Limits of certification

The purpose of certification is to check the conformity of the messages compared to XFT diagram/schema and to check that the supplier offers sufficient information in order to easily implement the messages. Certification is not a guarantee in regard to the contents entered in the transactions. It is the responsibility of the supplier to check that the content is valid for the trade directions. In addition, certification does not ensure that the message uses the XFT in an optimal way or for conformity with other suppliers (let us not forget that the XFT is only one language and not a standard). So several structures circulate and are certified for the same transactions. They are all valid but inevitably are not the simplest or most practical. The choice of the format remains the prerogative of the supplier, while the association only ensures its conformity to the language and the transaction compared to the delivered documents.

Another limit of certification lies now in the fact that the certified suppliers inevitably do not submit modifications to the association for Re-certification (and currently we do not really have a financial framework for that). It would probably be necessary to carry out a review on this subject and to investigate the implications in budgetary terms.

Lastly, certification is a heavy operation and is only carried out once there is an operational system; there is another service in existence that corresponds to the supply of support and validation, which ensures the realization of installations or validates pieces of transactions. We do not currently know how to cover the assistance of this completed design however we can accompany XFT members by ad hoc specific services.