The newly-created Association For Enterprise Integration (AFEI) has emerged in response to a growing need for information dissemination and feedback from users and vendors in the ever-expanding world of electronic commerce. Formerly the U.S. CALS Industry Steering Group (ISG), AFEI will conduct its Inaugural Meeting on April 28-29, 1998 at the Wyndham Gardens Hotel in Annapolis, MD.

An affiliate of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the AFEI is a worldwide cooperative effort developed in coordination with government, industry, and academia to institutionalize the strategy of CALS in industry and government, and to facilitate electronic business through open standards and neutral technology. Objectives of AFEI are to:

• foster enterprise integration and electronic business through commercial standards and open technology;
• promulgate consistent information management policy to facilitate open communication between industry and government;
• increase awareness of education and training efficiencies with regard to electronic business processes;
• identify and resolve potential barriers to the continued international integration of the standards and technologies;
• provide an open forum to address government functional standards and their relationships to industry; and
• shape global business agendas to establish intercompany and intracompany solutions.

Membership in AFEI is drawn from industry, academia, and government and is distinct from membership in the NDIA. Classes of membership include: (1) Individual - open to members of the U.S. government and representatives of any country officially recognized by the International CALS Congress; and (2) Corporate - members affiliated with any registered corporation, foreign or domestic.

The leading organization advancing standards, regulations, and best business practices, AFEI sponsors symposia, group assemblies, and conferences open to participants from all corners of the globe. AFEI members are afforded the prime opportunities to interface - industry to industry, industry to government, and government to government - on technology trends, corporate policies, and long-term, forward-thinking business decisions.

• Participate in government/industry partnership projects
• Learn current government, industry, and academia thinking and plans
• Serve on technical committees, such as Education & Outreach, Standards, Conference & Workshops, Business, Regional Interest Groups/Electronic Commerce Resource Centers, and Information & Process Integration
• Receive discount conference and exhibition rates
• Gain perspective of regulatory/statutory structure of the digital environment
• Obtain implementation assistance from experienced colleagues

Corporate membership is open to all businesses, including partnerships, sole proprietorships, corporations, firms, educational institutions, foundations, associations, and components thereof, organized within the United States.

Allied Corporate membership is open to corporations which are chartered and controlled under the laws of:

• nations belonging to the NATO alliance or Japan, Australia, or New Zealand;
• nations with which the United States maintains a Reciprocal Procurement Agreement;
• nations for which a United States government agency has specifically requested the AFEI to conduct meetings and enhance communications; and
• nations which are members of the International CALS Congress (ICC).

Individual membership is open to government employees and those persons not affiliated with an organization eligible for Corporate or Allied Corporate membership.

The focus of the inaugural meeting of AFEI will be on industry partnering with government in order to achieve electronic acquisition, paper-free contracting, and logistics process reinvention. Its aim is summed up in recent Presidential Report entitled "A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce," ....."for commerce to flourish, the private sector must lead."

For further information regarding the AFEI, contact Shirley Goodman at (703) 247-9473 (email: [email protected]), or see our Homepage: http://cals.ndia.org.