News

OFDA TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE RELEASES CANDIDATE RECOMMENDATION SCHEMA

ALEXANDRIA, VA - January 16, 2004 - The OFDA technology committee has advanced the OFDAOrder schema from working draft version 1.0.0 to candidate recommendation version 2.3.0. This candidate recommendation version of the schema now incorporates the order, acknowledgement, and advance shipping notice transactions and is 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 agreed to advance the schema 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. The new schema is available for download 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. 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; ProjectMatrix; Steelcase, Inc.; Team Systems, LLC; 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 forfuture 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.