The Electronic Trading System (ETS)
The Electronic Trading System for World Wide Business Opportunities
The Electronic Trading System was developd by the United Nations Trade Point Development Centre based on the Electronic Trading ETO Concept, with the strategic support from the Bangkok Trade Point and technical assistance of Control Data Systems.
The system provides subscribers around the world with a single point of contact for their information needs for trade and business opportunities and their international communication requirements. This is achieved through the Global Trade Point Network (GTPN).
ETS System Functions
- Exchange Information for Trade in a standardised form on a global basis using EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), Email and client-server software technology, providing the user with an integrated solution.
- Connect existing national Trade Information Services to the world using the ETO Gateway facilities.
- Enable effective communication via electronic mail using local telecommunication services, national X.25 carriers or network providers such as AT&T, General Electric, SITA, British Telecom and Internet.
- Provide the user with a user-friendly MS-Windows based Interface to prepare ETO messages for trade, banking, insurance and transport sectors, enabling them to participate in the Global Trade Point Network.
The ETS Advantage
The main advantage is that all users of the Global Trade Point Network share a common world-wide pool of trade opportunities. Global searches for trade opportunities can be executed locally within each country, thus saving on communication cost. This feature is based on an index database, which is available in each country and updated automatically all over the world.
The information in the ETO database can be accessed through an interactive search, executed locally using a PC.
The access to ETO information is by using the custom-made user-friendly MS Windows interface software. All services are available through a point-and-click mode.
Since all the information exchange on the Global Trade Point Network is based on standard email and/or EDI-services, every user of the Trade Point system has email access to world-wide electronic mail networks for convenient, fast and affordable exchange of mail with business partners on a national, regional or world-wide basis.
The advantages of electronic mail for the exchange of the ETO-messages:
- the store and forward mechanism of Email provides a reliable exchange even when the network conditions in a region are of poor quality
- International standards, such as SMTP, X.400 and X.500 are available
- Independence of proprietary EDI-Value Added Network services allows for a world-wide implementation, independent of the availability of a given service in a region.
The ETS includes gateway features, which allow its subscribers to connect to a number of local and remote databases and information services.
Standards Based Implementation
The ETS has been developed as an Open System, and is totally based on standards (X.25, X.400, SMTP/MIME, and others).
Flexible Access
PC users have a number of different ways to connect to the Global Trade Point Network.
Subscribers may use a modem to connect to the server using dial-up service, or use X.25 or other networks to connect to any ETS node which is accessible on this network.
Larger organisations can decide to establish a direct link between the ETS node and the organisation's LAN system.
The Electronic Trading System (ETS) Distributed Architecture
The basic unit of information is called ETO (Electronic Trading Opportunities). An ETO describes an opportunity for trade. It is an offer to sell a product or service or a request to buy a product or service. ETOs describe specific trade opportunities, not just general trade information.
Each ETO includes both structured information to facilitate searching and matching and free-form text which allows the author flexibility in describing their products, services or requirements.
The total ETO database does not reside in a single country but is distributed all over the world. Parts of each ETO record (the ETO Index) are available on every TP all over the world. The system automatically synchronises these databases.
Users connected to any of those TP systems will be able to browse through the index of ETO Index records. This browsing and searching is called Trade Match.
After performing a Trade Match, users may order the full ETO information from the remote TP where the data resides. The ETO contains detailed contact information (telephone, fax, telex numbers and email addresses) which enables the user to start a trade relation directly with the foreign company.
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