STAR, The IT Automotive Retail Industry Consortium, Selects eXcelon to Lead the Architecture of the Star XML Project. GOOD LUCK!
BURLINGTON, Mass.--July 9, 2001--eXcelon Corporation , the leading provider of an XML-based platform for self-service and collaborative applications, today announced that it has been selected by STAR (Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail), an Automotive Retail Industry Consortium, to assist with their XML project, an industry standards effort based on the OAGI and ebXML standards.
One of the largest industry consortiums, STAR, is an association of auto manufacturers, retail service providers, and dealerships in North America. The goal of STAR's XML project is to provide a set of common business processes that link auto manufacturers with their respective dealers and enable real-time server-to-server information exchange between the parties.
"STAR is the IT standards organization for the North American retail automotive industry, and it is driving this project to ensure a common solution for our industry's Web-based applications is developed quickly," said Vic Zappia, Chair of STAR and Sr. System Analyst at American Suzuki Motor Corporation. "Consulting with OAGI and eXcelon for the initial phase of this project allows us to adopt proven XML standards' practices from other industries with STAR as the driving force behind this project."
"The OAGI specification is the world's largest and richest XML body of work and is used in hundreds of implementations worldwide, including Boeing, Lucent, Lockheed-Martin, the Covisint B2B exchange and the US Air Force," said David Connelly, President and CEO of the OAGI. "We are very proud to earn recognition from the automotive industry. In a short period of time, we expect the STAR/XML project will become one of the largest OAGI and ebXML projects in the world."
"eXcelon is very honored to be able to contribute to this project, as we have been at the forefront of many standard specifications such as OAGI, ebXML and BPML. STAR's XML project will be the first one to employ the newest concepts in business collaboration, based on ebXML and the new OAGI architecture," said Jean-Jacques Dubray, Chief Architect at eXcelon Corporation. "As organizations continue to realize the benefits of real-time collaboration with their partners and suppliers, more and more industries will join efforts to define standard business processes that streamline interactions between companies, their systems and their employees."
About STAR (www.STARstandard.org)
The Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) organization is the Information Technology (IT) standards body for the retail automotive industry. The goal of STAR is to use voluntary IT standards as a catalyst to fulfill the business information needs of dealers and manufacturers, thus reducing the time and effort previously required supporting this activity.
Collectively, the group develops industry standards and researches emerging technologies for the benefit of its members. Its mission is to establish voluntary industry standards for the exchange, management and integration of information that support the management, delivery and evaluation of retail automobile products and services. Specifically, the group is designed to create flexible, cost effective standards and methodologies for interoperability between IT systems.
Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, STAR is a not-for-profit volunteer organization and its members include Dealers, Manufacturers and Retail System Providers (RSPs). As members, they are interested in developing, promoting, and administering voluntary IT standards in the retail automotive industry and improving the effectiveness, timeliness and competitiveness of the IT solutions needed within the retail automotive industry.
About OAGI, Inc.
The Open Applications Group is a non-profit consortium focusing on best practices and process based XML content for eBusiness and Application Integration. It is the largest publisher of XML based content for business software interoperability in the world. Open Applications Group, Inc. members have over 5 years of extensive experience in building this industry consensus based framework for business software application interoperability and have developed a repeatable process for quickly developing high quality business content and XML representations of that content. For more information, visit www.openapplications.org.
About eXcelon Corporation
eXcelon Corporation is the leading provider of an XML-based platform for building self-service and collaborative applications. eXcelon enables its customers to access and leverage the data and content that resides within their existing systems regardless of original format making it possible to share that information across an "extended enterprise" of customers, partners, suppliers and employees for a collective business advantage. By deploying information-rich collaborative and self-service applications, enterprises empower their partners and customers to leverage data and content previously unavailable without direct, and often complex, human interaction. Such applications help businesses improve customer service, reduce costs, bring new products to market faster, increase efficiency and strengthen external relationships. Based in Burlington, Massachusetts and founded in 1988, eXcelon Corporation sells and supports its products through branch offices across the U.S. and through international subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Japan and Australia, as well as a worldwide network of distributors, value-added resellers, systems integrators and other indirect sales partners.
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