The UIM is an indepth narrative on What, Where, Who and how to implement GUSI.  The model defines a range of common business processes and supporting technical standards and information flows for various scenarios.

Communications is an integral part of the GUSI UIM.  Many of the routine transactional communications between trading partners can be automated using standards eMessaging.  It concentrates on the main business areas such as purchasing, material forecasting, inventory management, movement & consumption and financial settlement.  It allows the business IT systems to communicate, facilitating an information flow between trading partners that links to goods and payments flow, removing bottlenecks and errors, and thus helping to deliver process efficiencies and better information for management decision making.

The UIM can be used by trading partners from scratch, or by those who have already implemented some basic elements.  The basic scenarios described in the UIM and its related messages can be modified according to business needs of any company.

• "Traditional Order Management (TOM) - is the "manufacturer-driven" scenario.  The demand line is initiated by the manufacturer and sent to the supplier.
• "Supplier Managed Inventory (SMI) - is the "supplier-driven" scenario.  The supplier recommends or establishes the deliveries to the manufacturer based on the manufacturer inventory data and or consumption forecast.

GS1 and GCI (Global Commerce Initiative) have created a set of tools to support implementation,

• The Integration Model
• The Business Case & Key success factors
• The Implementation Guide
• The Message Implementation Guide - (simple guide to implementing each of the XML messages)

GS1 Ireland supports the implementation of the UIM by;

• Tailoring the GS1 Standards for product identification and electronic messaging
• Supporting the development of the message implementation guidelines
• Technical Support & assistance for implementations