CIQ TC Charter - for your review

["Ram Kumar" <RKumar@msi.com.au>]

CIQ TC,

Enclosed is the revised CIQ TC charter (an initial draft)
for your review. Once we agree on the charter, we will 
call for a vote to get the final approval. I expect to
conduct the vote during the conference call next week.

Please feel free to comment on the charter.

Regards,

Ram

Ram Kumar
General Manager - Software R&D and Architecture
MSI Business Systems
Suite 204A, 244 Beecroft Road
Epping, NSW 2121, AUSTRALIA
Direct: +61-2-9815 0226
Mobile: +61-412 758 025
Fax: +61-2-98150200
URL: www.msi.com.au 


OASIS Customer Information Quality TC

Last Updated: 26 August 2004


STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The objective of the Technical Committee (TC) on Customer Information Quality (CIQ) 
is to deliver XML specifications for customer profile/information management 
to the industry. 


NEED FOR CUSTOMER INFORMATION XML SPECIFICATIONS

Research tells us that it is much more cost effective to retain and 
invest in our existing customer base than to build or buy market share. One customer 
lost through ineffective marketing means a massive expenditure on acquiring new customers 
to make up the lost revenue. This is more apparent as we move into the e-business environment. 
The Internet has created the need to rethink the issue of customer profile/information 
management for many, if not most, large organisations. 

In the highly competitive world being driven by e-business, organisations have to 
provide customers, vendors, and potential employees with accurate, up-to-date on-line 
information. Customer data forms the foundation for all organisations dealing with 
customers to build effective customer relationships. To be effective, customer data 
must meet the highest possible standards of both quality and integrity.  

Interoperability of customer data across different systems within and outside 
organisational boundaries, is also becoming significantly important particulary
in this new millenium where cross border terrorism is high in the agenda for any 
organisation. 

To meet the above needs, it is important to implement a common set of standards 
for managing customer information.
 
Many XML specifications involving customer data have been developed for specific
applications (eg. Purchasing, invoicing, shipment, tax, accounting, human resources,
health, etc). But despite the realisation by organisations on the importance of 
customer information management particularly in global e-business, no XML specifications 
that concentrate on customer profile/information management independent
of specific application requirements have been developed. 

This technical committee aims at delivering these specifications that enable 
interoperability of customer information within and across organisational boundaries and
at the same time help in maintaining data quality and integrity.

GOALS OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION XML SPECIFICATIONS

The goals of the CIQ TC specifications for customer profile/information are:
- To be application independent
- To be vendor neutral
- To be free of any royalties and IPRs
- To be truly "global" (in particular, capable of representing customer name and address
  data of 240+ countries independent of laguage, culture, geographical boundaries, 
  applications and data formats).


WHAT HAS BEEN DELIVERED TO DATE

The CIQ TC has delivered 3 versions of the following specifications to the industry
since its inception in December 2000:

- extensible Name Language (xNL)  
- extensible Address Language (xAL)
- extensbile Name and Address Language (xNAL)
- extensible Customer Information Language (xCIL), and
- extensible Customer Relationships Language (xCRL)

VERSIONS:

xNL: V1.0, 1.1 and 2.0
xAL: V1.0, 1.1 and 2.0
xNAL: V1.0, 1.1 and 2.0
xCIL: V1.0, 1.1 and 2.0
xCRL: V1.0 and 1.1


WHAT IS NEXT?

The CIQ Specifications V2.0 has been stable since July 2002. The work that will be
conducted by the CIQ TC is to simplify the current CIQ specifications to enable wider 
acceptance and adoption by industry. 


LIST OF DELIVERABLES (SEPTEMBER 2004 ONWARDS)

Following are the list of deliverables:
- V3.0 draft versions of xNL and xAL specifications by December 2004 for review
- Approved committee specifications of xNL and xAL specifications by March 2005
- V3.0 draft version of xCIL by July 2005
- Approved committee specification of xCIL by October 2005