Shane Coughlan

Today the OpenChain Project welcomes B2M Solutions to our Community of Conformance. The conformance process was lead by the OpenChain Partner Moorcrofts LLP in conjunction with its sister company Orcro Ltd.

Formed in 2002, B2M Solutions is a global software company dramatically improving how enterprise mobility is operated and managed. Partners include the likes of BT, Zebra Technologies and most recently Panasonic.

OpenChain, a project of the Linux Foundation, brings established governance principles to the software supply chain. It adopts best-practice from other compliance areas and maps them to software procurement, giving businesses a clear path to minimizing infringement risk in procuring, developing and deploying software. The result is that open source license compliance becomes more predictable, understandable and efficient for participants of the software supply chain.

Julie Purves, B2M Solutions CEO said: “Although smaller than many of the other companies who have achieved this milestone of compliance, we are considered to be technology leaders in our field, and it’s important to be able to reassure our clients that we are not only proactive in reacting to industry developments but also, where appropriate, leading those developments. Our partners include a number of global companies who are embracing OpenChain. Although none of our partners have compelled us to become OpenChain compliant, we believe that pre-emptively obtaining this important status means we are better able to demonstrate we are responsive to the needs of global brands and their end-customers. It also demonstrates our technology leadership by highlighting our desire to lead not only with the latest in cloud-based analytics solutions, but also with compliance to standards critical for our customers.”

Julie continues: “The services provided by Andrew Katz and his team at Moorcrofts and Orcro were outstanding. They not only provided the technical legal advice for us to be able to reach the OpenChain conformance standard, ensuring our component database contained the relevant open source licences, they also worked with our team to establish an appropriate open source policy, tailored to B2M’s specific business needs, and provided the compliance training to our developers.”

“The OpenChain Project is delighted to welcome B2M Solutions to our community of conformance,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “This is a milestone in building out our community in the mobile sphere and in deepening our presence in Europe. OpenChain Conformance is a mark of quality and efficiency in the adoption, use and distribution of open source code. We are looking forward to sharing this benefit throughout the B2M eco-system and to building a productive long-term relationship with their great team.”

Learn More:

For the full case study, interviews, photographs and more information, please contact: Marie Parkinson, OJI Marketing Ltd on: 07463994834 or marieparkinson@ojimarketing.co.uk

Additional Information:

• Moorcrofts LLP is a boutique firm of solicitors, focusing on corporate and contract law, tech law, employment (including employee incentivisation) and commercial property – that’s all. We’re small, but intensely targeted to provide real expertise and in-depth experience in our chosen fields. That’s why we act for some of the biggest names around, and have an international clientele ranging from entrepreneurs to US stock-market listed companies. Our base in the Thames Valley gives our clients easy access to us, whether based in London, Oxford, Maidenhead or Reading, and we’re only 25 minutes from London Heathrow Airport. For additional information, visit: moorcrofts.com.
• Orcro Ltd works hand-in-hand with Moorcrofts and its specialist technology lawyers, to provide project management and compliance expertise ensuring all clients receive a full end-to-end service. This means Moorcrofts and Orcro together not only provide the legal advice but also provide the practical services necessary to deliver complete compliance within a firm. The Orcro compliance team draw on skills in implementation, training, documentation, systems and assessment, either in-house, or by partnering with best-in-breed third party companies. Orcro compliance services include: GDPR/Privacy, Software Supply Chain/OpenChain and Anti-Money-Laundering. For additional information, visit: orcro.co.uk.
• B2M Solutions is a global software company dramatically improving how enterprise mobility is operated and managed. The company’s flagship product, Elemez™, provides real-time actionable analytics and operational intelligence for enterprise mobile devices and applications. Unlike traditional enterprise mobile software management tools, Elemez proactively identifies, isolates and predicts issues to help enterprises prevent and avoid problems, improve enterprise mobility’s performance and lower the True Cost of Ownership™ of mobility. mprodigy® is B2M’s mobile enterprise management platform (MDM/EMM) and offers a proven, cost-effective management layer for line-of-business enterprise mobility.   Founded in 2002, B2M is a privately held company based in Abingdon, UK, with North American operations in Atlanta, Ga., U.S.A. For additional information, visit: b2msolutions.com.
• OpenChain Project identifies key recommended processes for effective open source management in the supply chain. The project is the driving force behind the implementation of the OpenChain conformance standard, which is the world’s leading standard of its kind, bringing established governance principles to the open source software supply chain. It adopts best-practice from other compliance areas and maps them to software procurement, giving businesses a clear path to minimising infringement risk in procuring, developing and deploying software, with particular emphasis on use and re-use of free and open source software (“FOSS”) components. Crucially, for smaller organisations like B2M Solutions, the compliance programme does not have to be complex, but simply mirrors or adapts existing best practice. The result is that open source licence compliance becomes more predictable, understandable and efficient for participants of the software supply chain. For additional information, visit: openchainproject.org/
• The Linux Foundation is dedicated to building sustainable ecosystems around open source projects to accelerate technology development and industry adoption. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation provides unparalleled support for open source communities through financial and intellectual resources, infrastructure, services, events, and training. Working together, The Linux Foundation and its projects form the most ambitious and successful investment in the creation of shared technology. For additional information, visit: linuxfoundation.org/

Mark Gisi, chair of the OpenChain Project Specification Work Team, will take center stage during the next SPDX General meeting on Thurs, Sept 6, 8am PDT / 10 am CDT / 11am EDT / 15:00. He will explain how SParts – a supply chain ledger leveraging blockchain technology – can solve accountability and access questions.

