Open Applications Group Releases OAGIS: The Standard for Open Applications Integration

Chicago, Illinois - March 1996

The Open Applications Group, Inc., has published the first multi-vendor specification for the interoperability of enterprise applications from multiple sources, named the Open Applications Group Integration Specification Release 1.002.0 (OAGIS).

OAGIS resulted from work accomplished by Open Applications Group specification teams, which are comprised of the major enterprise application vendors of the world. OAGIS defines integration within enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications and applications outside the enterprise, and integration to specialized applications that support the ERP environment. OAGIS Release 1.002.0, the first publication of OAGIS, focuses on the integration to financial applications.

"The world's leading enterprise application vendors have come together to create this specification so their customers can minimize implementation costs when choosing different applications from different sources," said Paul Margolis, Chairman of the Open Applications Group and Marcam Solutions. "We will continue to extend this specification to more application areas and will be working with our members to implement it in 1996 and beyond."

OAGIS describes data and process integration, and explains how the application programs can exchange data with other compliant business applications, addressing the need for interoperability at the business process level. The ability to choose the application best matched to the business and reducing the cost of integration, makes the use of Open Applications Group compliant applications a winning solution for customers.

Also detailed in OAGIS is a) the Open Applications Group Business Object Document (BOD) Model, the model used to communicate a request from the originating business application to the destination business application; b) the Post Journal - Revision 001 used to transmit data necessary to create journal entries from all sub-ledger applications, such as inventory, accounts payable, and accounts receivable, to general ledger applications; and c) the Confirmation BOD - Revision 001 which facilitates the integrity of the original request.

"The technical architecture of Open Applications Group Integration is intended to be technology sensitive but not technology specific," states David Connelly, chief technology officer for the Open Applications Group. "The recent appointment of David, formerly with Dun & Bradstreet Software and a founding participant in the Open Applications Group, demonstrates Open Applications Group is willing to devote the talent necessary to ensure success. He has the strong technical and application skills to keep Open Applications Group moving quickly towards making a "best of breed" approach to enterprise application selection a reality," says Margolis.

Looking forward, Open Applications Group plans a) incremental releases of OAGIS to include more processes and data to complete the business object model; b) to define integration for logistical applications to financial applications such as customer or supplier invoicing; and c) the development of a customer advisory council that will gain front-line experience with application integration.

Current corporate members of Open Applications Group are: American Software, Baan Company, CGI Informatique, CODA Group PLC, Computer Associates, Dun & Bradstreet Software, IBM Manufacturing Solutions Unit, J.D. Edwards & Company, Marcam Solutions, NEC Corporation, Oracle Corporation, PeopleSoft Inc., QAD Inc., SAP AG, Siemens Nixdorf InformationsSysteme AG Line of Business Application Software, Software 2000, Texas Instruments and TSW International Inc.

Associate members are: GSI Logistics & Distribution, InfoSys Technologies LTD, Measurex, Technology Solutions Company and Walker Interactive.

A white paper was published in June 1995 which serves as the Open Applications Group blueprint for current and future work. In September 1995, the Open Applications Group staged a successful demonstration of applications which conformed to the then developed specification to integrate enterprise applications from different vendors and other sources.

The Open Applications Group, Inc. is a non-profit consortium of enterprise application software developers, formed in February 1995 to create common standards and to integrate business applications. Open Applications Group standards are complementary to interoperability work currently underway by other standards organizations such as Microsoft, the Object Management Group (OMG), and the Open Group. For more information contact: Open Applications Group Headquarters, 401 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4267. Telephone: 312 644 6610; FAX: 312 321 6869.