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Employers/End UsersQ-2 How can my business benefit from HR data interchange standards? Q-3 How can I ensure my HR vendors use open data exchange standards? VendorsQ-4 What are the benefits of certifying my HR software or service? Q-5 How can I register my product or service with HRcertify? Q-6 What is "Phase One Certification"? Q-7 What criteria are used in awarding certifications? Q-9 What is a conformance statement? Q-10 What are the terms for use of the HR-XML Certified Logo? Q-12 Can I certify against a deprecated specification? Q-13 What are the fees for certification? About XMLQ-13 What Is XML? Why is it important? Q-15 What technologies are related to XML? About HR-XMLQ-16 What is the HR-XML Consortium? Q-17 How does HR-XML handle unique trading partner requirements? Employers/End UsersHRcertify is the place to locate software and services that use the data exchange standards developed by the HR-XML Consortium, Inc. These standards were developed through the open processes of the HR-XML Consortium, an independent, non-profit, and vendor-neutral organization. The standards encapsulate a wealth of knowledge contributed by individuals and organizations from across the HR management domain. Organizations that successfully complete the certification process are awarded a logo to use on their websites and a link to a conformance statement within the HRcertify registry. The HR-XML Certified logo signals that a vendor is a technology leader and is ready to integrate flexibly and opportunistically with customers and partners. Q-2 How can my business benefit from HR data interchange standards? Research shows that upfront software costs account for only 30 to 40 percent (or less) of the total cost of implementing HR information solutions. Discovery, analysis, custom interface development, and ongoing maintenance account for the other 60 to 70 percent of many HR information system solutions. Data interchange standards can reduce the amount of expensive customization required to make implementations of HR solutions productive. The HR-XML Consortium's data interchange standards provide flexible, extensible templates that can readily be used to integrate disparate systems. Without industry standards, ad hoc data interchange formats must be developed or employers are left to adopt a proprietary format provided by vendors. Data interchange standards based on XML also support other employer business priorities. For example, it is increasingly common to deliver employee and manager self-service through portals. However, it is much less common for changes submitted through portals (for example, address changes, changes to dependent information, etc.) to be reflected in real time in the downstream record keeping systems maintained by providers of benefits and HR services. Integrating data across systems in real time is the very thing that XML-based standards are designed to support. Q-3 How can I ensure my HR vendors use open data exchange standards? HRcertify is the place to locate software and services that use the data exchange standards developed by the HR-XML Consortium, Inc. If you are the person responsible for making or influencing decisions about HR information solutions, you often can reap the benefits of HR-XML data exchange standards simply by asking your vendors the right questions! Ask current and prospective vendors:
You should also modify requests for proposals (RFPs), contracts, and other vendor requirements to ensure vendors are willing and able to support HR-XML data exchange standards. Use the four questions above as the basis for your RFP language. VendorsQ-4 What are the benefits of certifying my HR software or service? Vendors that successfully certify their solutions are awarded the HR-XML Certified logo and an entry in the HRcertify registry. Being awarded the HR-XML Certified logo signals that your organization is a technology leader and is ready to integrate flexibly and opportunistically with customers and partners. Having an entry in the searchable registry maintained by HRcertify enables your solution to be discovered by customers and partners looking for cutting-edge applications that integrate easily via HR-XML standards. Going through the certification process will also provide your development team an opportunity to validate their work and their understanding of HR-XML standards. In addition, being certified will position your company to meet customer procurement criteria. A growing number of customers are asking prospective suppliers of HR information services about their use of HR-XML standards. Q-5 How can I register my product or service with HRcertify? HRcertify offers vendors the opportunity to register software and services that implement HR-XML's open data exchange standards. In addition, consulting firms can register their HR-XML implementations between a client and a trading partner. It is easy and risk free to explore certification with HRcertify. If you represent an HR vendor, you can begin the certification process by filling out a simple form describing your implementation of HR-XML standards. After receiving your request, a certification specialist will contact you for an initial consultation. After the consultation, the certification specialist will send you a statement that itemizes the specific schemas against which your software or solution will certify. The statement also will identify any associated certification fees. There is no obligation created by this initial consultation. Following the initial consultation, the certification specialist will send you a brief set of questions to determine how your implementation satisfies basic certification criteria. The specialist also