Alexandria, Va. and Lawrenceville, NJ, September 16, 2002 – The WorldWide Retail Exchange (WWRE), the premier business-to-business exchange for retailers, manufacturers and suppliers, has been certified by UCCnet for supply side machine-to-machine interoperability to UCCnet Foundation Services 2.1. The WWRE is a Preferred member of UCCnet’s Partners In Sync Program, which certifies partners to provide best-in-class knowledge, resources and tools that enable trading partners to implement to UCCnet quickly, efficiently and cost effectively.

With this certification, the WWRE furthers its capability to provide a clear path to standardized data management for retailers, manufacturers and suppliers. By publishing to the WWRE’s WorldWide Item Management (WIM) catalog solution, suppliers and manufacturers can simultaneously – without multiple connections or processes – synchronize data with all WWRE retailer members as well as non-WWRE members that subscribe to UCCnet’s GLOBALregistry™ and data synchronization services.

“We’re addressing a global industry problem: Information inaccuracies and invoice deductions are currently resulting in an estimated total industry loss of $40 billion in total sales each year,” said Don Norman, Chief Information Officer of the WWRE. “This achievement demonstrates the WWRE’s commitment to creating a seamless, standards-based platform that empowers WWRE members, non-members and UCCnet subscribers to more effectively trade with global partners.”

“As a Preferred Partner with machine to machine certification for suppliers, the WWRE is now among a select group of UCCnet partners that are working collaboratively with the industry to drive standards adoption and interoperability,” said Fred Geiger, senior vice president of UCCnet.

With the combined benefits of the WWRE’s UCCnet certification and its WIM offering, the WWRE now enables participating organizations to:

• Maintain only one point of connection to manage, syndicate and synchronize catalog data.
• Onboard item data to its WIM solution for synchronization with WWRE members, and to UCCnet for synchronization with its subscribers
• Deliver to the industry a rapid, low-cost synchronization on-ramp for manufacturers and suppliers across broad industry verticals and geographic boundaries
• Increase visibility of product information to WWRE members and UCCnet subscribers, vastly improving global trading relationships and efficiencies
• Reduce problem invoices, standardize the data structure and access a single integration point for multiple trading partners

In addition to UCCnet platform’s flexibility, the WWRE® WIM solution provides the most up-to-date, quality data available with access to content acquisition, product/supplier search and item setup. It supports five industry sectors including food, drug, textile, general merchandise and indirect, is available in seven languages, and supports millions of products in over a thousand different product categories.

About UCCnet
UCCnet is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt neutral organization that provides item registry and data synchronization based on industry-developed standards. Through its support of global EAN•UCC standards, UCCnet delivers an open platform for collaborative commerce services, including compliance verification, synchronization of product information, registry and lifecycle management of synchronized products, user locations and user trade capabilities.

As a subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council, Inc., the global standards organization, UCCnet leverages its position to enable the rapid, clear development of industry Internet standards and practices. In addition, UCCnet provides implementation methodology, allowing small, medium and large enterprises to integrate eCommerce into their business in a swift and efficient manner. For more information, visit www.UCCnet.org.

WorldWide Retail Exchange
The WWRE is the premier Internet-based business-to-business exchange for retailers and suppliers. Designed to facilitate and simplify trading between retailers, manufacturers, suppliers, partners and distributors, the WWRE currently consists of 62 members from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America with combined sales of approximately U.S. $845 billion. To date, the WWRE has saved its members over $500 million through the use of online negotiations, its first product offering. For more information, visit the website at www.wwre.org or www.worldwideretailexchange.org.

 

Contact:

Jennifer Roberts
UCCnet
609-620-4688
jbroberts@uccnet.org

Cynthia Rogers
Edelman for WWRE
WorldWide Retail Exchange
312.233.1390
Cynthia.rogers@edelman.com