ALEXANDRIA, VA -  March 17, 2003 - The OFDA Technology Committee unveiled Version 1.0 of the OFDAxml Purchase Order and Acknowledgement schemas, which are designed to provide a unified way for dealers and manufacturers to communicate information throughout the order process.

During a meeting held last week, the Order Subcommittee unanimously agreed to advance both schemas from Working Draft to Candidate Recommendation. A Candidate Recommendation is a stable Working Draft that the Subcommittee has presented to the community for verification through implementation experience and feedback. This step will be completed when at least two successful independent schema implementations have been confirmed by the Order Subcommittee.

Committee members from Team Systems and DDMS are leading the testing stage along with manufacturer members. Testing is scheduled to continue through May 2, 2003.

The Purchase Order and Acknowledgement schemas are the first OFDAxml releases, and are part of the Committee’s plan to replace the current SIF text standard with a new, open XML (extensible markup language) standard for the office furniture industry. The new schemas are available for viewing at www.ofdaxml.org.

The Next Steps

The OFDA Technology Committee has scheduled its next meetings for May 6 and 7. At the May meeting, the Committee will review the testing and anticipates being able to advance the schema to Proposed Recommendation. A Proposed Recommendation is a Candidate Recommendation that has had successful test implementations and been sent to the full OFDA Technology Committee for review.

The Committee hopes to advance the Purchase Order and Acknowledgement schemas to the final Recommendation stage for general release at NeoCon 2003. A Recommendation reflects consensus within the OFDA Technology Committee and that the schemas specified by the Recommendation are appropriate for widespread deployment.

The Order Subcommittee will next begin work on a Shipping Acknowledgement schema.

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.

Spearheaded by the Office Furniture Dealers Alliance (OFDA) industry trade association, the OFDA Technology Committee is comprised of leading office furniture manufacturers and software developers. Committee member companies include: Allsteel Inc.; Asset Systems Inc.; Data One, Inc.; DDMS; The Global Group; Haworth; Herman Miller, Inc.; The HON Company; HON Industries; Kimball Office Group; Knoll; Midnight Oil; ProjectMatrix; Steelcase, Inc.; Team Systems, LLC; 20-20 CAP, Inc. and 20-20 Technologies, Inc.

The OFDA Technology Committee has four working subcommittees: Catalog Data, Order Data, Graphics and Best Practices. In addition to the Purchase Order and Acknowledgement schemas, 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.