may follow up with additional questions based on the facts and circumstances of your implementation. The specialist usually will require you to provide one or more XML instances that are representative of what your solution generates or consumes. The specialist will use such instances to see if they are valid against the relevant HR-XML schema and to examine whether the use of XML components is semantically appropriate. Finally, the specialist will work with you to draft a conformance statement that briefly describes your solution and its use of the associated HR-XML Specification. Q-6 What is "Phase One Certification"? HRcertify's inaugural certification program is described as "Phase One Certification,". The principal goal of Phase One is to provide implementers with a simplified, expedited process to register implementations conforming with HR-XML specifications. As the name "Phase One" implies, later versions of the certification program may follow. The program will grow and evolve based on the requirements of those involved in the evaluation and procurement of HR solutions and of those involved in integrating such solutions. Q-7 What criteria are used in awarding certifications? Certifications are granted after an HR-XML certification specialist has considered the facts and circumstances of your implementation. The following criteria must be satisfied:
Q-8 How can I test my HR solution to see if it produces documents that are valid against HR-XML schemas? As a service to implementers of HR-XML specifications, the HR-XML Consortium has deployed an online "testbed." The testbed includes a set of web services to validate payload documents against the schemas defined by HR-XML specifications. Visit the testbed facility at http://testbed.hr-xml.org. Send any questions about the testbed to certify@hr-xml.org. Note that successful validation using the testbed does not constitute certification. HR-XML Consortium Certification can only be awarded by applying for certification through HRcertify.org. Q-9 What is a conformance statement? In addition to receiving the HR-XML Consortium Certified logo, each organization achieving certification will receive an entry in a searchable registry maintained on HRcertify.org. This entry will contain the organization's "conformance statement." A conformance statement contains two parts:
Q-10 What are the terms for use of the HR-XML Certified Logo? Implementers of HR-XML specifications that successfully certify their applications or services are awarded the "HR-XML Certified Logo" to use on their website and in marketing materials.
Organizations with certified applications/services will have use of the logo during a two-year period. For certifications by General and non-members, the two-year period for the use of the logo begins with the date of the first successful certification awarded within the set of up to five certifications covered by the payment of the certification fee. The same two-year period would apply to the entire set of up to five certifications. HR-XML Premier Members are not subject to certification fees. For Premier members the two-year period for use of the logo applies from the date of each individual certification award. Certifications are awarded at the sole discretion and judgment of the HR-XML Consortium. Certifications can be withdrawn at the discretion of the HR-XML Consortium. The HR-XML Consortium Certified logo is a trademark of the HR-XML Consortium, Inc. Yes. If your organization has already certified an HR solution it may apply for renewal of its certification against the same HR-XML specification subject to applicable fees and review by an HR certification specialist. Q-12 Can I certify against a deprecated specification? You can renew a certification for a specification against which you have already been certified regardless of whether that specification has been deprecated. However, a specification will be removed from the list of specifications eligible for certification twelve months after that specification is superseded by a revised specification. Thus, if your organization has invested in the development of an HR-XML interface, there is incentive for you to certify without delay to protect your eligibility for certification. Q-13 What are the fees for certification? Certification is a two-year benefit. Certification fees and the no-cost discount for Premier-level members cover certifications against up to five specifications in a two-year period. Fees for Non-Member Organizations: The certification fee is $6,000 USD for organizations that are not HR-XML Consortium members. This covers certification requests during a two-year period. A $3000 deposit is due at the start of certification. The balance of $3000 is due when certification awarded. The certification fee covers certifications against up to five major schemas. If you have multiple products or modules that implement the same schema, up to three such products/modules can be covered within the same certification request. The schemas against which you would certify and any related fees would be identified in a statement provided to you after initial consultation with a certification specialist. There is no cost for this initial consultation. Fees for HR-XML Consortium Member Organizations are as follows:
