The EMS standard was developed to support a single use case... uploading estimates into a shop management system.    

The EMS has been supplanted by the BMS, however, we continue to make it available to members to supporting existing integrations.

We encourage all members to use the BMS standard when possible as the EMS is not supported for future development.  This may be problematic as vehicle technology changes and new needs arise.

The BMS was developed to support all industry workflows.  It is a suite of messages designed to support specific use cases / processes and includes only the data necessary to support the related workflow.

The XML based BMS features a robust data dictionary and code lists that are the de facto standards for the industry.

The BMS is CIECA's flagship offering and is widely used throughout the industry, powering millions of transactions each year.

The API standard is not intended to replace the BMS, rather it is a JSON based option that will support the same workflows and processes as the BMS.

The API standards will use the same data dictionary and code lists as the BMS, but offer members the opportunity to develop integrations in JSON rather than XML.

The API standards are currently in development and individual messages should start to be available in 2022.