Outstanding December Face to Face Meeting

Many thanks to all who helped make our December face to face meeting a tremendous success! We had a record crowd and many amazing presentations.

It was great to see all of the energy in the room. We also had good turnouts for our two Working Group meetings the next day. Both the Logistics WG and the OAGIS Release 10 WG made good progress.

We have posted the presentations from the meeting on our website and all the presentations are free. The link to the download page is here.

Exciting Meeting December 2 in San Francisco

Our agenda for Wednesday, December 2 in Redwood Shores, near San Francisco, is shaping up to be a terrific cross section of case studies, demonstrations, and updates on activities.

We have presentations from the three biggest application software companies in the world. This includes SAP, Oracle, and Infor. You can find our agenda here.

Presentations from OAGi Amsterdam Meeting Available

We had a tremendous meeting in Amsterdam on October 27. We welcome you to see the results here.

We did this meeting co-located with EDIFICE, one of our partner organizations for the High Tech Industry, although we also had attendees from retail, agriculture, automotive, and telecommunications.

A special thanks to our host, GXS, who is a member of our High Tech Council.

Thanks very much for your support as a member of OAGi!

OAGi News for October

We recently published our October newsletter and as usual, we continue to have exciting events to report. Highlights include:

OAGi's Growing Community - Steel Industry Council is coming

Since our September newsletter we have had renewed talks with the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) and they have indicated that they want to move forward to form a Steel Industry Council as soon as possible.

The MSCI (www.msci.org) is a trade association that supports and represents the most elements of the metals value chain, including metals producers, distributors, and processors and, to a lesser extent, the interests of metals users.

We are in active planning now to move forward. Please stay tuned for more details.

HR-XML and OAGIS
HR-XML released their next generation Version 3.0 of their standards on September 23rd, 2009. This release represents a major collaboration effort with the OAGi members and staff as they have contributed to the architecture and the review of HR-XML 3.0 from its beginning.

Release 3.0 of HR-XML uses the BOD architecture, our base component libraries, and also the OAGIS implementation of UN/CEFACT Core Components version 2.01 because it is based on the OAGi business standards platform. You can read the HR-XML Press Release here.

UN/CEFACT Approves Core Component Technical Specification (CCTS) and Business Data Type (BDT) Catalog version 3.0.

As most of you know by now, OAGi is working on a next generation version of OAGIS called OAGIS Release 10. This release will use the new versions of UN/CEFACT CCTS and the BDT Catalog, making this milestone approval very important to all members and users of OAGi.

The 3.0 version of the Naming and Design Rules, which OAGIS Release 10 will also use, was also nearly completed as well.

Many of our members and staff contributed directly to the success of this effort.

OAGi News for September, 2009

We recently published our September Newsletter and it is packed full of good information.

Highlights include:

OAGIS Resources Downloads - We have recently built a tremendous resource for OAGIS members and users. We have added a Resources Downloads page to our website. This webpage contains over 15 White Papers, software and other resources for your use.

OAGi's Growing Community - We updated you on the size and diversity of our web site registrations in our July 6, 2009 newsletter, but I wanted to let you know that we have experienced a 31 per cent growth in registrations in this two month time frame!

OAGIS Release 9.5 Plans - OAGi members are currently working on Release 9.5 of OAGIS. Our plans are to bring this release to Public Review in late November, 2009 with plans to bring it to General Availability the end of January, 2010. As usual, these are planned dates and we will keep you informed of progress.

You can get your complete copy of the September Newsletter here:

Good week last week

We had a terrific week last week with our first OAGIS Release 10 development meetings.

With the economy as it is, we tried using online meetings with great success. We met for 3 hours each day on architecture issues, and then we met for three hours on content discussion.

Everyone was very cooperative and disciplined, with constructive discussions on substantive issues, like how to deploy the CCTS 3.0 standard, or how to define lot serial to handle both discrete and process manufacturing.

We have a long way to go, of course, but it was a great start.

OAGIS and STEP Convergence

The OAGIS and STEP community started an effort last year to look at ways they could harmonize the two standards with the goal of simplifying the task for the end user, and to increase interoperability as well.

We met with representatives from ISO TC184 SC4, PDES, Inc., OASIS PLCS, and OMG PLS, and NIST. We met several times by phone and also face to face since early 2008.

During that time we spent a great deal of effort looking at each others standard, and trying to understand design patterns and approaches.

We also identified to data objects to start with, the Bill of Material (BOM) and the Item. It is always an interesting effort to learn each other's communities terminology.

