Open Solutions Alliance Unveils First Interoperability Prototype to Deliver Common Customer View Across Applications

    SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Solutions Alliance
 (OSA), a nonprofit, vendor-neutral consortium dedicated to driving
 interoperability and adoption of comprehensive open solutions, today
 announced the availability of its first interoperability prototype. The
 OSA's debut prototype includes specific standards and best practices for
 delivering a Common Customer View (CCV) across open applications and will
 be on display at the OSA Interoperability Showcase, booth #1308, at
 LinuxWorld San Francisco August 7 - 9, 2007.
     The CCV prototype integrates data from diverse front-office,
 back-office and planning applications to present a complete view of
 customer activity and interactions. Three use-cases will be demonstrated at
 the OSA Interoperability Showcase at LinuxWorld: Synchronization of
 Customer Records Between Applications, Single View of the Customer and "360
 Degree View" of the Customer. The CCV prototype is being built, tested and
 demonstrated with products from Adaptive Planning, Centric CRM, JasperSoft,
 Openbravo, Talend and Unisys.
     "The OSA was formed this year to address interoperability among open
 solutions. The CCV prototype is the first major fruit of our collaborative
 labors," said Barry Klawans, OSA spokesperson and CTO at JasperSoft. "We
 see the adoption of open solutions increasing, and with it the demand for
 these point solutions to work together. The OSA is helping to meet this
 customer demand with tools that can be adopted industry-wide."
     According to a SpikeSource user survey conducted last fall, business
 customers rank "acquiring new customers" and "increasing customer loyalty"
 above all else.
     Meeting these goals can be difficult when business applications
 supporting various customer interactions are disconnected and diminish the
 end customer experience. Companies that can integrate relevant customer
 data between the increasing number of open source applications they're
 using will have the most success in attracting new customers, retaining the
 existing ones and ultimately, increasing revenues as a result. While
 several large proprietary vendors offer "customer data hub" applications,
 these often overshoot the needs of most private and public sector
 enterprises where deployments of open solutions are on the rise.
     "The OSA fills something of a void with open source software growing
 from infrastructure to applications," said Jay Lyman, with The 451 Group, a
 technology industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise
 IT innovation, in his report. He continues, "The OSA may align these open
 source vendors on common user interface and integration norms and become a
 clearinghouse for companies looking to use open source in place of
 traditional, proprietary applications." -- These comments appeared in an
 independent report, titled "Open Solutions Alliance aims to corral &
 evangelize open source enterprise apps," which was published on February 15
 of 2007 (see Editor's Note below).
     The CCV prototype is based on the OSA Interoperability Roadmap's
 proposal and is expected to be the reference implementation for future
 proposals including Single Sign-On (SSO), User Interface (UI) integration,
 data integration, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
     For more information about the CCV prototype, please visit the OSA
 Interoperability Showcase in booth #1308 at LinuxWorld San Francisco or
 visit online at: http://tinyurl.com/39s7h6. LinuxWorld attendees can see
 other OSA member demonstrations at the Interoperability Showcase from
 companies such as Adaptive Planning, Centric CRM, Corratech, Hyperic,
 JasperSoft, Openbravo, Talend, SpikeSource and Unisys.
     About the Open Solutions Alliance
     The Open Solutions Alliance (OSA) is a nonprofit, vendor neutral
 consortium dedicated to driving the interoperability and adoption of
 comprehensive open solutions. Founded in 2007, it is supported by leading
 companies from around the world who are dedicated to improving
 interoperability among software products, resulting in integrated and
 rapidly deployable solutions for business users. Through cooperative action
 and advocacy, the OSA helps facilitate interoperability, reduce barriers to
 adoption and raise the awareness of open solutions in business. For more
 information, please visit http://www.OpenSolutionsAlliance.org.
     Editor's Note: The 451 Group's report, "Open Solutions Alliance aims to
 corral & evangelize open source enterprise apps," referenced above, is an
 independently-produced report that was neither sponsored by nor otherwise
 funded directly by the Open Solutions Alliance. The report and its entire
 contents are the sole property of The 451 Group, copyright 2007, and are
 reproduced here by permission. The entire contents of this report are
 available at http://www.the451group.com.
     Media Contact:
     Jennifer Cloer                  Shelly Milam
     Page One PR for OSA             Page One PR for OSA
     503-746-7577                    415-875-7491
     Cell: 503-867-2304              650-868-4154
     Jennifer@pageonepr.com          shelly@pageonepr.com
 
 

SOURCE The Open Solutions Alliance