Sparx Systems Sponsors ISO/TC 211 Plenary Meetings

Developer of the Enterprise Architect modeling platform, Sparx Systems, strengthens its commitment to the Geospatial Standards Development community with sponsorship of biannual plenary meetings.

Creswick, Australia, June 15, 2009 – Sparx Systems, a leading vendor of UML modeling tools, today announced that it will sponsor the 29th Plenary Meeting of the ISO/TC 211 in Quebec City in November 2009. The sponsorship announcement follows recent adoption of the company’s flagship UML modeling platform, Enterprise Architect for the development of geospatial reference models.

The ISO/TC 211 Committee publishes standards for information concerning objects or phenomena associated with a location relative to the Earth. The standards cover geographic information, methods, tools and services for interoperable data exchange.

“ISO/TC 211 since its beginning 15 years ago has heavily focused on a model based approach. Almost all of our more than 40 published International Standards and other deliverables have a foundation based on models, mainly UML models”, explained Olaf Østensen, Chairman of ISO/TC 211.

“We also harmonize all models across our series of publications and these efforts are not possible without very strong and flexible modeling tools”, Østensen continued. “Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect has become the essential tool for this work, and provides us with all the functionality needed. We are very happy with the cooperation from Sparx Systems and look forward to continuing a strong relationship in the years to come.”

Realization of the benefits of ISO/TC 211 standards continues to grow as they are increasingly used for activities that rely on geospatial data. Interoperable access to spatial information and services will benefit markets from communications, utilities and transportation to defense, disaster management and environmental modeling.

The Quebec City Plenary will be the second meeting sponsored by Sparx Systems, following the 28th Plenary held during May in Molde, Norway.

Commenting on the decision for continued sponsorship, Sparx Systems Business Development Manager, Ken Harkin, said “It is a pleasure for Sparx Systems to be able to support the work of ISO/TC 211 in a practical way and to assist them in the creation of standards which benefit the everyday lives of individuals and communities around the world.”

About Sparx Systems

Sparx Systems specializes in high performance and scalable visual modeling tools for the planning, design and construction of software intensive systems.

With customers in industries ranging from aerospace and automotive engineering to finance, defense, government, entertainment and telecommunications, Sparx Systems is a leading vendor of innovative solutions based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and its related specifications. A Contributing Member of the Object Management Group (OMG), Sparx Systems is committed to realizing the potential of model-driven development based on open standards.

The company’s flagship product, Enterprise Architect, has received numerous accolades since its commercial release in August, 2000. Now at version 7.5, Enterprise Architect is the design tool of choice for close to 200,000 registered users world-wide.

About ISO

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards.

ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 157 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. On the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations.

Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the broader needs of society.