Press Release

OASIS and RosettaNet Form Standards Development-to-Implementation Alliance

Consortia Collaborate to Advance E-Business Standards Across Industries

Boston, MA, and Santa Ana, Calif., USA; 03 June 2003 – Industry standards consortia, OASIS and RosettaNet, formalized plans for a coordinated approach to standards development and implementation that will streamline business-to-business (B2B) integration practices for global supply chain companies. The new alliance leverages the supply chain expertise of RosettaNet with the broad, interoperability focus of OASIS.

"This is a productive alignment of activities, and where practical, a convergence of our work," emphasized Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "Under this scenario, RosettaNet can leverage standards developed by OASIS, such as ebXML and the Universal Business Language (UBL), creating implementation-oriented solutions at a content level. OASIS, in turn, will look to RosettaNet for domain-specific input to ensure the applicability of universal standards within and between industries."

"By coordinating efforts, standards bodies can effectively avoid the duplication of development, strengthen existing global standards in support of ongoing business requirements, and speed time-to-market of standards solutions," remarked Karen Peterson, vice president and research director, Gartner, Inc. "Businesses can implement these valuable standards with confidence, and therefore, more readily connect with domestic and international trading partners on a broader scale."

As a first step in putting this new agreement into practice, RosettaNet has assumed a major role in the OASIS Electronic Procurement Standardization (EPS) Technical Committee. The group provides a forum for government agencies, organizations, and companies to guide the coordinated development of global e-procurement standards. The committee is working to analyze requirements for electronic procurement processes, identify gaps, and recommend new standards as needed.

"While RosettaNet remains committed to developing business process standards required to support the complex needs of the high-technology industry, we also want to realize interoperability across all supply chains. To that end, we see tremendous value in ensuring our supply chain standards are supported by cross-industry, universally accepted standards, such those developed by OASIS," said Jennifer Hamilton, RosettaNet CEO.

RosettaNet and OASIS have established respective liaison memberships that allow representatives of each consortium to actively participate in the technical work of the other. In addition to the OASIS EPS Technical Committee, RosettaNet representatives contribute to the OASIS UBL Technical Committee. RosettaNet is also using the binary collaboration portion of ebXML BPSS, initially developed by OASIS, in its PIP specification format. Possible areas for future collaboration and cross participation are messaging services, advanced business process descriptions, constraint representation, document presentation, repository and meta data standards.

"The RosettaNet and OASIS collaboration should drive a set of robust business solutions that are easy to implement, interoperable, and cost-effective," said Colin Evans, Director of Systems Software, Intel Research and Development, Chairman of the OASIS Board and past Chairman of the RosettaNet Executive Board. "Both organizations have very compatible open philosophies and are dedicated to presenting the e-business community with a unified approach. In addition, RosettaNet will be able to expose its five years of experience implementing XML-based transactions in high-tech businesses into a broader community addressed by OASIS members."

About OASIS (www.oasis-open.org)

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries.

About RosettaNet (www.rosettanet.org)

RosettaNet is a non-profit consortium dedicated to the collaborative development and rapid deployment of open internet-based business standards that align processes within the global high technology and telecommunications trading networks. More than 500 companies, representing over $1 trillion in annual information technology, electronic components and semiconductor manufacturing revenues, currently participate in RosettaNet’s standards development, strategy and implementation activities. Information on the consortium’s worldwide activities in the Americas, Europe and Asia, and a complete list of Partner companies, is available at www.rosettanet.org. RosettaNet is a subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC).

For more information:

Carol Geyer OASIS Director of Communications carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Lynda Yana Director of Global Marketing & Communications RosettaNet lynda.yana@rosettanet.org +1.714.480.3806