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March 8, 1999

RosettaNet Dialogs Ready

Common language should ease online sales and reduce costs

By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee

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embers of RosettaNet met last week to discuss implementing the industry organization's first 10 dialogs, using a common language, that will allow computer makers, resellers, users, and shippers to buy and sell computer products more easily over the Internet. The common language lets participants support electronic-commerce transactions without having to develop a new language with every business partner.

One of the first completed RosettaNet dialogs lets computer vendors update product information in the electronic catalogs of resellers and distributors that support the RosettaNet dialog. To date, resellers have had to make changes to their catalogs manually, every time a manufacturer issued a product change. These changes cost about $30 per product, says RosettaNet CEO Fadi Chehade. The new dialog helps reduce these costs to about $13 per change. Because most electronic catalogs feature hundreds, even thousands, of computer products and parts, the savings will be significant to most companies, he says.

Resellers and vendors aren't the only players that stand to benefit from the dialogs. Businesses with internal online computer-product catalogs for departmental purchases will also be able to manage E-business activities more easily and cost-effectively. American Express and the U.S. General Services Administration are among users represented on RosettaNet's managing board, which is overseeing the development of the common language and dialogs.

"If RosettaNet lives up to its promise, there's potential for reducing costs of online purchasing, especially for maintaining electronic catalogs," says Tony Trenkle, director of E-commerce at the GSA. "And if resellers pass on some of their savings, that would mean savings for the GSA and other federal agencies using the RosettaNet taxonomy."