IATA PADIS Adopts Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect for Standards Development

CRESWICK, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - March 11, 2014) - Sparx Systems, a leading vendor of modeling tools based on UML and related open standards, has today announced its flagship product, Enterprise Architect has been adopted by a key airline standards development community.

An agreement between IATA and Sparx Systems gives IATA Members and Strategic Partners access to Enterprise Architect (EA) for use in the development of industry data exchange standards. This tool was selected as part of an ambitious project to build an Industry Data Model carried out by the IATA Passenger Airport Data Interchange Standards (PADIS) Board.

"The Industry Data Model will provide a new level of interoperability across the entire spectrum of services providers and agents, who work with airlines to provide a seamless travel experience. Development of the Industry Data Model is a joint enterprise, comprising many experts from the industry from around the world. It is key, that they all can use the same tool to collaborate" said Eric Leopold, Director Transformation at IATA.

"The adoption of Enterprise Architect by the airline industry is an exciting development and extends a trend by standards organizations, in many diverse industry domains, to use Enterprise Architect to collaboratively develop and host, their industry models," said Ken Harkin, Business Development Manager at Sparx Systems. "We look forward to working with our stakeholders in the airline sector to ensure, that the tool, which the industry has chosen, continues to exceed user expectations."

A free 30-day trial download of Enterprise Architect can be found at: http://www.sparxsystems.com/trial

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 IATA

IATA (International Air Transport Association) represents some 240 airlines comprising 84% of global air traffic. The PADIS Board is a permanent committee of the IATA Passenger Services Conference. PADIS develops and maintains Electronic Data Interchange and XML message standards for passenger travel and airport-related passenger service activities such as publication of airline schedules, shopping, reservations and electronic ticketing, airport resource management and airport handling, including baggage handling.