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July 1st, 2009: openTRANS update - openTRANS 2.1fd is now ready for download

First of all: The feedback for the new standard is overwhelming and very positive and we really appreciate this and are happy about this success!

Since publication of version 2.0 in october last year we recieved a lot of feedback about smaller mistakes in the documentation and smaller improvements in the standard. We have done our homework and now present to you the final draft update to openTRANS 2.1fd. This is a smaller update mainly to solve some issues in the documentation. We have we done? Beside improvements of the documentation we implemented some pre-defined values for card-payment, allowances and charges for the orderresponse-document-header, changed the structure of the xml-signature and adapted the regular expression of dtADJUSTMENT_REASON_CODES. Additionally we present to you the english version and a small example of the invoice-document. You can use this example as a helping hand for the other documents as well since the structure is very similar.

openTRANS 2.1fd (final draft) is intended to replace version 2.0.

Like always we plan a public review-phase for this version where you can tell us your suggestions and ideas. Larger change-request probably do not find their way into this version 2.1 since it is planned as a minor update. Nethertheless if you have such requests we will care about them and keep them on-hold for a later version.

Good luck for implementations and usage of the standard and again, many thanks for the positive feedback and the good advices for this version!

Oct. 22nd, 2008: sustainable E-Business with openTRANS© 2.0

The time has come. After extensive check of the draft-version of openTRANS© 2.0 by public contributors and projectpartners, the final version of the standard was published today.

openTRANS© 2.0 was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute of industrial engineering (IAO) in cooperation with the BLI of the University Duisburg-Essen. The open and free standard provides business-documents like invoice and order on a XML-basis. To set up the standard for present and future requirements, we have collected suggestions to improve the standard and optimize version 2.0.

We want to thank our projectpartners for their commitment in the development of the new version. Beside the Fraunhofer IAO and the BLI - University Duisburg-Essen the following partners supported the openTRANS© 2.0 developement: AlphaPlus Trusted Services GmbH, BDS GmbH, businessMart AG, Cantor Software GmbH, eBanking Services Nord GmbH, Inoutic/Deceunick GmbH, ServiCon Service & Consult eG, VBH Deutschland GmbH und XimantiX GmbH.

The most significant improvements consist of two new business-documents, the remittance-advice and the invoice-list. Therefore it is now possible to create VAT relevant invoice-lists. Additionally you can create credit notes now. As a result of the numerous changes and improvements we recommend to switch to version 2,0 of the standard. Through the changes the standard is not compatible to the versions before 2.0.

Register now for free to get all documents and infos about the openTRANS-standard. Please note that we are currently working on the english-translation for the documents.

Aug. 28th 2008: E-Commerce-Standard »openTRANS© V2.0®« Test

Today purchasers and suppliers transact their business via the internet. The interchange of business-documents needs to be automated and the data needs to be in one interchangable language. The basis for such a E-Commerce-Esperanto is a transaction-standard like openTRANS.
 
Fraunhofer IAO developed openTRANS already in 2001 in a cooperation with the BLI - University Duisburg-Essen and industrial partners in germany. Today we provide the second, improved version of the standard in a draft-version to be tested by the users of the standard.
 
openTRANS© can be seen as complementary to BMEcat© 2005, which also was developed under contribution of the Fraunhofer IAO. Today the BLI - University Duisburg-Essen supports BMEcat© 2005. The close cooperation between the two instituts is the root for the compatibility of the two standards.

In version 2.0 of openTRANS© we have two new business-documents for the post-sales-area. Read more about the changes on this page.
 
For questions and suggestions contact nico.weiner(at)iao.fraunhofer.de. The draft-version of the standard can be downloaded on this page via free registration.
 
The openTRANS© 2.0 development-team consists of the Fraunhofer IAO, BLI-University Duisburg-Essen, AlphaPlus Trusted Services GmbH, BDS GmbH, businessMart AG, Cantor Software GmbH, eBanking Services Nord GmbH, Inoutic/Deceunick GmbH, ServiCon Service & Consult eG, VBH Deutschland GmbH und XimantiX GmbH.

July 2008: openTRANS 2 just before public-review

At the workshops on June 10th and July 10th we initiated the development of the next openTRANS©-version. We have discussed several improvements and ideas like changes in the pricing-model of products. Currently we frantically work to implement all the enhancements. The next version of openTRANS© is planned to be final in october 2008. For the end of august we plan to publish a draft-version for a two-month public-review. Please give us Feedback what you think about the new draft and what we can do better. The start-date of this public-review is to be published on this site.

March 2008: Usersurvey and openTRANS-Panel in Stuttgart

Fraunhofer IAO carried out the openTRANS-panel on February 26th, 2008 with circa 60 attendees. The panel provided information to the actual usage and developments in the area of openTRANS. Further discussion were about the improvement of the standard through the implementation of version 2.0. We kept the results to push the ideas into the development of the new version. At the same time the panel was a long requested platform to bring various users of the standard together and to discuss softwaresolutions and services on the basis of openTRANS.

Additionally we made a survey to get more information about the needs of the users and to provide support for them. Use the opportunity to inform you about the future development of the standard and to interchange with other users. You can download all materials here (unfortunately all materials are in german):

Einführung und Aktuelles zu openTRANS (Introduction and news about openTRANS)
Thomas Renner, Fraunhofer IAO

openTRANS-Einsatz im Baubeschlagshandel (openTRANS in metal-fitting branch)
Herbert Sauermann, VBH Deutschland GmbH

ERP-Schnittstellen auf Basis von openTRANS (ERP-interface on the basis of openTRANS)
Donald Müller-Judex, Arbeitskreis elektronische Rechnung von ERP-Herstellern, Ximantix GmbH

openTRANS für den Rechnungsaustausch mit SYMPLIST (openTRANS for invoice-exchange via SYMPLIST)
Asmus Hammer, eBankingServices Nord GmbH

BMEcat 2005 als Erg„nzung zu openTRANS (BMEcat 2005 as complement to openTRANS)
Thomas Trautenmüller, BMEnet GmbH

openTRANS Lösungsvorschläge & openTRANS Weiterentwicklung (solutions and developments)
Volker Schmitz, Universität Duisburg-Essen