ECOM Journal 2008

Contents > ECOM Activity Results Report > Information Sharing Infrastructure Group > Information Sharing Rule Committee

Information Sharing Rule Committee

Masakazu Fujita, Research Director, Next Generation Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan

Overview of Activities

This committee has deliberated rules for the electronic sharing of information relating to products that goes beyond inter-industry or inter-business, with the goals of product safety and environmental protection that are becoming social issues, and targeting consumer durables and general consumables. Note that transaction between corporations (internet shops and the like) and consumers (B2C) is also included in electronic commerce, but this survey research only considered inter-business transactions (B2B).

Electronic sharing of research requires a clear express provision in the form of a memorandum or a contract of the agreement between the two companies who will be sharing this information in the same manner as previous EDIs (electronic data exchange) that have been implemented between companies. This is because intellectual property rights related to information that is to be shared, demarcation points of responsibility for both parties in the event of electronic sharing of confidentiality and information, system formula used in the electronic sharing of information, operation, and how to deal with errors in the system need to be decided on the basis on an agreement, which must be strictly adhered to, between the two companies that determines.

As shown in Figure 1, in order to achieve the sharing of information between corporations that goes beyond the boundaries of industry type and style, it is vital that a contract or memorandum be shared between the bodies doing the transaction to have a framework that is made up of operation linkages (business models), operation methods (business processes), operation information (messages), information expression (syntax rules), and electronic message transport (transmission protocols), implement them acculately and make them actions that have their effectiveness underscored by the law.

Figure 1. Framework and Necessary Contracts or Memoranda for Information Sharing between Corporations

Based on the basic awareness of the facts outlined above, this survey investigation was targeted at demonstrating a model for a contract that can be used across corporate and industry boundaries as a contract guide necessary for the relevant parties to share information electronically related to products that goes beyond being inter-corporate or inter-industry.

The Information Sharing Rule Committee has generally carried out activities as outlined in Table 1.

Table 1. Activities for Information Sharing Rule Committee

Activity Results

In considering a contract that can be used across corporate and industry boundaries, the relationship between the parties who will be sharing the information, the law, customs, and types of information that should be shared, the flow of sharing, and other conditions were made clear, and formed into a model to create the contract model.

1. The relationship between parties sharing information

The mutual relationships between parties sharing information can be thought of as divided into the following three general cases:

Raw materials producers, materials producers, parts manufacturers and finished product manufacturers
Finished product manufacturers and wholesale marketers, wholesale marketers and retailers
Finished product manufacturers and maintenance or service industries, recycling industries, and waste disposal industries

If we analyze the relationship between these concerned parties, we can divide them into those that have direct relationships, and are joined by basic transaction contracts (or who may be able to be joined by contracts), which are corporations that "can see each other," and corporations that "cannot see each other," and are not in a direct transaction relationship, such as finished product manufacturers and maintenance or service industries, recycling industries, and waste disposal industries (save for corporations with the same affiliation).

1) and 2) above are examples of inter-corporate relationships between corporations that "can see each other." This is shown in the pattern diagram in Figure 2.

In the relationship between corporations that "cannot see each other," there are no direct dealings. For example, the relationships are those between manufacturers and retailers, which have a complex distribution route to reach the consumer, and, as in 3) above, relationships between manufacturers who produce products that are first sold to consumers, and the corporations involved in the repair, maintenance, second-hand sales, and demolition or disposal of these products. This example is shown in the pattern diagram in Figure 3.

Figure 2. The Relationship between Businesses Sharing Information that "can See Each Other"

Figure 3. The Relationship between Businesses Sharing Information that "cannot See Each Other"

2. Information that should be shared

When considering product safety and environmental protection as the main goals, we have assumed the following as information that should be provided to businesses that carry out the sales, maintenance, repair, and disposal of products by the sales businesses and manufacturers of products that are the target of information sharing.

Information on dangerous materials in the product
Information on the environmental load materials in the product
Maintenance manuals
Repair manuals
Exchangeable parts lists
Other points to note in terms of safety
Design diagrams, construction blueprints, etc.

Conversely, we have assumed the following as information that should be provided to manufacturers or sales businesses by businesses that carry out the sales, maintenance, repair, and disposal of products that are the target of information sharing.

Product accident and failure information, serious product accident and failure information (this is regulated by the Consumer Products Safety Law)
Other information on other claims by users
Information regarding frequent failures, etc.

Information flows both ways, and cannot be fixed as being the information provider on the one hand, and the information recipient on the other hand. For this reason, in the model for contracts, we created a proposal that has the manufacturers of products that are the target of information sharing or the sales business listed as the First Party, and the businesses that carry out the sales, maintenance, repair, and disposal of products that are the target of information sharing listed as the Second Party. Examples of both of these are shown in Figures 4 and 5 as a pattern diagram. We created the contract model based on these examples.

Figure 4. An Example of Information Provision from the First Party to the Second Party

Figure 5. An Example of Information Provision from the Second Party to the First Party

Summary

On this occasion, we created a model for contracts related to the above models. In the future, we shall include improvements made through careful investigations after providing these models to actual businesses, and by thus widening the scope of our targets, we hope to be able to create a fuller and easier to apply guideline.