Marc Graham seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

XML Task Force Meeting

Al Jones called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone to MEMA HQ at Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Scott Luckett offered a few words about the objectives of the XML Task Force. The ACEC should be the driver for "automotive" standards, not just aftermarket standards. Scott explained the importance of incorporating OAGIS and ebXML standards in aftermarket e-commerce standards.

Roger Cadaret had praise for the Aftermarket Internet Summit and the XML initiative that resulted from that meeting. Roger explained the critical importance of users insisting that their technology vendors comply with industry standards. Unless this occurs, and standards are widely adopted by software and systems providers, the aftermarket will not realize the benefits of the standards we are creating.

Roger cautioned that the VAN (communication) providers should agree to a single communications standard so users aren’t required to create multiple interfaces to their providers.

Al Jones discussed the challenge of getting turnkey vendors to set aside their proprietary solutions and adopt the standards.

Conclusion: The ACEC should organize a follow-up Internet Summit for the Aftermarket later in the year. MISG can help identify 20 aftermarket (turnkey) software system vendors that should be invited to the Summit. Their major customers should attend to "insist" that industry standards are be followed. Association representatives should also attend.

Karin Hurst – Dana Brake & Chassis

Karin explained the task of building out a repository for standardized tags and document structure. This is the XML Data Dictionary that was prescribed as a deliverable at the first Internet Summit. Dana developed a data dictionary at www.brakeandchassis.com. The naming convention follows is D=Document, N=Name Space, P=Paragraph and E=Data element. Karin has initially populated the six X.12 MEMA EDI documents. In addition, Alise Miner has the AAIA PIES document in development.

Tony Blazej suggested that the data dictionary be harmonized with the business object documents (BODS) on which STAR (Standards for Technology in Automotive Retailers) and others are working.

Al suggested that the maintenance of the XML data dictionary be done through the MIS (MEMA Information Services) Council. He will speak to Ed Wolff about this. Ed chairs the XML committee of the MIS Council. The MIS Council’s XML Committee developed and published XML versions of MEMA’s X.12 EDI formats between 2000 and 2001. These have already been certified by the ACEC.

Karen clarified that eventually, at a very high level, there are two 850 POs. One is an XML implementation of the X.12 and the other is a pure XML document. Al reminded the group that projects of this type should be scoped for completion in six months or less and produce results. Longer-term projects will result in lost interest.

ACEC General Session

Scott moved to accept the minutes from the previous meeting, Jim Petragnani seconded the motion, and the motion carried.

Al Jones indicated that MEMA would lead an effort to update the ACEC roster.

Ed Wolff suggested that we begin video conferencing ACEC meetings so that other people could participate. Prospective vendors include Suntel and NetMeeting

Ed Wolff on the XML Task Force

Dana has created a tool to serve as a repository and maintenance tool for XML data tags. Ed explained that trading partners are free and encouraged to place their unique documents in the XML Repository. "While we would all like everyone to use the same PO, that is not realistic in the near term." One can search by Document and view all relevant data elements, or one can search by data element and determine where it is used. Ed encouraged others to establish links to the tool. Ed’s Presentation

Follow-up action:

1. Two features should be added – a page of narrative explanation and a feedback mechanism. Visitors should be invited to register and join the mailing list so they can be notified when there are additions or changes.

Ed described the workflow for the creation of new XML documents. Members of the XML Task Force will build documents with the maintenance tool. Upon completion of development, the Document will be submitted to the ACEC for certification. Upon certification by the ACEC, the XML Task Force will publish the document to Production, and the table of originating organizations will be updated.

Based on the XML Task Force meeting in May 2001, the following people volunteered for the Task Force:

Ed Wolff Dana MEMA Team Leader

Karin Hurst Dana Manufacturer

Alise Miner Reliable AAIA representative

Roger Cadaret staff CIECA

Al Jones staff AWDA

tbd by Scott Autozone AAIA representative

Mike Williams O’Reilly Jobber / Retailer

Dan Jondron staff SEMA

Ken Menzel icarz AAIA representative

Tony Perkin Wrenchead Technology provider

(Modified: 1-24-02)

Ed recommended a discussion about the maintenance/approval process. The MIS Council could serve as a review body.

Clarification: if one needs a change to accommodate a trading partner, they would create their own tag name and implement the change with their trading partner. However if the published document is broken, a more immediate mechanism for modifying the document is needed.

Roger suggests that a link be provided to the "Submitting organization" or "stakeholders" with contact information and an e-mail link. Roger explained, as an example, that once CIECA submitted and adopted the MEMA PO, it would have an interest in any further changes that are proposed, therefore it would like to be included in future communications regarding the standard.

