Introduction to OPUS Foundations (as Presented at FutureLink)

[00:00] I'm really excited today to be talking to you about the OPUS platform for TraceLink. This is particularly exciting because it's really the culmination of over seven years of work to get the platform to the point it's at. And there's a lot to the platform, and today we're just going to touch upon some of the core foundational elements of it. 

[00:20] Starting with what differentiates the OPUS platform from other platform-as-a-service providers in the industry is that OPUS is the only platform that is specifically designed and architected to enable these multienterprise applications and solutions, which are critical to the processes that Burke talked about in the previous session. 

[00:40] The ability to digitize your supply chains to be able to collaborate along with your trading partners, participating in an orchestrated business process. Key to that capability is the fact that the OPUS platform is built on top of the TraceLink network, which is represented in the blue box at the bottom of that diagram. 

[01:00] TraceLink, through the network operations team, has onboarded approximately 290,000 companies to the TraceLink network. And as Burke mentioned, each one of those companies has been vetted and authenticated, so that you know when you link to a partner on the network, you're really linking to that partner, not someone who happened to grab their domain from their basement. 

[01:20] This enables capabilities that are truly distinctive. For example, if you think about how most traditional SaaS-based applications work, they work on a traditional multitenant model. Multitenancy means that the SaaS provider can enable multiple customers to share the same physical machine hardware, the same physical storage devices. 

[01:40] Multitenancy ensures that each of those customers operates within their own tenancy. They operate as an island unto themselves. Multitenancy ensures that what customer one is doing has no visibility to what customer two is doing. And that's a great way to build certain types of applications, but it's a terrible way to build others. 

[02:00] Imagine, for example, if you wanted to build a social networking application using a traditional multitenant model. This would mean you would have to log into one account to join your friend Fred's tenancy so you can share cat pictures with Fred. Then you'd have to log out, log into a different account to share pictures from your niece's wedding with Jill. 

[02:20] TraceLink is architected in a manner that's much more analogous to social networking. It's built on a network. And because it's built on a network, just like that social networking app, you can now connect — you can link — to any of those 290,000 companies on the network to begin sharing in these multienterprise, collaborative, orchestrated business processes that cut across corporate boundaries. 

[02:40] Now we'll talk about some additional foundational concepts including applications built on top of the OPUS platform, solutions that are built on top of those applications, the integrate capabilities, as well as process networks. Starting with applications — applications provide the core functional building blocks that enable customers to perform these orchestrated processes on top of the OPUS platform. 

[03:00] The applications are standardized. What do I mean by that? It means all TraceLink customers who choose to use that application are using the same codebase, the same version of the application. Customers do not customize applications. 

[03:20] The applications are also headless, which means that they don't ship with a user interface. They ship with a set of APIs. We'll explain why in the upcoming slides. There are, broadly speaking, two classes of application on the OPUS platform: enterprise applications and multienterprise applications. 

[03:40] Enterprise applications are applications that are primarily intended for you and other employees of your company. You see several enterprise applications in that diagram. For example, the OPUS Administration application in the bottom right-hand corner. 

[04:00] OPUS Administration is the application you use to be able to enable employees of your company to have user accounts on the OPUS platform, associated to your company. It's where you configure the applications that you choose to license. It’s where you establish links to your trading partners in the context of those applications. 

[04:20] It's where you assign membership — which users can participate and use which different applications. It wouldn't make any sense for your trading partner to have access to your OPUS Administration. That's for you to manage your company. 

[04:40] Also, your trading partner has their own instance of the OPUS Administration app to administer their company. So those are enterprise applications. In contrast, multienterprise applications are specifically intended to enable you to participate in these multienterprise collaborative orchestrated business processes with trading partners whom you choose to link to. 

[05:00] You see two examples here of the first model multienterprise applications: APT, which stands for Agile Process Teams, and MPL, which stands for Multienterprise Process Link. These applications allow you and your trading partners to manage business documents through defined lifecycles and workflows. 

[05:20] For example, in APT, if your supplier shipped you a batch of defective parts, you could log a quality issue, assign it to your trading partner, and then collaboratively work through that issue in real time until it's resolved. Both parties interact with the same ticket, with a shared source of truth. 

[05:40] MPL provides the foundation for the MINT solution, about which you'll be hearing more today. 

[06:00] Now, on top of the applications are the solutions. As mentioned earlier, applications don't ship with user interfaces. That's because the user interfaces are included in the solutions layer. So, what are solutions? 

[06:20] Solutions are a configurable layer that sits on top of the applications and enables customers to tailor behavior to meet their business needs and processes. They include user interfaces via the OPUS Solution Environment, a no-code designer to create or customize screens... 

