A. This year, Samsung joined the global EC Board. Also, Dell, Lucent and Pioneer joined the global IT Board. Deutsche Financial Services has departed from a board position.

A. There are currently 30 PIPs that have been published as open standards to the industry, with dozens more in different stages of development.

A. Up to 120 PIPs are anticipated at this time. The quantity of planned PIPs is an evolving goal, based on the continued evaluation of key business processes and the scope of the RosettaNet initiative. For example, RosettaNet formed a Semiconductor Manufacturing Board earlier this month; the inclusion of an additional supply chain is likely to expand the scope of business processes covered by PIPs.

A. No. A company can choose to implement PIPs that align with business processes that are important to the company and/or its trading partners. Companies typically target PIPs that are determined to have the greatest return on investment, can streamline critical processes and cycle times to be more efficient, focus on a process they planned to re-engineer, or have particular advantages with strategic trading partners. Because PIPs represent business processes that are common among various companies in the supply chain, the majority of PIPs will be applicable to a particular company's operations.

A. RosettaNet is in the process of developing a formal Software Compliance Program, which will validate a software solution as fully conforming to RosettaNet standards. Until this formal program is in place, RosettaNet is not endorsing compliance claims made by partners. A partner company can conform to RosettaNet standards using the guidelines set forth in the standards specifications.

A. Currently, approximately 80 percent of the IT and EC Board Member companies have implemented PIPs in production systems. Additional supply chain partners are working on implementation projects in Asia, Europe and the Americas, and dozens of Solution Partners have developed software products and integration solutions to speed adoption of RosettaNet standards.

A. This varies on a company-by-company basis. Partners are reporting implementation project times of three to four months for the first PIP, with shorter development cycles for additional PIPs.

A. Implementation is defined as the integration of RosettaNet standards -- including Partner Interface Processes (PIPs), the RosettaNet Implementation Framework (RNIF) and technical dictionaries -- into (or an extension of) a company's systems to manage a business process with a trading partner. Implementation of RosettaNet standards is critical and represents a continuing goal within the supply chain. Partners are working to expand implementation success by adopting additional PIPs and using PIPs to align business processes with additional trading partners.

A. The critical pacing elements for many partners are people and resource availability. Because RosettaNet standards involve business process alignments, not only transaction protocols, adoption involves business and technical staff within a company -- working together to refine the processes. The end result is an efficient process that closely aligns with equivalent processes used by trading partners.

A. The Semiconductor Manufacturing Board encompasses the manufacturing process up to the finished integrated device. This industry has unique manufacturing aspects that do not apply to the discrete manufacturing processes covered in the scope of the electronic components supply chain. The scope of additional work necessitated priorities, expertise and funding that focus directly on this market segment.

A. Currently, supply chain companies outnumber Solution Partners within the RosettaNet membership. However, nearly 150 Solution Partner companies are dedicated to developing solutions and services for the implementation of RosettaNet standards today. This involvement speaks volumes about the commitment the industry has to RosettaNet standards.

An industry focus has developed and will continue to grow as more companies worldwide become active in RosettaNet implementation projects. We expect to also see an evolution of these services, as Solution Partners develop and excel in niche areas related to RosettaNet standards, as well as the expansion of services provided today including the development of comprehensive training and education programs related to RosettaNet.

A. Yes. These solutions can accelerate the pace of RosettaNet implementation projects, as well as minimize work required to a company's legacy systems to conform to RosettaNet standards.

A. Several thousand people are actively involved with the implementation of RosettaNet standards within the RosettaNet consortium and project teams within partner companies.

A. RosettaNet employs a small staff that is supplemented by on-loan resources from partner companies. Because of the collaborative nature of how RosettaNet standards are developed -- with partner companies participating throughout the process and contributing to project teams -- RosettaNet has been able to move quickly. Approximately fifty percent of the RosettaNet staff is focused on standards development, while the other team members focus on global implementation support, education, and industry leadership.

A. There is a continuing focus on ensuring interoperability. Because the technology environment is growing and evolving, it is important that RosettaNet standards continue to work with the systems and technologies companies are implementing today and will be implementing in the future. This is a reason why RosettaNet chose to incorporate other open standards such as XML.

A. Because partners are in the early phases of implementing RosettaNet standards in a production environment, comprehensive ROI data is not yet available. Some of the most significant benefits -- operational efficiencies from inventory reductions, improved cycle times, better customer service -- are difficult to quantify at this stage.

The potential impact of RosettaNet, however, can be extrapolated through efforts in other industries. For example, the simple use of common numbering schemes in the book industry and bar codes in the grocery industry have achieved a conservative estimated savings of two to 10 percent of revenue. Apply this to the $1 trillion industry the RosettaNet initiative covers, and the operational gains could be in the tens of billions of dollars. And this figure only begins to consider the ultimate savings opportunity available from the massive business process automation on which the IT and EC supply chain are about to embark.