Action: Tony Blazej recommended that STAR be invited to join the ACEC as a way of having them share their documents and participate in the review of changes to documents that would be of interest to the broader automotive industry.

Action: Ed asked Roger to document the process for submitting and approving documents.

Tony Blazej – Open Applications Group

Tony reported that STAR (Standards for Automotive Retail) is an initiative of the dealer-facing portion of the automotive industry. Dealer System Providers (DSP) Reynolds & Reynolds, EDS and ADP are involved.

STAR is addressing the data exchange challenges when a multi-franchise dealer has multiple systems and multiple communications channels. They historically have used batch file transfers.

AMDX (Automotive Manufacturing Data Exchange) project = AIAG + JAMA (Japan) + ODETTE (Europe) with a goal to develop XML standards for global automotive use, but it is in the initial development stage. It currently is heavily oriented to OE issues, and a concern was raised regarding its effect on the aftermarket.

Tony suggested that since OAGIS 8 is about to be published, if one did nothing more than use their schema architecture, one would be a couple of man-years ahead. Finally, Tony suggested that AAIA evaluate OAGIS BODs that affect the exchange and manipulation of catalog information. Tony’s Presentation

Conclusion: Tony ended his remarks by recommending that the aftermarket (by way of the ACEC) needs to be a part of the extended review process for OAG standards.

Scott Luckett – AAIA Project Inventory

Scott Luckett reported on the status of the e-CAT standard for electronic catalog data, the Product Information Exchange Standard PIES) and the i•SHOP standard for shop equipment integration and networking.

1. e-Cat is nearing completing of an effort to convert the supporting tables to a relational database format. This enhanced version of the standard has the support of CCITriad and NAPA, in addition to those who already subscribe to the current format.
2. The PIES Standard version 2.2 was recently approved by the AAIA e-Commerce Committee. Over 225 companies have downloaded copies of either version 2.0 or 2.1
3. i•SHOP version 1 was completed and published in July 2001. The first repair and diagnostic products built to the specification are coming into production.

Scott’s Presentation

Jim Petragnani – Uniform Code Council

Jim reported that UCC has offered to re-write the existing AWDA Bar Code Guidelines. He asked Chris Gardner to help identify manufacturers from the AWDA Technology and Logistics Committee who could volunteer to work with Jim. Chris Gardner will present this opportunity to the committee.

Jim Spoonhower - SEMA

Jim reported that SEMA has a catalog initiative underway but did not elaborate.

Roger Cadaret – CIECA

Roger reported that the collision industry has published a layman’s white paper on XML. The goal of CIECA is to provide guidance to the collision industry on XML.

The estimating management system standard is complete. The EMS enterprise computing standards committee is currently reviewing business requirements to be converted to XML, and CIECA wants to have a cross-functional CIECA / i•SHOP team meeting.

CIECA has formed an Internet Security Subcommittee. The Insurance industry is very knowledgeable in and sensitive to this area. AAIA offered to volunteer participation – Roger will investigate this.

Parts and Materials Standardization effort – progress has been slow. OE Connection is a member of CIECA.

CIECA has identified differences between the MEMA X.12 standards and the requirements of the collision industry. Roger delivered documentation of the gap,s and MISG agreed to evaluate the request and recommend the changes to the MIS Council.

Strategic OAGIS discussion

The following action plan was recommended for aftermarket collaboration with OAG and their OE initiatives:

1. Tony Blazej will find out if the OEs have an XML data dictionary – he suspected not

1. Normalize the ACEC dictionary with the OAGIS BODs
2. Address the required changes – convert all caps to camel-case

• Formalize the relationship between AMDX and ACEC
• Work thru OAG to "stick our nose under the tent"

Al Jones asked about what the industry should do with what is already developed and is available. A discussion followed about X.12, XML, Core Components, ebXML, the UN and TPA (trading partner agreements).

Roger Cadaret will attend an X.12 meeting in February and report to the Council.

Action: Schedule next meeting – to be held in conjunction with the GAAS (Global Automotive Aftermarket Symposium) event, which is May 16-17. A tentative date was set for May 15.

Action: The association staff representatives will review the roster and determine the invitees for the next meetings.

Al Jones will make sure AWDA has no objection to inviting STAR to "join" ACEC. Tony will wait to hear from Al before raising the subject with STAR.

There being no further business the ACEC adjourned.

Submitted by:

Chris Gardner – MEMA

Scott Luckett - AAIA