Open Process Automation Moves to the Proof-of-Concept Stage

Overview

As discussed in several recent ARC Advisory Group Insights and blog-posts, Open Process Automation was once again a hot topic at the 2018 ARC Industry Forum last month in Orlando, Florida. Among the high-lights was the Tuesday afternoon session focusing on the current status of several open process automation initiatives currently in progress. The session included Harry Forbes’ introductory presentation (see ARC Insight: OPA-Some Reasons for Optimism) and David DeBari’s first public presentation on the ExxonMobil proof-of-concept demonstration project, discussed in this report.

Aramco’s Data-centric Open Process Automation

In the same Forum session, Abdullah Al-Khalifah presented Saudi Aramco’s experimental Data-centric Open Process Automation, and BASF’s Michael Krauss (supported by ExxonMobil’s Don Bartusiak) presented the NAMUR Open Architecture (NOA) vision. Mr. Krauss and Mr. Bartusiak made it a point to discuss the synergies and a cooperative path forward, including an impending memorandum of understanding (MOU) and a joint technical workshop later in 2018 between NAMUR and the Open Group initiative. In his presentation, Mr. Al-Khalifah also mentioned that “Saudi Aramco is committed to support and work with the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) to capture experience and knowledge to effectively support the OPAF standardization efforts to achieve the defined objectives.” (Aramco Services is now a formal member of OPAF, along with a large and -growing number of other major operating companies and technology suppliers).

Significantly, this was the first time that parties from these three parallel initiatives presented publicly together in a joint session.

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Keywords: Open Process Automation Forum, NAMUR Open Architecture, Data-Centric OPA, ExxonMobil, BASF, Saudi Aramco, OPAF Proof-of-Concept, ARC Advisory Group.