ALEXANDRIA, VA - June 3, 2002 -  The effort to establish industry-wide data standards took a major step forward with the release of the OFDA Technology Committee’s Working Draft of the OFDAxml Purchase Order schema. Spearheaded by the Office Furniture Dealers Alliance (OFDA), the OFDA Technology Committee is comprised of leading office furniture manufacturers and software developers.

The Purchase Order schema is the first OFDAxml release. OFDAxml will provide a technology umbrella for sustained schema development to replace the current SIF text standard with a new, open XML (extensible markup language) standard for the office furniture industry.

"The committee is pleased to unveil a framework for the next era of data communications for the office furniture industry," said Mark Duros, OFDA Director of Technology and Research. "OFDAxml provides a unified way of communicating information throughout the entire order fulfillment process: from the publishing of manufacturer catalogs to the placing and shipping of customer orders. This new standard will enable dealers of all sizes to transparently handle all aspects of their business communications, both with their suppliers and with their customers, far more effectively and productively."

In conjunction with the schema release, the committee has also unveiled a web site to support the OFDAxml standards development initiative: www.ofdaxml.org. The site contains information on the committee and its mission as well as the draft OFDAxml Purchase Order schema.

The Next Steps

The public is invited to review and comment on the Working Draft of the OFDAxml Purchase Order schema. The schema and a comment forum are available at www.ofdaxml.org.

In addition, the OFDA Technology Committee will host two public forums to discuss the working draft Purchase Order schema and receive comments.

• September 20 at 8 a.m.
  IIDEX/NeoCon Canada
  Toronto
  
  
• October 2 at 8 a.m.
  OFDA Dealer Strategies Conference and Expo
  New Orleans

All office furniture manufacturers, software providers and interested parties are invited to attend. More information is available at www.ofdaxml.org.

About the OFDA Technology Committee

The OFDA Technology Committee was formed in December of 1999 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. The initiative presents an opportunity for dramatic productivity gains and cost-savings for all segments of the industry.

Committee member companies include: Allsteel Inc.; Asset Systems Inc.; 20-20 CAP; Data One, Inc.; DDMS; Global Industries, Inc.; Haworth; Herman Miller, Inc.; The HON Company; Kimball Office Group; Knoll; Midnight Oil; ProjectMatrix; Steelcase, Inc.; TEAM-DESIGN!; and 20-20 Technologies.

The OFDA Technology Committee has four working subcommittees: Catalog Data, Project Data, Graphics and Research. In addition to the Purchase Order Schema, the committee is currently developing a Catalog Data Schema for future release.

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.