See HR-XML's Membership Schedule for further details on options and pricing. NOTE: HR-XML's Individual Membership is a personal membership for individuals. Individual Members that want to certify the applications or services would be subject to the fee schedule for non-member organizations. About XMLQ-13 What Is XML? Why is it important? Extensible Markup Language or "XML" is the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) specification for developing descriptive markup languages for use in the delivery of information across the Internet. XML looks like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the markup language used to create Web pages. However, these two markup technologies have different purposes. HTML prescribes the how web pages should look. The primary purpose of XML is to add structure and intelligence to data exchange. XML allows information creators to apply self-describing markup (or "tags") around each discrete element of data. Encapsulating each piece of data in self-describing markup makes XML data easy for computers to access, transfer, index, search, and secure. XML is a simple technology that was designed explicitly for the Internet. Because it is simple and Internet-ready, XML is embraced and strongly supported by technology leaders, such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, and Sun. Thus, regardless of your programming environment and regardless of whether you have aging legacy systems, a state-of-the-art HRMS, or one or more “best-of-breed” hosted solutions — if you need to engineer data exchanges between systems or trading partners, XML is likely to fit into the solution. XML Schemas define the data elements for particular transactions as well as set out options and constraints governing the use of those elements. XML vocabularies, such as those being developed by the HR-XML Consortium, Inc., are defined using the W3C’s XML Schema Definition Language. Schemas also enable automated processing and error checking of XML documents using a “parser.” A parser is a piece of software that compares an XML document to the definitions in an XML schema. In addition, XML parsers implement standard application programming interface (API) definitions that enable programmers to access and manipulate each discrete piece of data within an XML document. Support for XML has become truly ubiquitous. XML parsers are available for all contemporary programming environments as well as certain legacy programming languages. Q-15 What technologies are related to XML? Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) is a companion technology that provides a way to convert XML data so that it can be displayed in a browser, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or other mobile device. This gives XML clear advantages over technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). XSLT also provides a way to transform XML data to and from proprietary or legacy formats. XML also is a foundation for a range of other emerging technologies that will enable highly flexible HR services and systems. “Web services” is among the most significant of those emerging technologies. Basically, a web service is an URL-addressable application that can be integrated with other applications using Internet standards. Web services spare implementers from having to learn details about the systems of trading partners with which they wish to exchange data. To integrate with a trading partner, an implementer only needs to understand how to send and receive the XML-based messages specified in a “web services contract.” Those messages often will be based on industry XML standards, such as those being developed by the HR-XML Consortium. While web services show tremendous promise and potential, HR-XML’s specifications are independent of specific implementation frameworks or message transport. Thus, HR-XML specifications can be implemented in a wide variety of ways. For instance, some implementers may want to implement HR-XML within the Electronic Business XML (ebXML) framework. About HR-XMLQ-16 What is the HR-XML Consortium? The HR-XML Consortium is a non-profit organization with widespread international membership and support from leaders in the field of human resource management. The mission of the HR-XML Consortium is to spare organizations the risk and expense of having to negotiate and agree upon data interchange mechanisms on an ad-hoc basis. By developing and publishing open, freely available data exchange standards based on XML, the HR-XML Consortium provides the means for any company to interact with other companies without having to establish, engineer, and implement many separate interchange mechanisms. Q-17 How does HR-XML handle unique trading partner requirements? Many prospective HR-XML implementers may find the idea of standards to be appealing, but they may wonder if HR-XML specifications can possibly handle the many and varied requirements imposed by their trading partner relationships. HR-XML schemas include UserAreas. The UserArea allows implementers to insert whatever custom XML structures their business processes or trading partners may require. Definitions for customizations in the UserArea can be set out in a separate schema maintained by the owner of the extensions. The UserArea extension mechanism also allows implementers to specify the context of their extensions within the HR-XML standard schemas. If you have questions about HR-XML, want to discuss making a business case for HR-XML within your organization, or want to know more about implementation options, send an email to info@hr-xml.org To be alerted to the latest developments regarding the HR-XML Consortium, sign up for the HR-XML updates and announcement list at: http://www.hr-xml.org HR-XML's staff also is available to assist you. Staff contacts are as follows: Chuck Allen, Director, chucka@hr-xml.org The mailing address for HR-XML is: HR-XML Consortium Inc. Membership within the HR-XML Consortium is open to HR professionals, vendors, consultants, and other users or providers of HR systems and services. To join HR-XML or to obtain information on membership options, please visit http://www.hr-xml.org/forms/join |