Announced: UBL Procurement and Transportation Technical Committees

On the same day that the BRAC Recommendations were approved, the OASIS UBL Technical Committee announced the formation of the Procurement and Transportation Sub-committees.

The Procurement and Transportation Sub-committees have been set up to expand the number of UBL-enabled electronic document implementations. These implementations are crucial to the promotion of new technologies. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) will be the major beneficiaries of widespread UBL-enabled electronic processing. Right now SMEs use fax machines as their primary means of electronic business. However, fax messages do nothing to eliminate manual data entry and the associated transaction costs.

Trade Associations in Northern Virginia should follow the lead of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and set up UBL Validation Services. The UBL Validation services provide a trusted-third party verification of document correctness. Acting now to support UBL-enabled business infrastructure improvements will help Northern Virginia retain the current leadership position in E-Commerce and critical Internet business processing.

SOX Compliance: Time Running Out on SEC Survey

The SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies is asking executives to comment on the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by August 31, 2005.

Executives from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) should watch very carefully for the results of this survey. Currently, the potential costs associated with SOX compliance can negatively impact IPO or M&A plans. Strategic investors are very wary of acquiring interests in companies that have not invested in SOX programs.

The SEC could authorize the development of Semantic web-based process control strategies for compliance management. These strategies would greatly reduce the storage costs associated with SOX compliance. The current brute-force regime relies on storing enormous amounts of data and after-the-fact inspections to determine compliance. The business world learned from Dr. W. Edward Deming that process quality has to be engineered. Hopefully, the SEC will learn the same lesson.

Future-Proofing the Northern Virginia Business Infrastructure

This post continues the previous discussion about what can be done to recover from the BRAC Recommendation.

Trade associations should start the planning process now for Universal Business Language (UBL) implementation. Supporting UBL initiatives provide a way to “future-proof” the Business-to-Business and Business-to-Government infrastructures in Northern Virginia. If the recommendations of the BRAC report are defeated, then SMEs using UBL enabled software platforms will have a large cost advantage over other companies using either manual or EDI systems.

The Universal Business Language (UBL) initiative is a XML program that will help SMEs reduce their transaction costs. SMEs will be able to purchase software platforms that utilize royalty-free libraries of standard electronic XML business documents. Large organizations that want to use SMEs as suppliers will benefit from reduced paperwork. The cost savings of using UBL-enabled platforms will approach those of current EDI solutions. But, you won’t have the expensive EDI setup charges.

Fire Up the Engines of Innovation

A number of people in Northern Virginia have asked me what should be done about the DOD BRAC Report. The answer is to look for opportunities in new high tech areas like the Semantic Web and the Hydrogen Economy. Move away from end-to-end or enterprise applications. Concentrate on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Executives from SMEs have been saying for years, that all the easy problems have been solved and that they don’t need another database application. They need applications that will actually address real-world problems concerns.

Some believe that companies in Northern Virginia can’t address the concerns of private sector executives. Some say that we don’t have what it takes to compete in the global market place. Some say our companies can not exist without government contracts. They say that the entire region has fallen behind Silicon Valley because they have a better entrepreneur support system. We say it feels like 1994 and that it’s a good time to be an entrepreneur in Northern Virginia.

The Discussion Continues

Welcome to the first post of the Semantic Viewpoint’s RSS Forum. This forum has been created to facilitate the next-generation conversation of productivity growth. Executives from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises will find information that they can use to enhance the performance of their teams without breaking the bank.

The Semantic Viewpoint’s RSS Forum continues the information sharing that was started with the Semantic Viewpoint Newsletter. The main point of the discussion is how to help executives, who are responsible for the next generation of productivity growth, reach their goals in the most cost effective way. The Semantic Viewpoint RSS Forum will enlarge the number of topics to include potential non-profit and governmental resources.