Contact:
Stephanie Covert
Object Management Group
+1-843-737 0637
pr@omg.org 

Consortium of OMG Members to Develop Proof of Concept for OMG's
Model Driven Message Interoperability (MDMI) Standard

Needham, MA, USA - September 10, 2008 - The Object Management Group™ (OMG™) announced that it will build a proof of concept for the Model Driven Message Interoperability (MDMI) Standard. The newly-formed MDMI Consortium will prove out the specification with real-world scenarios, initially collected from the founding members of the Consortium, and eventually encompassing a wide variety of financial industry messaging formats.

Initial participants in the MDMI Consortium include FireStar Software, HSBC and SWIFT, with others expected to join soon. The MDMI standard specification was submitted by FireStar Software, IBM, Informatica, IP Commerce and VISA with support from Adaptive and SWIFT, and was published at the end of 2007. The standard specifies a UML® meta-model and a formal methodology for capturing shared semantics in a common language, allowing the automation of message interoperability between systems based on disparate message formats. The initial focus of the Consortium will be to build upon the ISO 20022 data dictionary.

Message interoperability reduces costs, increases data quality and increases revenue. By automating interoperability between disparate systems, MDMI improves communications, helps reduce errors and provides a way to address future business changes. This proof of concept will be the first project of the MDMI Consortium, formed by the financial industry to prove, mature and facilitate adoption of MDMI. Organizations interested in message interoperability are invited to join and support this effort.

"The OMG Finance Domain Task Force, through the leadership of Visa Inc. and FireStar Software, has created an elegant standard that simplifies message information conversion," said Richard Mark Soley, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of the OMG. "We are very excited to be working with the Consortium's founders, and with others, to develop this proof of concept to show the rest of the industry the substantial benefit this approach brings to financial services."

"Preservation of the business meaning of information (i.e., semantic interoperability) remains the most persistent and systemic challenge for ubiquitously networked IT organizations globally," comments Joe Bugajski, Senior Analyst at Burton Group, the vendor independent, global IT research firm. "When new standards for model driven message interoperability are widely adopted, these potentially solve two key challenges to semantic interoperability - model driven data definitions and globally consistent message information."

"SWIFT sees potential value in the MDMI standard and seeks further confirmation of what it can bring to the SWIFT community. We have decided to participate in the initial phases of the consortium in order to be in a position to make an objective assessment of the potential benefits. If MDMI delivers on its promises, we will seriously consider adopting this standard in support of our coexistence and translation efforts," Jamie Shay, Head of Standards, SWIFT.

Dr. Soley will be giving a presentation on MDMI and the MDMI Consortium on Wednesday, September 17 at the Sibos Exhibition in Vienna, Austria, as part of the Standards Forum. The presentation will be at 16:15 (4:15 P.M.) in the Standards Forum area.

About MDMI
MDMI lets financial institutions use standardized maps provided by message format owners (including standards bodies, financial institutions and others) to correctly map information in financial message formats including ISO 20022 (UNIFI) compliant formats. Facilitating and mediating payments information across a number of message formats is a high cost obligation for financial institutions. The OMG's Financial Services Domain Task Force investigation revealed multiple message conversions can lead to errors and mistakes that annually cost the industry billions of US dollars. The standard also provides a migration path to new message formats.

For more information about the MDMI Consortium, see http://www.omg.org/mdmi; for more information about OMG, visit http://www.omg.org/. Questions about membership in OMG or the MDMI Consortium may be directed to Ken Berk at +1-781-444 0404 or ken.berk@omg.org.

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About the Object Management Group
OMG is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a wide range of technologies, including: Real-time, Embedded and Specialized Systems, Analysis & Design, Architecture-Driven Modernization and Middleware and an even wider range of industries, including: Business Modeling and Integration, C4I, Finance, Government, Healthcare, Insurance, Legal Compliance, Life Sciences Research, Manufacturing Technology, Robotics, Software-Based Communications and Space.

OMG's modeling standards, including the Unified Modeling Language™ (UML®) and Model Driven Architecture® (MDA®), enable powerful visual design, execution and maintenance of software and other processes, including IT Systems Modeling and Business Process Management. OMG's middleware standards and profiles are based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA®) and support a wide variety of industries. 

More information about OMG can be found at www.omg.org. OMG is headquartered in Needham, MA, USA.

Note to editors: MDA, Model Driven Architecture, OMG Logo, XMI, UML, UML logo and CORBA are registered trademarks, and OMG, Object Management Group, SOA Consortium, MOF, MDA Logos, BPMN, OCRES, OCUP, OCEB and Unified Modeling Language are trademarks of Object Management Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Edited by Stephanie