Abstract:

The union of SPDX data and a blockchain ledger is a match made in heaven. This union enables us to provide both *accountability* and *access* to SPDX data for manufactured products that are comprised on software components contributed by dozens of suppliers. We will present a use case of how we track SPDX data (along with source code and notices)  across the manufacturing supply chain of a device running the Zephyr operating system runtime.

Mark’s bio:

Mark Gisi, Directory of Intellectual Property and Open Source at Wind River Systems, has been managing Open Source policies and programs for the past 12 years. Mark contributes to the Linux Foundation’s SPDX project, OpenChain Project and the Hyperledger Project’s SParts (Software Parts) lab initiative. Mark holds a MS degree in Computer Science and a BS degree in Mathematics.

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce the immediate availability of a new slide deck that includes a reference script in the speaker notes. This slide deck can help anyone explain the OpenChain Project to audiences inside companies or at events.

Go forth and spread the word!

Learn More:

• The presentation on GitHub
• The presentation in PPTX format
• The presentation in ODP format
• The presentation in PDF format

Get this guide and many more documents in the OpenChain Reference Library: https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce the release of a video presentation explaining the free online process for self-certification to the OpenChain Specification. This presentation is suitable for companies of all sizes that want to engage with and adopt the OpenChain Specification.

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce the release of an overview video presentation. This presentation explains the challenges the project solves and how companies of all sizes can frame their engagement. It also shows how the “stack” of open source compliance solutions work together to solve challenges quickly and efficiently.

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that we now have a draft of the OpenChain Specification 1.2 in Russian. This document was contributed by Denis Dorotenko at Yandex and it marks our first major activity to support the Russian market.

The OpenChain Project asks for all official translations of the OpenChain Specification to be peer-reviewed. To this end, today we are putting out a call for reviewers so we can change the status of our Russian document from “draft” to “release.”

Please note that this document – as with most of our documents – is stored and edited via GitHub. If you want to contribute to the translation but have no background in GitHub just contact us. Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager, is happy to talk via email at coughlan [at] linux.com

More Details

• The Draft of OpenChain Specification 1.2 in Russian
• The OpenChain Specification web page

Get this guide and many more documents in the OpenChain Reference Library: https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce that we now have a draft of the OpenChain Specification 1.2 in Hindi. This document was contributed by Shuvajit Mitra at Infosys and it marks our first major activity to support the Indian market.

The OpenChain Project asks for all official translations of the OpenChain Specification to be peer-reviewed. To this end, today we are putting out a call for reviewers so we can change the status of our Hindi document from “draft” to “release.”

Please note that this document – as with most of our documents – is stored and edited via GitHub. If you want to contribute to the translation but have no background in GitHub just contact us. Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager, is happy to talk via email at coughlan [at] linux.com

More Details

• The Draft of OpenChain Specification 1.2 in Hindi
• The OpenChain Specification web page

Get this guide and many more documents in the OpenChain Reference Library: https://github.com/OpenChain-Project/Reference-Material

The OpenChain Project will host a social event adjacent to Open Source Summit North America. It takes place after our official workshop and will be held at the Mosaic Grille in the Hyatt Regency on the August 28th at 6:00 p.m.

This social event is limited to 20 attendees (10 already confirmed) so please reach out with an RSVP to coughlan [at] linux.com if you would like to attend.

More Details:

• The OpenChain Workshop

The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce we will host an open source license compliance workshop adjacent to Open Source Summit. The workshop will feature new compliance reference material, new training material and new case studies. We will have interactive panels and plenty of networking to ensure an excellent opportunity to get the latest and most useful information about compliance. The workshop is open to everyone and is free of charge.

Date: Tuesday, August 28
Time: 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Location: Room 205, Vancouver Convention Centre West
Registration Costs: Complimentary; Pre-registration required

Full Schedule:
13:00 – Welcome and Status Update
13:10 – Work Team – Conformance
13:30 – Forward Planning – Strategy and Tactics
14:00 – Networking Break
14:30 – Adjacent Project Status Overviews
– SPDX
– FOSSology
– Clearly Defined
15:00 – Work Team – Specification
15:50 – Networking Break
16:20 – Work Team – Curriculum
16:40 – Work Team – Onboarding
17:00 – Close

Learn More:

• Open Source Summit North America
• Co-Located Events