[06:40] ...workflow logic, business object extensions, menus for navigation, and user roles. These allow you to partition your users, control their access to operations and data. Workflow is especially critical as it is your primary mechanism to inject logic into the OPUS applications. 

[07:00] For instance, your review step within a workflow might require both departments A and B to approve before moving forward. You can define substates for each department, and OPUS will route accordingly, ensuring proper sequence and validation. 

[07:20] All this is done with no code in the OPUS Solution Environment, keeping solutions distinct from applications, and avoiding common issues like failures during upgrades or vendor support refusals due to custom code. 

[07:40] OPUS applications come with a standard set of business objects, which you can extend by adding custom fields, complex structures, and relationships. The same applies to operations you want users to perform—such as publish, approve, or archive—these can be toggled without coding. 

[08:00] What makes this especially powerful is that "solutions" are a first-class concept in the OPUS platform. In many systems, when companies want to extend applications, code has to be customized. That opens up complexity, support issues, and upgrade obstacles. 

[08:20] In contrast, OPUS supports no-code design through its solution builder and preserves a clear boundary: TraceLink supports the applications; you create and own your solutions. This means you can always upgrade to the latest version and take advantage of new features. 

[08:40] On top of the solutions, we introduce process networks. These allow you to categorize your trading partners differently and define how a particular process should run with each group—for example, upstream CMOs versus downstream distributors. 

[09:00] Each group might have different business objects, roles, UI layouts, field names, workflows, and access permissions. You can define a process network for each of these contexts and deploy the right solution tailored to that particular network of partners. 

[09:20] When you link to a partner, you define the context of the process network. You can also define which solution will be used by each process network. That means you can be in one process network with one partner and switch to another using a different solution—all within OPUS. 

[09:40] Next, let’s talk Ensemble. OPUS Ensemble is the visual UI paradigm used by OPUS solutions. It provides a highly intuitive experience for navigating across process networks, orchestrated business processes, and filtering data by partner. 

[10:00] There’s a top navigation bar for selecting the process network you want to work in, and a partner selector beside it, showing data across all or individual partners. You can open multiple tabs to work on various networks and switch quickly without logging out or changing URLs. 

[10:20] Each tab remembers your context, even across logout/logins. The left-hand nav pane contains orchestrated business processes—labeled by the business object involved—and when selecting a row, a push panel on the right reveals additional filtered details for that object. 

[10:40] The push panel dynamically updates depending on the chosen operation or record. For example, if you’re on a search page and select a row, the filter panel may appear with search criteria and result metadata. 

[11:00] One foundational capability that's unique to TraceLink is integration. As Burke mentioned earlier, TraceLink has invested in an "Integrate-Once" architecture with OPUS. What this means is quite profound. 

[11:20] You can integrate your system once for a business process in OPUS, and that same configuration allows you to transact with any of the 290,000+ companies on the TraceLink network—no reintegration needed. 

[11:40] Use your preferred transmission method: AS2, FTP, SMTP for email, or others. Or, leverage Link Actions through the XT Link Actions app—this enables API linking directly with your enterprise systems, all without installing or altering base software configurations. 

[12:00] Don't have integration capability? No problem. Partners can simply log in and use the UI for transacting, and on your side, your systems ingest the data using B2B integration. EDI, XML, IDoc, X12—OPUS supports transformations between all formats. 

[12:20] This is done via OPUS Transforms—a set of transformation rules configured per partner and per transaction. They convert incoming formats into canonical data models inside OPUS and then convert outbound transactions into the partner’s preferred format. 

[12:40] Because these transforms abstract the data model, your integration stays unchanged, regardless of who’s on the other side or how they connect. This creates a seamless, reliable process that supports real-time orchestration. 

[13:00] Additionally, you can access a searchable integration catalog in OPUS to view available transforms and link actions, either prebuilt by TraceLink or created by solution providers. You can copy and extend these assets to suit your needs. 

[13:20] Metadata powers all of this under the hood. It defines business objects, fields, field types (like currency, date, percentage), structure definitions, operations, workflows, and constraints. OPUS knows how to render and validate all of it. 

[13:40] For example, a date field automatically renders a date picker in the UI. Metadata also stores workflows, which governs how a document moves through its lifecycle. This is crucial for modifying logic without coding. 

[14:00] It enables you to create new UI pages (new-record views, edit screens, dashboards), and this is all managed through the OPUS Solution Environment—no programming required. 

