CIDX Board Proposes Organizational Changes

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX), a not-for-profit global trade and standards organization, announced earlier this week a plan to transition the organization's operational and governance roles to Open Application Group (OAGi) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) Chemical IT Center (ChemITC) by year-end pending an affirmative vote by CIDX members in November.

The plan was developed in response to the chemical industry's need to more fully develop cross-industry standards to facilitate eBusiness with its customers outside the chemical sector. The plan calls for CIDX to transfer operational control to OAGi and governance to the ChemITC beginning January 2009. Under the proposal, the Chem eStandards® will remain free, and new cross-industry standards from OAGi will also be free.

OAGi is a not-for-profit standards development organization focused on building cross-industry standards. The group has a body of work related to cross-industry business standards and an extensive number of manufacturing industry members that are key customers to the chemical sector. The CIDX Core Components project team has worked with OAGi for several years.

Under the proposed transition, CIDX will transfer its intellectual property and assets to OAGi, and OAGi will create a new Chemical Industry Council to provide ongoing support and maintenance for the Chem eStandards and other CIDX intellectual property transferred to OAGi. This new Industry Council also will assign volunteers for projects related to new cross-industry standards.

The ChemITC is a subgroup of the ACC that is focused on industry-specific technology needs and challenges. The group includes a CIO Roundtable comprised of industry CIOs that meet regularly and, as part of this proposed agreement, would form an eBusiness Program to provide prioritization, direction setting and field volunteers for OAGi project work.

"Since 1985, the chemical industry, through CIDX, has been hugely successful in developing and implementing chemical industry standards," said CIDX Board Chair Tony D'Alessandro also Executive Director of Global Systems and Information Services at Rohm and Haas. "The motivation for this proposal is to enable the chemical industry to effectively pursue cross-industry standardization while minimizing the financial commitments of CIDX members."

Implications for current CIDX members
CIDX members can continue to participate on cross-industry standards development in multiple ways including:

• Joining OAGi directly (ideally at the Chemical Industry Council level to obtain benefits similar to CIDX), or
• Joining ACC and ChemITC and volunteering to sit on the eBusiness Program that will provide representation to the OAGi Chemical Industry Council.

Current CIDX projects that are not related to eBusiness standards, such as RFID, will be brought to the ChemITC to determine where the work will best be accomplished.

CIDX solution provider members will benefit from this arrangement in that they will have one less standards organization in which to participate, and the potential for cross-industry leveraging will be enhanced.

About CIDX
CIDX (www.CIDX.org) is a global trade association and standards body dedicated to improving and securing electronic connectivity for chemical companies and their trading partners. Chemical industry leaders from around the world including chemical producers, suppliers, marketplaces and industry consultants participate in CIDX and built the Chem eStandards to carry out highly secure transactions with suppliers and customers over the Internet. CIDX uses the trademarks CIDX® and Chem eStandards®.

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