OPAL (Online Partner Lens) makes accessible human capital in small firms. Matching this for inter-corporate cooperations significantly increases competitiveness by widening the companies' scope of possible commercial activity. OPAL forms a virtual partner network, but is at the same time a communication platform.

The Opal toolkit is based on storage and manipulation of profile data acquired by enterprises themselves but also by diverse mechanisms that measure of partners' competencies, compatibility and trust. For establishing a partnership, the system prototype is designed to support three subsequent different steps: (1) Identification of potential partners by searching in a profile database. (2) Assessment of each potential partner. (3) Matching of partners: interests and objectives.

Communication interface component
An existing audio-video streaming component is to extend by specific functionalities and ActiveX wrapper. It allows the appointment of conferences by an asynchronous channel, showing a preferred conferencing start in a calendar, connecting to members of a buddy list and establishing a secure channel. The components are based on the Windows platform and use the HouCom framework for distributed applications. Integration is done into the Eclipse-based Opal toolkit.

Advanced search engine for attribute profiles
The Opal advanced search engine will allow to find the most suitable profiles for a given input profile. On the basis of the XML data model in the Opal database (Tamino), a matching concept will be designed by IGD and other Opal consortium partners. This allows to find partners for a given profile according to profile and document analysis.

User interface components
For the second Opal prototype, the user partners will give feedback on the usability of the system. In order to make the toolkit available to a wide market, the user interface will be developed into a usable design that is adapted to the target groups. This work is done according to the specification that follows the pilot sites feedback review using the first Opal prototype.

Social network visualization
Network visualization in Opal allows to re-enact the social relationships between partners of prospective projects in a Java-based graph visualization. The data are retrieved from the Opal data base (XML based) and data access components have to be developed.

The offer includes the following services:
1. Implementation of the Opal communication component ActiveX interface based on the technical specification of the communication component project work (specification will be provided by Fraunhofer-IGD).
2. Implementation of the Opal asynchronous meeting messaging component based on the technical specification of the communication component project work (specification will be provided by Fraunhofer-IGD).
3. Implementation of data integration parts of the advanced search engine component in Java based on the technical specification developed by the Opal project (specification will be provided by Fraunhofer-IGD).
4. Documentation of source code and interfaces. The documentation has to be delivered as in-code documentation as well as a separate development document in a word format (document template will be provided by Fraunhofer-IGD).
5. Creation of a distribution CD-ROM, containing object code and source code
6. Support
Support includes phone and email-based support services for the duration of the project period.