Open-IT skills in distributed systems derive from:

Involvement in the design and development of architectures for networks and distributed systems such as IBM's SNA and ISO's Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)

Experience in networking and data communications, covering design and installation of networks for multi-national clients and the development of architectures for networks and distributed systems

Major projects in the real-time/communications systems area and consultancy activities which  included studies of distributed systems and supporting communications facilities for major organisations

The MOD Methods for C3I Interoperability (MCI) research programme to develop a methodology, based on the concepts from Open Distributed Processing standards (ODP), for the specification of command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) systems. Using object concepts, the approach allowed system requirements to be effectively coupled with implementation choices

The Open-IT approach focuses on the reduction of complexity for the application developer in the context of large-scale distributed component systems, accomplished through an architecture of middleware “separation layers” and frameworks that hide complexities from developers while enabling them to exploit distributed object and component concepts. This is supported by significant understanding of the methodological implications inherent in building such systems.