[14:20] In the OPUS Solution Environment, you can reuse TraceLink default solutions or create entirely customized ones. Enhance business objects, define user roles, design workflows, manage menus, configure screens—all in one place. 

[14:40] Lastly, OPUS features catalogs to store reusable solution assets. Public marketplace catalogs include TraceLink-built solutions; company catalogs allow you to manage your own approved packages across environments. 

[15:00] You can ‘save as’ a public solution into your company catalog, make modifications in validation, and publish to production. Partners can access tailored dashboards, link actions, or transforms via shared entries. 

[15:20] This catalog model supports a modular, composable approach to supply chain orchestration—allowing you to go fast, test quickly, and adapt to complexity without rebuilding from scratch. 

[15:20] You can also integrate using the UI. For example, you can log in, review the purchase orders sent to you, and directly choose which ones to acknowledge—all from within the UI. 

[15:40] Additionally, as Burke mentioned, you have flexibility in the message formats you use. If you're an EDI shop using X12, some of your partners may use EDIFACT, SAP IDoc, EPS, or even custom formats—and that's perfectly fine. 

[16:00] This flexibility is enabled through what we call transforms. One of the key services on the platform is the Transform Service. A transform in OPUS terminology is a program that converts data from one format to another. 

[16:20] When you integrate with TraceLink, you configure which transforms to use for each transaction. For instance, if you're sending a purchase order (PO) in X12 format into the MINT solution, the transform will convert it into TraceLink’s canonical format. 

[16:40] TraceLink may then send the PO downstream to your supplier, who may have requested data in SAP IDoc format. The platform converts the data again using a different transform and sends it through the agreed-upon protocol. 

[17:00] The key benefit: your integration stays the same regardless of the protocols or formats your partner uses. Transforms abstract all the complexity of integration. 

[17:20] When you use the MINT solution, your orchestrated business process is consistent, regardless of how trading partners connect. It enables a unified and holistic view of your data. 

[17:40] Lastly, there's the integration catalog—a searchable hub to find and use transforms published by TraceLink or third parties. You can browse for transforms, or link actions, which support UI-based or API-based integration behavior. 

[18:00] If you find a link action developed by TraceLink but need a variation tuned to your business, you can copy and extend that into your company solution. 

[18:20] Now, let's talk metadata. While it might sound complex, it's simply data about data. In the OPUS platform, metadata describes business objects, fields, field types, and operations. 

[18:40] We use an enterprise application called OPUS Metadata Manager (MDM), which understands every business object in the system—the fields, structure, and data semantics. 

[19:00] For instance, a numeric value might represent a percentage, a currency, a duration, a date, or a timestamp. By indicating the type, OPUS knows how to render and validate the field correctly, like showing a date picker or validating a phone number. 

[19:20] It also supports operations, such as create, update, publish, follow, or release—everything a user might perform on a business object. These are all defined in metadata, which also integrates with workflow logic. 

[19:40] Workflow is the core engine for advancing business documents across stages—like Submission, Review, Approval. You map substates, transitions, and logic as metadata. 

[20:00] And all of this powers the creation of no-code user experiences. You can define pages for creating, editing, searching, viewing records, and for generating reports and dashboards—all based on metadata. 

[20:20] Above metadata sits the OPUS Solution Environment—the no-code builder experience for creating solutions or modifying existing ones. Extend standard TraceLink solutions, build originals, and control behavior—all without writing code. 

[20:40] You can define workflows, extend business objects, create custom menus, roles, and layouts. All of this is managed in a governance-friendly and upgrade-safe way using the solution designer. 

[21:00] You'll hear more about this in the Solution Designer track this afternoon. Next, we’ll explore catalogs. Catalogs are a standardized repository of reusable assets—solutions, link actions, transforms, dashboards, reports, etc. 

[21:20] TraceLink provides standard solutions out-of-the-box. If those meet your needs, great—you can use them as-is. If you want to extend them, you can copy them using a 'Save As' function to create your own company-specific solution. 

[21:40] Once copied, it's available in your solution environment to configure or enhance however you need. When ready, you can publish it to your **Company Catalog**, a private catalog visible only to your organization. 

[22:00] This allows you to promote validated solutions from validation environments to production environments in an auditable and controlled way. 

[22:20] Finally, there's the **Marketplace Catalog**, where TraceLink or other solution providers can publish reusable assets. These can include solutions built for specific industries or segments of the supply chain. 

[22:40] You may find link actions or transforms there as well. They're available for you to use out of the box or adapt as needed and publish to your own catalog. 

[23:00] It's also where dashboards and reports live—another key area where solutions help unlock visibility. You'll see catalogs used throughout the system.