OAGi News for March, 2012

Hi and welcome to our March 2012 newsletter. This is our monthly newsletter for the OAGi community. For regular updates of activities and happenings, you can follow us on Facebook here, LinkedIn here, and Twitter here.

Remember, if you are not yet a member of OAGi, we encourage you to look into the many benefits of membership, including our large and growing library of members-only content. You can review the all of the benefits of OAGi membership here.

OAGIS Release 9.6 is coming in May 2012

We are pleased to announce that OAGIS Release 9.6 is planned to go to Public Review the first week in April through the end of April. We are planning for General Availability the end of May, 2012.

We are also planning a webinar update for our members during the April Public Review. This will be a free webinar for OAGi members.

This release of OAGIS brings a great deal of new content as well as some technical advancements that bring us closer to OAGIS Release 10 (OAGIS X). The content that is added in this release of OAGIS includes: 

• From the High Tech Council
• New Noun as part of co-development with Cisco Systems and the OAGi Staff
• Configuration Noun
• Updates to Quote Noun
   
• Content from CDC led Export Compliance Working Group
• Party Screen Noun
• Party Screen Response Noun
• Three Scenarios
   
• From the Architecture Council
• New Content contributed by Oracle Corporation
• Warehouse Order (EDI X12 940)
• Warehouse Shipping Advice (EDI X12 945)
   
• iBASEt Member Contribution
• Item Non Conformance Noun and Scenario
   
• Enhancements to Extensions Mechanism and Process
   
• Change requests submitted by members and users

OAGi Events Calendar Revised and Republished

OAGi has recently moved revised and republished it's events calendar. This calendar contains all Working Group, Council Meetings, and face to face meetings.

 We welcome all OAGi members and users to take advantage of this revised calendar. You can access our calendar here.

Mobile Initiative continues to make progress

Our Mobile, Cloud, and JSON Working Group continues to meet and make progress. Although the scope of the Working Group is large because all these items are inter-related, the team is taking things one or two topics at a time.

We are moving forward on the naming and design rules for how we will express JSON, because there are several design patterns possible, and we are also gathering case studies for mobile applications.

Here is the scope of the Working Group as a reminder:

-  Mobile Business Case Studies as examples

-  Working with Solution Providers to support OAGIS JSON based apps on mobile devices

-  OAGIS Apps for mobile devices from OAGi and its members

-  Changes to the OAGIS BOD architecture to provide improved support for cloud

-  JSON based instances of the OAGIS BODs

-  A JSON tool converter

-  JSON Naming and Design Rules (NDR) similar to the current OAGIS XSD NDR

-  REST processing guide for OAGIS

The scope of this Working Group is not tied to any particular release of OAGIS and there is no set date for any of these deliverable, as there needs to be some research done and these topics will continue to evolve.

Registration continues for April Plenary and Working Group Meetings

 This is a reminder that registration is open for our April 2012 Plenary and Working Group meetings. The meetings will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, April 25 and 26 in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The theme of April's meeting is "How Mobile Business and Cloud Computing will transform B2B?"

We will have a keynote on this subject and also we plan to end with a panel discussion on this topic. We will provide remote access for free to OAGi members and for a small fee for non-members.

You can learn more, download the Agenda, and register for the meeting on our website here.

OAGIS Release 10 work continues with five ongoing initiatives

 The OAGIS Release Ten (OAGIS X) Working Groups continue to meet on a regular basis and we encourage your participation. We can use all the smart people we can get! The meetings include: 

• Architecture - Every Friday, 10 AM to 12 PM Eastern US Time
• E-Invoicing Content - Wednesday, 1:00 PM to 3 PM Eastern US Time
• HR Content - Every other Thursday, 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern US Time
• Chemical Industry Gap Analysis - Every other Thursday, 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM EDT
• Context - Tuesday, 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM Eastern US Time

All OAGi members are invited to join any of these groups. If you are interested in joining any of these Working Groups, please contact me here.

Meeting Calendar for 2012

 Stay tuned for final dates for these upcoming meetings in 2012. We are also planning several new webinars, details coming soon.
 

Policy Board Meeting - Planned	April 24, 2012	NIST	Gaithersburg, Maryland
Plenary and Working Groups - Planned	April 25 - 26, 2012	NIST	Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Policy Board Meeting Planned	November 13, 2012	Oracle	Redwood Shores, CA, USA
Plenary and Working Groups Completed	November 14 - 15, 2012	Oracle	Redwood Shores, CA, USA.

European Meeting

We are working determining these dates and will announce them as soon as possible.

TBD

TBD

OAGIS Release 9.6 is coming in May 2012

We are pleased to announce that OAGIS Release 9.6 is planned to go to Public Review in early April and we expect the General Availability by the end of May, 2012.