Recently we published a very complete report on our approach and results so far, and I recommened that you read it if this is an area you are interested in. You can download from our website here.

OAGIS Release 10 Working Group Starts Today

In May of this year I started talking about a next generation release of OAGIS we are planning.

We have our first working meeting today to start the OAGIS Release 10 efforts in earnest. As I stated in my May 2009 post, this is a strategic release for the purpose of bringing together many industries under one data standard, and to implement the important harmonized technologies from UN/CEFACT.

This release of OAGIS is the one to eventually supercede the Chem eStandards, thus fulfilling the intent of CIDX to build cross industry standards for the Chemical Industries to use.

In addition to the Chemical Industry, the other industries we are targeting explicitly include Automotive, Automotive Retail, Aerospace and Defense, High Tech, and Agriculture. This list will probably grow over time.

In my next post I will talk more about the UN/CEFACT technologies we are planning to implement.

Our new Resources Downloags Webpage

We have been working hard for the past two weeks on a resources downloads page for our members and users.

This page contains formal OAGi White Papers, member contributions, and even contributions from non-member OAGIS users.

Some of the items available for download include but are not limited to:

OAGi Data Management White Paper, GetShow Usage White Paper, an extensions guide, BOD flattener software, and even a link to the OAGIS Developers Guide for BizTalk on the Microsoft website.

We welcome you to visit and contribute your work as well. You can visit our Resources Webpage here.

AgGateway is joining our Community

We have recently completed and signed our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with AgGateway Corporation. AgGateway will be joining our Chemical Industry Council.

The AgGateway (www.aggateway.org) organization brings the very large and diverse agriculture community to the OAGi community. This community includes BASF, Bayer Cropscience, Land O Lakes, Monsanto, The American Feed Industry Association, and many others.

The diversity of this community will add greatly to our efforts to build a true cross industry data standard. Right now this community uses our Chem eStandards, but the future will bring this community into the OAGIS Release 10 world.

This is a very exciting time.

Planning for Aerospace and Defense Council

I had a good call last night with one of our representatives in the Aerospace and Defense industry. He is optomistic that we might be able to put together an Aerospace and Defense Council by the end of this calendar year or early next year.

These things always take awhile, but we have had dealings in this industry before, and perserverance and patience are very important.

Stay tuned for updates.

Cross Industry is Working

In the last two weeks, we have seen a terrific increase in cooperation between our High Tech and our Chemical Industry Council.

The two chair's have spoken and agree they have the same goals for cross industry standards. Now the Chair of the Chemical Industry Council is working with the Leader of the Warehouse and Transportation Working Group to ensure that Chemical Industry requirements are included in their efforts.

This is what we intended when we set up the Council concept, but it is always refreshing to see it actually working. In fact, it is organically growing on its own.

New Collaboration Initiatives

We have a couple of collaborations to talk about today.

Manufacturing Process Collaboration

I just wrote a letter endorsing CAM-I’s proposal “Semantic Manufacturing Interoperability for Lifecycle Engineering & Sustainability (SMILES)” to the NIST Recovery Act Measurement Science and Engineering Research Grants Program.

OAGi works closely with NIST researchers, and other standards organizations such as PDES Inc. to harmonize overlapping standards. In particular, the OAGIS-STEP harmonization joint working group has done some initial semantic mappings between OAGIS and OMG PLM Services which are partly based on STEP AP214.

The SMILES proposal would build on this initial success and extend this effort to include manufacturing process information and web services.

We are looking forward to the SMILES team to further advance manufacturing system interoperability with engineering and lifecycle modeling applications.

AgGateway

In addition, it looks like we are on the verge of signing an MOU with AgGateway. We are discussing their joining our Chemical Industry Council.

I will write more on this and on AgGateway when the MOU is finialized.

July 2009 Newsletter Published

It's that time of month again and we publiched our monthly OAGi Newsletter. Highlights include our planned face to face meeting calendar for the remainder to 2009, updates on our Working Groups, and demographics of our registered users.

You can download the entire newsletter here.

Warehouse and Transportation Management Working Group

We are getting a good bit of interest in our newly formed Transportation and Warehouse Management Working Group.

It is hosted by our High Tech Council, but other industries are welcome to join and we already have someone from Pharmaceutical.

Our members so far signed up to work on this include: DHL, Intel, Cisco, SAP, and an invited expert from Merck. We expect more soon.

This worked in planned to be part of our next release of OAGIS, Release 9.5, which to planned to go to public review right after the first of the year.

