Data Format Standardization within the Defense Commercial Communications Office

The Defense Commercial Communications Office DECCO acquires long- haul telecommunications services and equipment for the Department of Defense and other Federal agencies. DECCO also bills these organizations on behalf of telecommunications providers. To facilitate the electronic submission of billing and accounting data, new service providers must be given standard data definitions, data content, and format for their submissions. This report contains a data dictionary that lists this information. The report also recommends that DECCO establish a DoD standard compliant with the American National Standards Institute ANSI Accredited Standards Committee ASC X12 electronic data interchange standards for business transactions. The Telecommunications Industry Forum TCIF has published a convention for using the ANSI ASC X12 transaction set for a Consolidated Service InvoiceStatement as a standard way of transmitting service invoices and required data for auditing prior to payment. This report contains a draft implementation convention that illustrates how DECCOs system data requirements can be met by the TCIF transaction set. It is recommended that DECCO work with TCIF to finalize the convention and adopt it as the DoD standard. To do so will align DECCO with the telecommunications industry, support DoDs policy of making maximum use of electronic data interchange for paperless processing of all business-related transactions, and preclude excess contractual costs for DoD-unique formats.