This release of OAGIS brings a great deal of new content as well as some technical advancements that bring us closer to OAGIS Release 10 (OAGIS X).

The content that is added in this release of OAGIS includes:

1) From the High Tech Council

• New Noun as part of co-development with Cisco Systems and the OAGi Staff
  • Configuration Noun
  • Updates to Quote Noun
• Content from CDC led Export Compliance Working Group
• Party Screen Noun
• Document Screen Noun
• Three Scenarios

2) Architecture Council

• New Content contributed by Oracle Corporation
  • Warehouse Order (EDI X12 940)
  • Warehouse Shipping Advice (EDI X12 945)
• iBASEt Member Contribution
  • Item Non Conformance Noun and Scenario
• Enhancements to Extensions Mechanism and Process

3) Change requests submitted by members and users

We will be sending more details shortly and we will also conduct a webinar for our members to learn more. This will be a free webinar for members.

Big Week Coming Up – February 27, 2012

We have a big week coming up with a full slate of Working Group meetings starting on Tuesday.

On Tuesday at 4 PM Eastern Time (EST) we have our OAGIS Release 10 Context meeting, which is working to implement the UN/CEFACT UCM Specification for OAGIS.

Then on Wednesday at 1 PM EST we have our E-Invoicing Working Group meeting.  On Thursday, we have two meetings scheduled.  At 1:00 PM EST we have our Chem eStandards gap analysis meeting and at 4 PM, we have our HR-XML harmonization Working Group.

On Friday, we finish the week with our OAGIS Release 1 (OAGIS X) Working Group meeting for 10 AM to 12 noon, EST.

Our Meetings and Working Groups Calendar is here.

OAGi Calendar Now Public

OAGi has recently moved the meetings and events calendar to the public side of the website.  Prior to today, the calendar was available only to members.  

We welcome all OAGi members and users to take advantage of this now public, calendar.  You can access our calendar here.

Our Human Resources Gap Analysis with HR-XML is making good progress

We had an status update yesterday with our HR Harmonization Working Group and the results were encouraging.  

One of our OAGi members, Steffen Fohn from ADP, a leading HR related company, is doing a tremendous job at analyzing the HR Content across OAGIS, HR-XML, the harmonized Core Component Library version CCL11A, and their own corporate requirements.

The goal is to build harmonized base objects that we all can use, whether for vertical HR processes such as hiring, benefits, etc. and the common enterprise processes such as Supply Chain, e-Commerce, Manufacturing, etc.  So Steffen  is also designing a proposed solution we can take into OAGIS Release 10 (OAGIS X).

OAGi would not design vertical process for HR, HR-XML is the best at that, and OAGi will continue to provide cross-functional solutions for Supply Chain, e-Commerce, Manufacturing, etc.

I invite you to take a look at a sample of this work below.  Click on the picture to enlarge.

The Cloud Renews Interest in Enterprise Integration

David Linthicum wrote an interesting article in his blog last Friday, February 10, 2012.  In the article he makes a reference to the fact that it feels to him like we are back in 1999 when enterprise application integration (EAI) rose to popularity.

The movement to the cloud requires the same architectural discipline for application integration that organizations were discovering back then. 

That is why OAGi has a big emphasis on publicizing the role that OAGIS can play in improving integration efforts in the cloud.  Besides banging the drum for the important of data standards like OAGIS in cloud computing, the membership has a Working Group that is working on improvements to the OAGIS Specification to ensure support for cloud requirements now and moving into the future. 

For more information on this working Group, I invite you to visit my blog post from last week here.

The original David Linthicum blog is here.

First Mobile, Cloud, JSON working Group met this week

We had a very good turnout and real enthusiasm at our first Mobile, Cloud, JSON Working Group Meeting.  The initiative is not tied to any specific OAGIS Release and covers many topics that are all related to each other.

The planned scope of this Working Group includes but is not limited to:

–  JSON based instances of the OAGIS BODs

–  A JSON tool converter

–  JSON Naming and Design Rules similar to the current OAGIS XSD Naming and Design Rules

–  REST processing guide for OAGIS

–  Changes to the OAGIS BOD architecture to provide improved support for cloud-based processing.  For example, in the BOD Application Area.  This could include additions from the current UN/CEFACT Business Data Header project

–  Mobile Business Case Studies as examples

–  Working with Solution Providers to support OAGIS JSON based apps on mobile devices

–  OAGIS Apps for mobile devices from OAGi and it’s members

There is no set date for any of these deliverable, as there needs to be some research done for some of this, and these topics will continue to evolve.

Stay tuned for upcoming events.