[announce] ebXML CPA Ratified

[Carol Geyer <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>]

ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement Ratified as OASIS
Open Standard

New Version of OASIS UN/CEFACT Work Enables E-Business Collaboration

Boston, MA, USA; 2 December 2002 -- The OASIS interoperability
consortium today announced that its members have approved the ebXML
Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement (CPPA) v2.0 as an OASIS
Open Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of
ratification. ebXML CPPA defines business partners' technical
capabilities and documents agreements between partners, enabling
organizations to securely engage in electronic business collaboration.

"While many vendors suggest specifications and lead standards
initiatives, OASIS has provided enterprises of all sizes with a
future-proofed, tested and technically proficient 'standard.' ebxml CPPA
will foster global collaborative ebusiness growth by
removing barriers to entry and eliminating the high cost and complexity
of trading partner on-boarding. Valuable to any organization focused on
adopting standards," said Joanne Friedman, Vice President, META Group
Inc.

"ebXML CPPA ensures interoperability between two parties, even
organizations that use software from different sources. The CPP defines
a party's message-exchange capabilities and the business collaborations
that it supports. The CPA defines the way two business parties will
interact in performing the chosen business collaborations," explained
Dale Moberg of Cyclone Commerce, chair of the OASIS ebXML CPPA Technical
Committee. "The OASIS Open Standard also facilitates the migration of
both traditional EDI-based applications and other legacy applications to
ebXML-based platforms."

ebXML CPPA was developed by Commerce One, Cyclone Commerce, E2open,
Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Intel, IONA, Mercator, SAP, SeeBeyond,
Sterling Commerce, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, TIBCO, Vitria, webMethods,
and other members of the OASIS ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and
Agreement Technical Committee.

"Ratification as an OASIS Open Standard means that developers can deploy
ebXML CPPA with confidence," said Karl Best, vice president of OASIS.
"To attain this level of acceptance, ebXML CPPA first completed an
extensive public review, was approved by the OASIS ebXML CPPA Technical
Committee, and demonstrated its readiness through multiple
implementations. Finally, ebXML CPPA was reviewed and approved by the
OASIS membership as a whole. We congratulate and thank the members of
the OASIS ebXML CPPA Technical Committee for all their outstanding
efforts in advancing ebXML CPPA as the newest OASIS Open Standard."

In related news, the ebXML OASIS UN/CEFACT Joint Marketing Team
published version 1.0 of the ebXML Adoption Update, a listing of ebXML
implementations, projects, products, and industry initiatives from
around the world. The ebXML Adoption Update is posted at
http://www.ebxml.org/ebxml_jmt/index.htm#documents.


Industry Support for ebXML CPPA

"Negotiating partner agreements are critical for large scale deployment
of open business connections. ebXML CPPA takes a significant step
forward in simplifying and automating that process," observed Dave
Bennett, CTO of Cyclone Commerce.

"Sterling Commerce has leveraged its long history in building electronic
trading communities in contributing significantly to the development of
the ebXML CPPA specification. This specification addresses a major issue
with the rapid deployment of Internet B2B e-commerce--the absence of a
standard definition of technical parameters for communication and
security that business partners need to agree upon. Representing these
configuration parameters in the standard format of the ebXML CPPA
specification will greatly accelerate users' integration processes. In
addition to this immediate value, version 2.0 of the specification sets
the stage for the standardized CPA negotiation process to come. Sterling
Commerce remains committed to the ebXML CPPA development effort as it
expands to address these even more difficult issues," said Brian Gibb,
Director of Standards and Applied Technology, Sterling Commerce.

"SAP is excited to see the ebXML standards portfolio growing and
evolving in the space of collaboration and trading partner agreements.
ebXML CPPA 2.0 is a significant step forward and represents an important
piece of work in the business applications domain," said Sinisa Zimek,
Director Technology Architecture & Standards from SAP. "Specifications
like ebXML CPPA will eventually enrich the Web and enhance its potential
of being the intrinsic place for doing electronic business in the
future."

"We are pleased to have participated in the development of ebXML CPPA
2.0, and welcome its use as a standard to assist in the automated
establishment of electronic business transactions," said Alan Davies,
Vice President of Standards and Product Strategy for SeeBeyond.

"Sun Microsystems is very pleased to see that ebXML CPPA V2.0 has been
approved as an OASIS standard. This will help further efforts to
implement an approved specification into products so that the mission of
ebXML to enable global business interoperatbility can be truly
realized," said Mark Herring, senior director of Sun[tm] ONE Java Web
services and tools at Sun. "Sun believes in open and royalty free
standards and this latest development with the Collaboration Partner
Profile further underscores that philosophy."

"With version 2.0 of the ebXML CPPA, OASIS continues to provide the next
generation of complex Web services, and Sybase has further enriched our
end-to-end ebXML solution by fully incorporating support for ebXML CPPA
in our Web Services Integrator product," said Billy Ho, senior vice
president and general manager, e-Business Division of Sybase. "We are
seeing interest from the ebXML community and feel that this continues to
demonstrate Sybase's commitment to delivering open, standards based,
vendor interoperable e-Business solutions."

"TIBCO is pleased to working with OASIS and supports making ebXML CPPA
an open standard as we strongly believe that CPPA will simplify Global
electronic business collaboration," said TIBCO Software Director of
Products and Solutions, Ramin Sayar. "TIBCO has a history of helping
companies improve productivity through standards-based integration for
its Global 2000 customers."

"ebXML CPPA is a very important component of the ebXML architecture as
it acts as a technical agreement/configuration document format as well
as providing a common vocabulary for partners to use when designing B2B
processes," stated Matthew MacKenzie, Chief Software Architect for XML
Global Technologies. "XML Global has implemented CPPA version 2.0 and is
using it within its ebXML Messaging and Registry products and will
continue to support future iterations of the OASIS ebXML CPPA Technical
Committee's work."



About OASIS (http://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, XML conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing,
topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. OASIS
has more than 600 corporate and individual members in 100 countries
around the world.

For more information:

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