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Flashline.com will work with the Open Component Foundation (OCF) of The Centre for Innovation and Technology (CINTEC) at CUHK to promote the process of component-based development (CBD). Developing software with reusable components - or building blocks of code - dramatically increases programmer productivity and results in highly stable and flexible systems. Component-based development eliminates the need for organizations to continually "reinvent the wheel" by writing code line by line. Proven benefits of component-based development include faster time-to-market, streamlined development, and more reliable and flexible systems.

"This partnership furthers Flashline's efforts to grow our business internationally and become the de-facto component resource for IT professionals around the world," states Charles Stack, president and CEO of Flashline.com.  "This arrangement enables Flashline to tap into the Chinese IT market and achieve our commitment to bring together the component-based technologies and resources organizations need to quickly build and deploy quality component-based software systems."

United States businesses are plagued with an increasing shortage of skilled IT workers. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) states that nearly 850,000 IT jobs in the U.S. are expected to remain unfilled this year due to the growing gap between open jobs and available skilled workers. This partnership is an example of what businesses need to deal with the IT labor shortage in the United States, and it allows U.S. organizations to access software development resources in China that to date have been untouched by American companies

The Chinese University of Hong Kong is developing the OCF, the territory's first initiative to promote software quality and reusability and to help Hong Kong and Mainland China become a competitive force in the global software market. Flashline will provide Chinese developers with the education, tools and resources they need to ensure quality in software development. In addition, this partnership provides American businesses with a viable solution to the programmer shortage as it opens doors to previously unavailable software development resources in China, including the Chinese IT workforce.

Flashline will collaborate with the OCF in the following areas:
Components by Design - The OCF will leverage Components by Design, Flashline's auction-based component outsourcing service. Currently, over 1500 software developers worldwide are registered and available to bid on requested development projects. Components by Design provides organizations with the opportunity to outsource specific development projects and tap into a global pool of programmers - a pool that will grow as Flashline expands into China through the OCF. This service enables organizations to take full advantage of the proven time to market benefits of global outsourcing and component-based development.
Training and Education - Flashline will provide the OCF with educational resources and tools from Flashline's "11 Steps to CBD" - a continuously updated digest of resources that guides IT professionals from concept to execution of component-based development. Flashline will also collaborate with the OCF in trade shows and other training and educational efforts to help Chinese developers gain the skills and expertise required to compete in the global software market.
Software Component Marketplace - Flashline will co-brand its Software Component Marketplace with the OCF. This co-branded marketplace will provide Chinese developers with easy access to an extensive selection of documented and tested, off-the-shelf software components. The OCF will also provide access to Flashline's Component Registry, an open repository that indexes the industry's components.
Quality Assurance Testing - The OCF will take full advantage of the Flashline QA Lab to encourage Chinese developers to test software code throughout the development cycle. Fully tested code minimizes the potential for problems later in development, and it enables higher quality, more efficient development. 

"OCF is partnering with Flashline.com to enable Chinese developers to take advantage of Flashline's expertise and leadership in the software development community," said Professor K.F. Wong, principal investigator of OCF.  "This partnership provides us with the ability to bring Flashline's world-class resources directly to China to help raise the skills of Chinese developers and increase the quality of software developed in China."

Flashline's alliance with the Open Component Foundation advances Flashline's efforts to expand its presence in the international marketplace. In addition to this partnership, various international organizations have partnered with Flashline as part of the company's worldwide vendor network. Industry-leading organizations from over 20 countries including India, Russia, France, Malaysia, Czech Republic, and Israel, currently provide world-class products and services through Flashline.com.

About Open Component Foundation
Open Component Foundation (http://www.open-components.com) aims at establishing a publicly accessible object software repository portal for promoting a cost-effective way of enhancing quality and productivity of local software development.  Therefore, our target customers are all independent software vendors (ISVs) who have a need to deliver high quality software products in a tight schedule and hyper competitive environment. The Centre for Innovation and Technology of CUHK, with the support from the Industry Department's Industrial Support Fund, started the project Open Component Foundation (OCF) in January 2000.

About Flashline.com, Inc.
Flashline.com, Inc. is the industry leader in providing software component products, services and resources that facilitate the rapid development of software systems for business. Through our component portal, Flashline.com provides an extensive marketplace of world-class JavaBeans, Enterprise JavaBeans, and COM components, a component manager, quality assurance testing, auction-based component outsourcing, an open component registry, and programming articles and resources.  As information technology evolves, Flashline continues to pioneer new component-based development (CBD) services so organizations can more quickly deliver quality products to market. Flashline is a privately held company based in Cleveland, Ohio.

For enquiries:

Marti BowmanFlashline.com, Inc.216.861.4680mb@flashline.com Dan Sher/Lisa Kilpatrick PAN Communications, Inc.978.474.1900flashline@pancomm.com
 
Patrick LeeOpen Component Foundation, CINTEC, CUHK+011 (852) 2609 8218wklee@cintec.cuhk.edu.hk