Interoperability Framework
The two main building blocks of the CEN BII interoperability framework are the Profiles and Information Requirement Models.
A CEN BII profile is a technical specification that supports the electronic exchange of business documents in an open and interoperable manner. In particular, it is a description of how one or more business processes (e.g.: invoice, order, etc.) are executed by specifying the rules governing the electronic transactions exchanged and its information content.
A CEN BII profile includes:
- the overview of the business process(es) covered in the public procurement context;
- the electronic business transactions exchanged as part of the business process, and the sequence in which the transactions are exchanged;
- the business rules governing the execution of the business process(es) and any constrains on information elements used;
- the information content of the electronic business transactions exchanged – which refers to an Information Requirement Model that provides the structured representation of the information elements and can be considered as a Semantic Data Model.
The CEN BII tools to implement the profiles include the data model, the syntax binding, the guidelines and the validation tools.