Members Approve Universal Business Language (UBL) 2.0 as OASIS Standard

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

***Link to this press release at
http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis-news-2006-12-19.php.


Members Approve Universal Business Language (UBL) 2.0 as OASIS Standard  


New Version of Royalty-Free Standard Features Over 1,000 XML Data Elements for
Common Business Documents 

Boston, MA, USA; 19 December 2006 -- OASIS, the international standards
consortium, today announced that its members have approved the Universal
Business Language (UBL) version 2.0 as an OASIS Standard, a status that
signifies the highest level of ratification. UBL defines a royalty-free library
of standard, electronic XML business documents such as purchase orders and
invoices. UBL formats in electronic messages enable direct connection into
existing business, legal, auditing, and records management practices,
eliminating the re-keying of data in existing fax- and paper-based supply
chains and providing an entry point into electronic commerce for small- and
medium-sized businesses. 

UBL 2.0 features a library of more than one thousand XML data elements based on
the ebXML Core Components Technical Specification (ISO 15000-5).  Building on
the eight core order-to-invoice document types in UBL 1.0, version 2.0 adds 23
new document types to accommodate extended procurement scenarios and basic
transport processes. Development of these new schemas was funded directly or
indirectly by the governments of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, England, Finland,
Iceland, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States.

"Denmark has participated actively in the making of UBL 2.0 and has found the
work to be very instructive and the co-operation very fruitful. We can only
recommend other countries to join the work of developing open international
standards, based on user needs," said Marie Munk, Deputy Director General in
the Danish National IT and Telecome Agency. "In Denmark we see UBL 2.0 as a
backbone for the future of eProcurement, and we have already seen the first
real ERP-implementation of the Danish customization of UBL 2.0."

In addition to greatly expanding the range of business processes supported by
UBL, version 2.0 also taps the power of W3C XSLT, W3C XPath, and ISO Schematron
to provide a breakthrough in code list management. "Employing the new
'genericode' XML specification for code list publication currently under
development in OASIS, our approach allows trading partners to easily and
precisely specify code list subsets and extensions and even to apply them to
particular elements and subtrees within UBL instances -- all without changing
the standard UBL schemas," explained Tim McGrath, vice chair of the OASIS UBL
Technical Committee. "Once in place, this standards-based process enables the
implementation of business rule checking as part of instance validation. Open
source software included in the UBL 2.0 release provides this new functionality
'out of the box.'"

"With the addition of new sourcing, fulfillment, and billing documents in UBL
2.0, global ecommerce now has what it needs to support the creation of
inexpensive, off-the-shelf software for business-to-business transactions over
the internet," said Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems, chair of the OASIS UBL
Technical Committee. "The UBL implementations underway in Northern Europe are
already demonstrating the economic power of a concept that will reshape the way
we do business."

"The UBL OASIS Standard can extend the benefits of electronic business to
companies of all sizes," noted Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS.
"Building on other Internet-based messaging structures such as ebXML and Web
services, UBL opens the door for companies, in both developed and developing
economies, to engage in regional, national, and international trade." Gannon,
who serves as an advisor to the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and
Development, observed that UBL can play a strategic role in the UN's economic
development programs. "As a royalty-free, open standard, UBL offers a
significant advantage for governments seeking longer term sustainability of
applications and portability of data."

UBL 2.0 was developed by the OASIS UBL Technical Committee, which counted among
its members representatives from Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capgemini, Intel,
JustSystems, NEC, US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
PTC, Sterling Commerce, Sun Microsystems, as well as government agencies such
as the Denmark Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation, Korea Institute
for Electronic Commerce, New Zealand State Services Commission, Swedish
Association of Local Authorities and Regions, US Dept of the Navy, and others.
Participation in the OASIS UBL Technical Committee remains open to all, and
OASIS hosts the public ubl-dev mailing list for exchanging information on
implementing the standard.


Support for UBL 2.0

JustSystems
"With version 2.0, UBL becomes the foundation for building systems that are
compliant with a global standard for business documents. JustSystems' native
XML application platform, xfy, already supports the entire set of 31 UBL 2.0
document types, and we believe that this support will help industry adapt to
UBL 2.0 and resolve real-world issues of doing business," said Hideki Hiura,
CTO of JustSystems.

Sun Microsystems
"Ten years ago, Sun Microsystems organized and led the effort to create XML.
Sun's sponsorship of the UBL standard for XML business documents continues its
tradition of open standards leadership with a technology that promises huge
savings for governments and businesses alike.  The royalty-free UBL standard
will lower the barrier to entry for small businesses, increase competition
among software vendors, and foster innovation in electronic commerce," observed
Crawford Beveridge, Sun's Executive Vice President of Global Government
Strategy.


Additional information:

OASIS UBL Technical Committee:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/

UBL FAQ:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/faq.php

Cover Pages Technology Report:
http://xml.coverpages.org/ubl.html

OASIS Code List Representation Technical Committee:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/codelist/



About OASIS:

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is
a not-for-profit, international 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. The consortium produces
open standards for Web services, security, e-business, and standardization
efforts in the public sector and for application-specific markets. Founded in
1993, OASIS has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600
organizations and individual members in 100 countries. Approved OASIS Standards
include AVDL, BCM, CAP, DITA, DocBook, DSML, ebXML CPPA, ebXML Messaging, ebXML
Registry, EDXL-DE, EML, OpenDocument, SAML, SOA-RM, SPML, UBL, UDDI, WSDM,
WS-Notification, WS-Reliability, WSRF, WSRP, WS-Security, XACML, XCBF, and XML
Catalogs. http://www.oasis-open.org


Press contact:

Carol Geyer
OASIS Director of Communications
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209 (office)
+1.941.284.0403 (mobile)