we are becoming part of the EU, which brings to us new challenges, goals and tasks. To be able to conduct businesses within the EU we need to open our information gates and be able to transform our business data and our services to foreign partners and enable them to recognize and understand the data and services completely, however at the same time it is necessary to protect our specifics an identity (i.e. the Slovenian language and local habits). Only the flexibility and openness of our business and information systems will enable us to participate on equal terms in the EU and worldwide. Therefore, we need up-to date technical solutions.

The conference OTS'2004 will once again focus on key technologies for success in open markets. Information portals and Web services are key technologies that open the electronic doors of our companies; XML technologies enable the universal transfer and presentation of information and services, portal server solutions enable flexibility and adaptability of existing solutions and allow multilingual support. The standards BPEL4WS, ebXML, BPMI are supported by integration and collaboration servers such as freebXML, Collaxa, BPWS4J and BizTalk. Their implementation and development brings the idea of automatic electronic business so close that it becomes feasible.

However, opening businesses should not be the only concern for us. We have to become /stay competitive in one of the biggest markets in the world. Our solutions must satisfy quality standards, be developed and adopted quickly and on time, that we can catch new opportunities (in Europe and elsewhere). In order to meet these high demands topics of the OTS'2004 are:

• MDA with the automation of coding and transformation of models into platform specific solutions, which enables higher productivity and a better response to new requests.
• Metrics for project size estimation and dependent values like PDR, PWE and project duration
• Patterns and their efficiency in complex systems
• Development methods (agile and others) and notation including the new UML 2.0 standard

dr. Marjan Heričko,
Conference Chair