ISA NEWS RELEASE
Contact:  Jennifer Infantino
(919) 990-9287
jinfantino@isa.org

OAGIS Building Business Object Documents in Collaboration with ISA and WBF

Research Triangle Park, NC (12 September 2007) -- OAGIS will be building
ISA-95 based Business Object Documents in collaboration with ISA95 Standards Committee on Enterprise-Control Integration and WBF's XML Working Group. The goal of the documents is to ensure that no matter which standard a customer or vendor implements, the two standards will interoperate.

"We've been listening to customers' needs for years, and the ISA95 content is very important to all of the manufacturing end users I have spoken with," said David Connelly, CEO of the Open Applications Group.
"Our work to create these documents brings real solutions to the end user."

The decision, made during a mid-August OAGi Manufacturing Working Group meeting involving representatives from IBM, Yokogawa, iBASEt, Boeing, Infor, ISA and WBF and others, reflects ongoing collaboration between ISA, WBF, and OAGi through the OpenO&M Initiative. The OpenO&M Initiative is a venture of ISA, MIMOSA, OAGi, OPC, and WBF, and supports development of business process models for data exchange between manufacturing operations management and business support systems.

The Open Applications Group is a not-for-profit open standards development organization building a standard called the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS). The OAGIS standard covers data exchange requirements for business systems and applications, including manufacturing and operations management systems. The Open Applications Group Board of Directors voted earlier in the year to express the work of the ISA95 working group in OAGIS, providing the end user a world class XML solution based on the popular and respected standard.

"The documents that will come from our collaboration with ISA and WBF will be the industry guidelines that customers need," said Gary Sullivan of iBASEt. "Harmonizing standards is important work, and the industry will benefit from this ongoing collaboration."

With the new initiative, ISA95 will remain the foundation for the documents with OAGIS and B2MML sharing each other's extensions and collaborating on the standards. OAGi and WBF will sign a Memorandum of Understanding, and ISA and WBF will be invited to join the OAGi Partner Council when it is formed. OAGi will also have a representative on the
ISA95 committee.

"ISA95 has contributed significant data exchange content and models supporting the manufacturing industry," said ISA Director of Standards Services T.S. "Chip" Lee. "Since our standard has historically been used in process manufacturing, and the OAGIS standard is typically used in discrete manufacturing, our collaboration enables the further development of both standards. WBF's XML Working Group's Business to Manufacturing Markup Language (B2MML) completes the package for the end user."

WBF's XMLWorking Group recently released V0400 of B2MML. The enhancements in this version of the documentation include support for
ISA95 Part 5 Transactions, OAGIS messages, and UN/CEFACT core components, while still maintaining backward compatibility to V0300.

"The work that the WBF XML Working Group has done, and especially their efforts to incorporate the work of ISA95 and OAGIS into B2MML, makes the inclusion of these schemas a great fit for these OAGIS documents," said WBF Chairman Maurice Wilkins.

For more information about the OpenO&M Initiative, visit www.openoandm.org.

About ISA

Founded in 1945, ISA (www.isa.org) is a leading, global, nonprofit organization that is setting the standard for automation by helping over 30,000 worldwide members and other professionals solve difficult technical problems, while enhancing their leadership and personal career capabilities. Based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, ISA develops standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; and hosts the largest conference and exhibition for automation professionals in the Western Hemisphere. ISA is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation (www.automationfederation.org).