ALEXANDRIA, VA -  November 1, 2005 - The OFDA Technology Committee announced that a significantly enhanced version of the OFDAxml Order schema is now available. The new OFDAxml Order 3.0 builds on the capabilities of the previous release, version 2.4.2, by adding several new features and functions including the Proposal, Invoice, Inventory, Credit/Debit Memo and A/R Statement transactions plus the capacity to transmit services transactions.

The OFDAxml Order schema is designed to provide manufacturers, dealers and software providers with a common environment for delivering electronic orders consistently and in real-time. The schema includes all of the existing SIF data requirements, but in an improved easy-to-understand structure while providing significant advancements over the limitations, redundancies and inconsistencies associated with SIF data today. 

"The new OFDAxml Order 3.0 provides the foundation for innovation within our industry at a whole new level. With support for these new transactions, this schema can support sharing data in ways the industry has never seen before," said Kevin VanRiper, Senior Programmer Analyst - Information Technology with Herman Miller, Inc.

"Using the OFDAxml standard, data cana be shared between the different systems being used -- manufacturer, dealer business system, specification, asset management, and more. With OFDAxml, the question for the industry is no longer should we do this? The question is how soo can we do this? Herman Miller, Inc. is already in the process of working with dealer business system and specification software vendors to adopt OFDAxml Order version 3.0 and deploy this new standard to our dealers," concluded VanRiper.

OFDAxml standards are supported by the industry's leading manufacturers and software providers, including Global, HNI, Haworth, Herman Miller, Kimball, Knoll, and Steelcase. In addition to the OFDAxml Order schema, the OFDA Technology Committee has also released the OFDACatalog schema.

"The OFDA Technology Committee is pleased to unveil this enhanced and expanded version of the OFDAOrder schema," said Mark Duros, OFDA director of research and technology. "This important standard will make it possible for all manufacturers, regardless of size, to provide electronic Order data. Now is the time for those manufacturers who have been sitting on the sidelines to jump in and put the OFDAOrder schema to work. The dealers are ready and waiting."

The schema is available for download at www.ofdaxml.org. The OFDA Technology Committee encourages all dealers, software providers and manufacturers to review the schema and begin incorporating OFDAxml in upcoming projects.

About the OFDA Technology Committee
Spearheaded by the Office Furniture Dealers Alliance (OFDA), the OFDA Technology Committee is comprised of leading office furniture manufacturers and software developers. The Committee was formed with a goal of creating industry standards to simplify the process of transmitting both graphical and non-graphical data across different computer platforms and software programs. 

Committee member companies involved in the OFDAOrder schema development include: 20-20 Technologies, Inc.; Asset Systems Inc.; Data One, Inc.; DDMS/eci2; The Global Group; Haworth; Herman Miller, Inc.; HNI; Kimball Office; Knoll; ProjectMatrix; Steelcase, Inc.; and Team Systems, LLC.

The OFDA Technology Committee has three working subcommittees: Order, Catalog and Graphics.

For more information on the OFDA Technology Committee, please visit www.ofdaxml.org or contact Mark Duros, OFDA Director of Technology and Research, at mduros@ofdanet.org.