GS1 shares some encouraging insights on your peers efforts and status around GDSN Major Release 3 preparedness.

To assess the progress in updating to GDSN Major Release 3 among organisations, GS1 has been collecting self-reported information from certified data pools on a quarterly basis. Not only are data pools an important participant in the update process, they interact with the extended GDSN community. This gives data pools a big-picture view into the overall migration efforts.

Using a March 2015 survey as the benchmark and comparing it with our most recent survey completed in October of 2015, we are able to share some encouraging migration insights in the following areas:

Community Awareness
We asked data pools: “What percentage of your community is aware of GDSN Major Release 3?”

While many data pools are actively communicating the change to GDSN Major Release 3, some have not. However, our findings indicate it would be premature to consider any lack of awareness as a negative. 90% of GDSN users do not use machine-to-machine connection – an approach that places direct responsibility for standards and infrastructure changes on the user. Instead, many trading partners rely on their data pool’s infrastructure to be ready for the change. Under this scenario, many data pools, who are preparing, intend to present the transition to their customers as a system update closer to the launch date. 

Trading Partner Testing Status
We asked data pools: “What percentages of your trading partners have started scheduled testing with your data pool?”

Testing seems to be underway and robust. A majority of data pools and trading partners tend to be following end-to-end testing schedules that start 12 – 14 weeks before the go-live date – with internal testing of standards their highest priority during that period. As trading partners move closer to the launch date, testing interoperability with other trading partners should increase in importance as it will also be critical to a successful upgrade.

Implementation Readiness
We asked data pools: “What percentage of your trading partner community will be ready to migrate to GDSN Major Release 3? in May?”

Based on these findings, we are greatly encouraged by the progress we have identified. Not only due to improved awareness efforts from data pools and a proactive business community, but also from the 80% of trading partners that may already be prepared through their data pool. As individual companies may operate under different circumstances, if you have any questions about your specific business’ preparedness for GDSN Major Release 3, please contact your data pool or solution provider.

“Based on data pool reports, it’s clear that awareness and action towards the May 2016 launch is accelerating.”

-Malcolm Bowden