Sparx Systems and CSIRO Sign Collaboration Agreement

CRESWICK, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - April 8, 2014) - Sparx Systems and CSIRO have signed a research and development agreement that will help address global challenges in geospatial information management. The new deal will see the ongoing development of model registry features and functionality for Sparx's Enterprise Architect UML modelling tool.

Key development components include the CSIRO Model Registries research and the Solid Ground Enterprise Architect extension along with Sparx Systems' Cloud Service and Reusable Asset Service (RAS) solutions, existing components of the recently released Enterprise Architect 11

"To address the complex interwoven issues society faces today, we need to rapidly integrate information from multiple systems," CSIRO project leader Paul Box said. "Information models underpinning these systems are often inconsistent and documented in different ways. This hampers our efforts to transform and integrate information."

"In conjunction with the Bureau of Meteorology, we developed Solid Ground to overcome this problem, enabling users to create and manage information models in a consistent way. This in turn leads to increased interoperability between the systems that are developed using these models."

Solid Ground was developed as a plug-in for Enterprise Architect and delivered to the Bureau of Meteorology and other organisations. It was used in developing the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric), a highly specialised geographic information system that is a key information resource for the Bureau of Meteorology in producing its regular water resource assessments and national water accounts.

Sparx Systems created the RAS solution in Enterprise Architect in response to growing demand from its user base. The implementation of the RAS standard within Enterprise Architect provides a shared remote registry, accessible via a Cloud Service connection.

The RAS will allow organisations to securely share information between one another in a standardised environment. Users of the RAS can view the information in a single, consolidated virtual registry-repository, while retaining local control over their own registry-repositories.

Using this standardised solution, modellers can easily and conveniently distribute or download data resources including reusable model structures, information, corporate directives or standards.

RAS will enable the sharing of information models across organisations, communities and national borders.

"This agreement with CSIRO builds on an already strong working relationship" said Ken Harkin, Business Development Manager at Sparx Systems. "The products and knowledge underpinning this collaboration, have a sound pedigree, and we are confident that the resulting solutions will deliver much anticipated productivity benefits to the global spatial community and beyond, to other industry domains."

In Australia, the collaboration will focus on supporting large-scale community modelling efforts to develop the Foundation Spatial Data Framework.

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 has won four consecutive SD Times awards and is the 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, including two Jolt and Visual Studio Magazine Reader's Choice Merit awards. Now at version 10, Enterprise Architect is the design tool of choice for over 300,000 registered users world-wide.

About CSIRO

CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, is Australia's national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world. With approximately 6000 staff located in 58 sites across Australia and a growing international presence, CSIRO aims to make a positive impact on the most significant challenges and opportunities facing Australia and humanity. CSIRO's National Research Flagship Program undertakes large-scale mission-directed research to address national and global challenges.