Donna Hutt-Stapfer, of Superba, Inc., wrote yesterday: "I've been asked
to inquire about obtaining an ILN location number by one of my German
customers, and they refer to the EAN Organization, which I'm unfamiliar
with. We've only done X12-flavored EDI within the United States and
Canada...what do I need to know about an ILN and the EAN folks?"
Whereupon, Chris Johnson, of EDIMatrix Ltd in the UK, muscled in on
domestic U.S. turf with the explanation that the
...EAN is the European Article Numbering Association, and
corresponds to UCC, the Uniform Code Council, in the States.
An ILN is an International Location Number, equivalent to a
UCC Company Number. It is a 13-digit number (12 data plus a
check digit) which uniquely identifies an organisation, and
is widely used in the EANCOM EDIFACT subsets, which in their
turn are widely used in Europe.
Chris then suggested that Donna look at the EAN's site at
http://www.ean.be. Afterwards, Alan Macro wrote in, saying that there
"seems to be some difference in concept between the EAN ILN and UCC
Company number," perhaps clouding the issue and making one think there's
a difference in ILNs depending on where they're used or assigned;
though the company prefix has different sizes around the world, the
system used by UCC/EAN is consistent for ensuring unique codes.
The ILN is just another name for the UCC/EAN International Location
Number, described at http://www.ean.be/html/LocationNumbers.html. The
U.S. EAN affiliate is the Uniform Code Council at
http://www.uc-council.org/, who can assign Donna's company a prefix for
location numbers. The company prefix would most likely be the same as
used for product codes in the UPC. So if SuperBa already has a UCC
company prefix, Donna already can start assigning ILNs to her locations.
I am rarely so forward as to correct people, but Chris should note that
the name "EAN" doesn't stand for anything, and the "E" certainly does
not stand for "European" - at least not anymore. They just call
themselves "EAN International ." This is a politically sensitive
topic, not only to parochial Americans, but to anyone else in the world
outside of Europe. See the EAN FAQ question "Is the system really
international?" at http://www.ean.be/html/FAQ.html.
In the U.S., it's much more likely that a DUNS+4 code would be used to
uniquely identify specific locations within a company. The DUNS (Data
Universal Numbering System) number itself is assigned by Dun &
Bradstreet, with an additional 4 characters - hence the "+4" - defined
by the company for their internal locations. Both DUNS+4 and UCC/EAN
ILNs are nothing but unique "cookies" for identifying locations.
The EAN/UCC and Dun & Bradstreet are competitors in this business of
assigning company numbers for building location codes. D&B operates
world-wide, assigning unique DUNS numbers to all legal entities, whereas
you have to join the EAN or UCC before an EAN company prefix will be
assigned. Therefore, the DUNS+4 assignment might be more convenient for
Superba, which undoubtedly has a DUNS, even if doesn't have a UCC
company prefix.
Unfortunately, Donna's German customer may not have the flexibility to
differentiate between a DUNS number and an EAN/UCC ILN, even though both
conform to ISO 6523 (the Structure for the identification of
organizations) , and might demand that a UCC/EAN ILN be used in any
case. And more likely than not, Donna's customer is using the EANCOM
EDIFACT message implementation guidelines, produced by the EAN which has
little interest in providing for the use of DUNS numbers to identify
parties or locations (e.g., in the EDIFACT NAD segment).
William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
4950 Blazer Memorial Pkwy.
Dublin, OH USA 43017-3305
(614) 791-1600
Visit FORESIGHT Corp. at http://www.foresightcorp.com/
"Commerce for a New World"
=======================================================================
To signoff the EDI-L list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To contact the list owner: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/edi-l%40listserv.ucop.edu/