Please feel free to write to us for more information. If you are a member of OAGi, please feel free to contact us about joining the Working Group.

OAGIS Registered User Stats

I was going though our registered users list this week and found some interesting statistics. In the four months since we put up the new website, we have 1584 registered users and we are adding 5 - 10 new ones per day.

In going though the names, I found that we have registrations from 65 countries on 6 continents. The breakdown is just below. Europe wins, but Asia is not far behind.

Africa	3 countries represented
Asia	17 countries represented
Australia/Oceana	3 countries represented
Europe	29 countries represented
North America	4 countries represented
South America	10 countries represented

Some of the most interesting countries represented include French Polynesia and the Palestinian Territory.

We truly have an international community.

Cool online web pages about OAGIS

I recently had the opportunity to discover several cool websites where people are writing about OAGIS. In one of them, they describe how OAGIS helps manufacturers. It is on the ISA website. ISA is a partner of OAGi through our MOU on the use of their famous ISA S95 international standard. The link is here:

http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?Section=Channel_Talk1&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=77001

Then I found this website, where someone posted a presentation a couple of our members did on using BODs for Data Management. This was the basis for a White PAper we just published for our members that is a very detailed data managment guide.

http://www.slideshare.net/chucka_nc/a-bod-is-a-powerful-thing-a-look-at-the-mechanics-of-using-oagis-bods

Unified Context Methodology for OAGIS

OAGIS has long been considered as a Canonical Model for enterprise and business network interoperability.  Many organizations around the world are using it to save money and increase their organizational agility.

The data model has been tested and matured over many years and it is consequently very robust.  This also means that sometimes there is more in the data model than a particular use case requires.

As we move forward with our plans for OAGIS X, the Unified Context Methodology (UCM) is a very important part of our plans as we believe it will help our users apply OAGIS to their particular use cases more effectively and efficiently.

I will write more about UCM but for now you can download a presentation done at our Spring 2009 Meeting at the following link: 

http://www.oagi.org/oagi/downloads/meetings/2009_0506_WashingtonDC/Presentation_UCM_DiretionAndConcepts_April2009.pdf

  

Two more collaborations moving forward

These news items would normally go into our monthly newsletter, but rather than wait until next month, I thought I would announce them now.

American Chemistry Council ChemITC

On Monday of this week we completed our agreement to join the American Chemistry Council ChemITC group.  This organization is the place where CIDX transferred their business initiatives. 

OAGi will be working closely with this organization in the same manner as we work with EDIFICE for our High Tech Council.

AgGateway

Today we received a Letter of Intent from AgGateway concerning their future membership in our Chemical Industry Council.  I am very pleased that AgGateway, which uses the Chem eStandards labeled as AG eStandards, will be continuing their commitment to working with OAGi as the successor to the CIDX standards efforts.

You can learn more about AgGateway here: http://www.aggateway.org

Plans for a next generation OAGIS

Our OAGIS specification has been in the market since 1996 and during that time we have continuously improved the business process definitions and the data exchange data model.

In the release 9.X version of OAGIS we implemented the 2.01 version of UN/CEFACT CCTS, parts of the Naming and Design Rules, the Datatypes, and some of the harmonized Core Components that were available at that time.

Now that the UN/CEFACT 3.0 technologies look like they are nearing completion, our Policy Board and Architecture Council are discussing plans to implement them in a next generation version of OAGIS we are calling OAGIS Release 10 or OAGIS X.

We are looking at this as a multi-year effort and the scope of OAGIS X is planned to include the following UN/CEFACT technologies:

Core Component Technical Specification (CCTS) version 3.0

Naming and Design Rules 3.0

Data Types Catalog 3.0

Unified Context Methodology

OAGIS X is also planned to be the version of OAGIS that explicitly supports (at least) High Tech, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Steel, and the Chemical Industry.  

The Chemical Industry point is very important to the users of the Chem eStandards, which are now owned by the Open Applications Group and our Chemcial Industry Council.  It is planned that OAGIS X will supercede the Chem eStandards at that time.  I plan to discuss our strategy for the Chem eStandards in more detail in anther post.

Good meeting last week

We had a good meeting in Washington DC last week.  In spite of the economy, people still seem commited to standards, and I continue to focus on the end in mind with them.

That is to save money, increase agility, and save time for organizations.

We covered many topics and had some terrific presentations.  The presentations are available here: http://www.oagi.org/dnn/oagi/Meetings/PriorMeetingPresentations/2009/OAGiSpring2009Meeting/tabid/198/Default.aspx