The European and American paper industries announced today that they are well under way in development of a single, unified, international, XML-based e-business standard designed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the paper supply chain, while reducing the cost of operations. This standard has been named PapiNet.

Brussels; Washington, D.C., 30 November, 2000

Sponsoring organisations are CEPI, (Confederation of European Paper Industries), and US-based GCA, (Graphic Communications Association). Other participants include major customers of the paper industry, including: Burda, Gruppo Espresso, News International, QuadGraphics, Quebecor World, Axel Springer Verlag, R.R. Donnelley, Time Inc, and more.

This effort builds on similar work taking place in Germany by some of the European standards initiators and on the North American GCA standards work, both being developed independently earlier this year. It was agreed that by combining the two efforts, a unique outcome will be achieved that will bring great benefits to the entire industry.

This agreement marks the first time these industries have established a common approach regarding international business. The agreement will benefit companies doing business in a global environment as never before because trading partners will not be limited by technical differences across international boundaries.

The new PapiNet standard will facilitate the trading procedures between the paper industry and its customers by creating a set of electronic messages as a tool for efficient and simple trade routines using the Internet as the carrier. This will eliminate the hitherto cumbersome process of first creating and then exchanging formal paper-based documents by fax, as well as any additional manual entry of responses into each party's computer systems for the majority of companies not using EDI messages for handling business transactions.

"The benefits these standards will bring to the industry are immeasurable," says Norman W. Scharpf, president and CEO of Graphic Communications Association. "Companies will be able to operate in a global environment using the same processes and systems, regardless of where their trading partners are located."

"This international cooperation is a great opportunity for the entire global structure of e-business," says Luis Deslandes, CEO of Soporcel and chair of the European part of the project. "It is the first time the industry has come together on such a broad scale and in such a unified fashion to agree on a common approach to conducting business."

The first phase of this project, to complete five core trading messages created as electronic documents, will be completed by year-end.

The first five documents are:

· Purchase Order
· Order Confirmation
· Call-Off (delivery schedule)
· Delivery Message
· Invoice

These messages will be available for test purposes in January 2001. Initially, the PapiNet standard encompasses three segments of the paper industry: publishing paper, fine paper and packaging paper. A number of new messages will be developed during the first half of next year.

The implementation of these standards will be facilitated by a set of detailed implementation guidelines for each message, in order to help the understanding of how the messages should be set up and used. In addition, special training sessions will be offered for both technical and business people to ensure that the concept is well understood. A help desk for technical support has been established.


For information, please contact:

Bengt Roslund, Project leader: Tel: +32 2 627 4906, bengt.roslund@packaging.sca.se
Paul Conn, GCA: Tel: +1 (703) 519-8173; pconn@gca.org


About the European Standardisation Initiative:
This initiative has been taken by a group of 23 major European and global companies. This group comprises companies active in many different business sectors such as publication papers, fine papers, packaging, pulp, etc.


About GCA:
The Graphic Communications Association (GCA) is the leading global membership organisation for advancing the processes of information interoperability and dissemination of knowledge. GCA accomplishes this by engaging in and supporting the creation and adoption of globally recognised standards for information definition and exchange. Over the last 15 years, GCA's B2B Standards Committee has been the recognised e-business and EDI standards development body in the North American paper, print, and publishing industry.


About CEPI:
The Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) is a non-profit organisation representing 18 member countries (13 European Union Member States plus Norway and Switzerland with three associate members, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia). Through its member countries, CEPI represents some 1,000 pulp, paper and board-producing companies across Europe, from small and medium-sized enterprises to multinationals.