Participants

Alain Rividi (IBM)
Andreas Mall (Shell)
Benoit Crabeels (Coca Cola Entreprises)
Birgitta Björkström (Electrolux)
Brian Eaton (GEIS)
Charles Whalen (Electrolux)
Didier Hueber (ECE)
Dirk Wahlen (Siemens)
Ernesto Buchwald (Electrolux)
Fokko Groenenboom (Ediport)
Mikael Jonsson (Ericsson)
Peter Eicher (Swissair)
Son Lenjoc (Shell)
Tor Arnt Ellingsen (Norsk Hydro)
Torsten Bohn (Siemens)
Yannick Le Calvé (Electrolux)
 

Message Implementation Guidelines (MIG)

Dirk Wahlen reported about the technical review of Autack that was conducted in
Munich, November 1999. Results are positive and the CRG will support the Autack
as described in the recommended practice.

Last summer the Paymul 96A was also reviewed by the CRG and our comments were
sent to the D6 plenary meeting in Canberra for approval (Sept 99). The D6
listened to the CRG comments but refused to include them in their MIG, arguing
that some comments were in conflict with explanations provided within the MIG
(Message Implementation Guideline). Some D6 participants reacted quite
negatively to the CRG work, as they felt we were 'competing' against them on the
standards and didn't recognise the CRG because we are not an official
institution. It seems that the situation needs to be clarified about the CRG's
role in the D6 and how we can help each other. We are, after all, a large panel
of 'bank-neutral' end users who try to implement the D6 MIGs. It is important
that the D6 knows about the difficulties encountered in order to deliver market
oriented solutions. Therefore, we decided that the CRG would mobilise members to
show-up at the next D6 meeting to be held in Stockholm June 19th-20th. The
objectives are to present ourselves, give the D6 face-to-face feed-backs and
reassure the D6 that we are only trying to help. It is in everyone's interest to
have well-defined and easy-to-implement EDIFACT messages available. The next CRG
general meeting will take place in Stockholm in June (19th-20th) parallel to the
D6 meeting.

The D6 maintenance group will hold its next meeting in London end of May. They
will review the whole D6 messages. The CRG decided to conduct a technical
meeting directly afterwards to integrate their inputs in our work. Swissair will
host the meeting in Zurich around the 22nd of May. On the agenda: Paymul (final
version), Contrl and Bansta

Presentations

• Shell (Andreas Mall) shared with us their plans to build an open bank platform
  and outsource some of their banking activities. See the Shell presentation attached.
  (See attached file: Shell Europe OP solution for CM.ppt)
  
  
  
• In the same area, Yannick Le Calvé presented the work done by Electrolux on
  the Euro and how they have built their own Global Clearing Centre. See hereunder
  the presentation.
  (See attached file: GCC-Euro at CRG.ppt)

Background: Because the CRG is not a registered organisation, we lack "official"
recognition if we want to speak as one voice when addressing institutions.
Instead of creating a 'corporate association', or continue mobilising each and
every CRG member for lobbying, we looked at potential partners that were working
in our areas of interest and that would need access to our independent panel of
potential users. In exchange of the CRG label, the partner would provide us with
the infrastructure we need for our administration, marketing and lobbying work.

ECE offered its services to develop such a partnership and Didier Hueber was
invited to present their activity plan for year 2000 and how they could
collaborate with the CRG. ECE is focusing since the beginning on B2B awareness,
by presenting Internet oriented new business models to all potential partners
and providing lobbying activities. ECE has launched a new project called ISATI,
which deals with Internet Security And Trustworthy Infrastructure. They have
signed a partnership with Identrus, with members like Deutsche, Citicorp, ABN
Amro, etcà. More information is available at www.ece-forum.com

All of us have just received some complementary information from Didier Hueber.
May I suggest that you go through the proposal and come back to me with your
comments afterwards ?

CRG organisation

The CRG has been growing fast and the EDI world is changing even faster. We need
to define our priorities and adapt the CRG organisation accordingly.

The CRG has proven to be a very good forum for discussion between corporates. We
have been able to share experiences, do benchmarking and some lobbying, and the
success factors should remain in the new CRG organisation:

• Keep a light organisation with minimum administration. Continue with

participation on voluntary basis where all participants pay for their travel
expenses. However, define new rules to differentiate between active and dormant
members.


• Independent panel of users. No product ownership, although we invite some
  software providers to explain to the CRG what the technical issues are.
  
  
• Keep focusing on the financial area where we have expertise. However, this
  includes looking at finance as part of the global business, meaning that other
  areas that interact with finance will also be addressed.
  
  
• Marketing the CRG label. Banks want volumes and we need recognition. The
  CRG members will promote the recommended MIGs and the messages will be available
  for download on a home page to become a de facto standard. Links to other
  partner web sites to be established.

Action points
 

• Members are asked to see if they can provide the CRG with a Homepage
  (Design, Browser and light administration).
  
  
• Send an e-mail to people listed in the CRG mailing list to ask who want to
  be an active participant.
  
  
• In preparation of the D6 June meeting, CRG members should contact their D6
  national co-ordinator and explain issues, blocking points and necessity to
  obtain tangible outputs. (List of current national co-ordinators is attached)
  
  
• Yannick Le Calvé will write a draft defining the CRG new organisation and
  rules and circulate it for review to Tor Arnt Ellingsen, Dirk Wahlen, Alain
  Rividi and Andreas Mall. The reviewed document will then be submitted to the CRG
  active members by e-mail for approval.

Thank you for your good participation and best regards,
 

At the keyboard,

Yannick Le Calvé