OAGI Announces 1st Live Implementation Of B2B Standards at Ford Motor Company e2K Event
17 July 2000
Leading Internet B2B Vendors Demonstrate OAGI Standards-Based Supply Chain at Ford e2K; Event Validates XML Standards for Automotive Industry
DETROIT - The Open Applications Group, Inc. today announced that eight of
the world's leading Internet business-to-business technology companies
successfully joined forces to demonstrate a multi-vendor, multi-platform
automotive supply chain -- based on OAGI's B2B standards -- at Ford Motor
Company's e2K Process Leadership Exposition. This demonstration showed how
companies such as Ford and its partners can use OAGI standards to create e-
commerce supply chains that foster unprecedented operational efficiency and
business agility.
"The participating vendors did an excellent job at replicating an actual
automotive supply chain, with various external suppliers integrating
seamlessly with Ford's own manufacturing operations," said OAGI Vice President
Bill Harrelson, who is also chief technology officer for B2B systems
integrator Canopy International, which integrated the eight participants'
systems into a collaborative supply chain for the Ford event in one day. "The
e2K demonstration proves that the OAGI has the most mature and viable B2B
standards for the automotive industry."
The OAGI is a non-profit consortium focused on developing standards that
promote business software interoperability. The demonstration at the Ford e2K
event was the first leg of the "OAGI Vendor Challenge," a program sponsored by
members of OAGI's Customer Council, which includes companies such as AT&T
Wireless, Boeing, Ford, DHL and Lockheed-Martin. The goal of the Vendor
Challenge is to focus software vendors on creating "plug and play" B2B
e-commerce interoperability by implementing OAGI standards.
Technology providers that have committed to participate in the OAGI Vendor
Challenge are demonstrating their open B2B solutions at Customer Council
events, the first of which was Ford e2K. This event was a precursor to a
significantly larger event, the OAGI Vendor Challenge, Nov. 1-2 at Canopy
International's e-business integration laboratory in Boston. More than 24
vendors have committed to that event.
At the Ford e2K show, eight B2B vendors successfully built and
demonstrated an automobile engine supply chain. The supply chain represented
multiple steps in the process -- from tool procurement through delivery of
products to Ford warehouses -- and involved multiple exchanges of business
documents, such as purchase orders, between machine tools companies, equipment
manufacturers, warehouses and Ford itself.
"Standards bodies such as the OAGI are vital to the future of B2B
commerce, because they allow companies to communicate using a common business
language," said Chris Stone, president and CEO of Tilion, whose "in-the-net"
commerce analytics provided on-demand, holistic views of activity within the
supply chain, enabling Ford to optimize operations with suppliers, partners
and distributors. "This eliminates the need for companies to implement
expensive custom interfaces between systems, which greatly reduces the
technical barrier to entry for companies seeking to reap the benefits of B2B
commerce. From Tilion's standpoint, OAGI standards also enable companies to
perform on-demand B2B analytics directly from business transactions, thus
enabling companies to optimize operations across the entire supply chain."
In addition to Canopy International and Tilion vendors participating in
the supply chain included Killdara, eXcelon Corporation, irista, Mercator,
PSDI and Teklogix.
"Mercator is proud to be a part of the OAGI and Ford e2K demo and to align
ourselves with OAGI's mission to drive business software interoperability
standards," said Dave Power, vice president of marketing at Mercator. "Part
and parcel of this is the need for any-to-any integration as a key to success
for any supply chain initiative. We are pleased that Mercator is a part of
this demonstration and look forward to continuing our work with OAGI to
advance standards-based B2B e-commerce for all industries."
"This demonstration highlights a critical step in tearing down the
barriers to seamless B2B communication," said John Ogilvie, president of
Killdara, an integration partner at the e2K event. "Killdara is extremely
pleased to join the other vendors in this OAGI-Ford event."
About Open Applications Group
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 five 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 using XML.
OAGI members include: Active Software, Agile, AT&T Wireless, Bluestone,
CANDLE Corp., Canopy International, CIMLINC, Compaq, CrossWorlds Software,
DATEV eG, DHL, Digital Paper, Electron Economy, eXcelon Software, Extricity
Software, Ford Motor Company, Future Three, Great Plains, irista (formerly HK
Systems), I2, IBM, Integrated Systems & Services, J.D. Edwards, Killdara,
Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin Systems Solutions, Lucent Technologies, Mega
International, Microsoft, NEC Corporation, Netfish, OASIS, OMG, OnDisplay,
Oracle Corporation, PCS, PeopleSoft, Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers, PSDI, Inc.,
QAD, Inc., Requisite Technology, Robocom Systems Intl., Saga Software, Sand
Hill Systems, SAP AG, StreamServe, SupplierMarket.com, Teklogix, Tilion,
Trilogy, TSI, Unilever, USData, Viewlocity, Vitria, webMethods, Wonderware,
XML Solutions and XML Global.