Pubnet-MISG Develops Publishing Industry EDI Standards

NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J. - June 29, 2001 – Pubnet®, an Internet-based Electronic Commerce system managed by the Management Information Systems Group, Inc. (MISG), announced the development of new standard EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) formats. The six-month project brought together industry leaders and MISG's support staff to develop documents that would benefit all parts of the publishing supply chain, helping to reinforce Pubnet's position as a leading EDI/E-commerce system in the publishing industry.

The new standards were derived from existing ones, including 810 Invoice, 850 Purchase Order, 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment, 856 Ship Notice/Manifest and 857 Shipment and Billing Notice. They were modified to streamline, clarify ambiguities and eliminate redundant codes. Bookstores and other retailers and software providers now will be able to easily understand the EDI documents and will be better able to implement and utilize the formats.

"We see the new standards as very positive," said Ed Schlichenmayer, Vice President, Industry Services for the National Association of College Stores and co-chairman of the task force that worked on the new formats. "Implementing the formats will facilitate new EDI trading partnership installations and ensure that retailers can communicate consistent orders and receive timely acknowledgments."

In addition to Schlichenmayer, task force members were Co-chairman Allen Hoffman, Harper Collins; Lyssa Braga, Harcourt; Chad Corley, Wiley; Elaine Hase, Barnes & Noble; Mike Imhoff, Thompson; Paul Jara, Follett; Pay Phillips, MBS; John Schulz, VHPS and Rich Vettel, Unitech.

All of the new EDI standards are available for viewing at the Pubnet Web site, www.pubnet.org. The new documents were approved in June for use in the publishing industry and are available for use starting in July.

Pubnet is a leading publishing industry E-commerce exchange, allowing more than 3,000 distributors, bookstores and other retailers to place electronic orders and receive return documents over the Internet. More than 300 publishers receive orders over Internet file transfers or through the browser-based application at www.pubnet.org. Web users have access to the system's 500,000-plus title database to conduct title searches and place online orders.

The Management Information Systems Group, Inc. is a leading supplier of electronic commerce and EDI solutions, managed network systems and Internet services to the publishing industry. MISG's Internet services include Web site development and hosting, Web-to-EDI-to-Web integration, E-commerce-enabled Web sites, Internet-based EDI, storefronts and shopping carts and "dynamically generated content."