SAN JOSE, Calif. - Aug. 14, 2002 - BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS), the
world's leading application infrastructure software company, today
announced that more than 210 customers in the Americas, Asia/Pacific and
Europe selected BEA over IBM in head-to-head sales situations during the
past quarter. In 125 of these cases, BEA was selected despite the fact
that IBM WebSphere was the incumbent platform. This includes 94 instances
in which WebSphere customers selected BEA for new projects, and 31
scenarios in which IBM WebSphere was removed and replaced with BEA
WebLogic.
The victories for BEA cut across geography, market sector and project
size, with sales ranging from under $100,000 to more than $10 million.
Customers consistently cited the BEA WebLogic Platform's unified,
simplified and extensible enterprise architecture as a deciding factor.
The BEA platform supports applications as diverse as information portals
and mission-critical commerce engines that handle millions of transactions
per day. Customers, frustrated by broken promises from other vendors,
were impressed by BEA's ability to provide a multitude of credible
references real-world BEA users who could discuss the substantive business
benefits of BEA WebLogic as well as the platform's remarkable ease of use.
"We needed to redesign the Abt Electronics Web site to provide better
security, more automation, and more real-time information, but most
importantly, an enhanced and more satisfying buying experience for our
customers," said Bill Wolfe, chief information officer at Abt Electronics.
"We evaluated BEA, IBM, and others. We chose BEA for its flexibility and
scalability, and we expect it to dramatically reduce the effort, time and
cost necessary to enhance and maintain our Web site moving forward."
Another point of differentiation between BEA and the competition is the
notion of "serviceware." Customers who have purchased from other vendors,
including IBM, have been frustrated by the time-consuming and extremely
expensive consulting services often required to get applications up and
running. Some vendors even offer their software for free, or at greatly
reduced prices, to entice customers, only to end up charging far more than
BEA in the long run due to the high cost of their services.
BEA's award-winning platform is more reliable and intuitive than the
competition, and customers are often able to roll out production
applications in just a few weeks. And with the new BEA WebLogic WorkshopÔ
development framework, even non-Java developers can become productive
almost immediately.
Among the market sectors in which BEA had significant wins over IBM were
financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, media,
pharmaceuticals, retail, shipping, telecom, transportation and utilities.
One particularly noteworthy win was Edmunds.com, the Web's original
automotive portal, who reviewed WebSphere and other application servers
before selecting BEA.
"Consumers have been relying on us for their automotive data for more than
35 years," said David Haupt, chief information officer of Edmunds.com.
"Our business experienced explosive growth with the adoption of the
Internet, and we realized we needed to find the most robust, scalable,
extensible platform on the market to expand our business and be able to
continue to offer our information and services in a reliable manner. We
looked at several application server offerings. BEA was the clear choice.
We found that WebLogic could deliver the superior reliability and
scalability that our business demands and our consumers have come to
expect. We look forward to our partnership with BEA."
VR Group Ltd ("VR"), the National Railways of Finland, has selected the
BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform as the foundation for its
e-infrastructure. VR will leverage the whole BEA WebLogic Platform and
consolidate all e-business, Web and wireless applications, such as online
ticketing and timetable systems and freight logistics, on one, unified
application platform. Following a thorough audit of competing vendors'
offers, including IBM WebSphere, VR selected BEA and its partner,
TietoEnator for their competence in delivering a unified and extensible
architecture.
"As a part of TietoEnator's service portfolio, BEA WebLogic Platform
emerged as a winner in a tight competition," said Markku Laakso,
technology director, VR Group Ltd. "A comprehensive platform with an
application server, integration and portal solutions in one package
enables us to plan and build our long-term IT infrastructure in a cost
effective way."
Still another key point of differentiation for BEA is standards support,
which customers view as critical investment protection against
obsolescence and a strong indicator of a vendor's commitment to providing
an open, flexible platform.
Among the 200 companies that recently selected BEA over IBM are: Abt
Electronics, China Mobile, China Telecom, Edmunds, Federal Portal Belgium,
Finnish Railways, JD Edwards, Karjaportti, Kookmin Bank, Lufthansa
Technik, Magax, MyDoc.com, Shanghai Finance Bureau, Silicon Graphics, St
Jude Children's Research Hospital, TIM Wireless of Peru, and Vodafone.
Other companies that have chosen BEA over IBM during the past year include
Cambrian Communications, Hotwire, Jefferson County, Korean Customers
Service, Mongoose Technologies, PepsiAmericas, Scoot/Vivendi Universal,
and Virgin Mobile.
About BEA
BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS) is the world's leading application
infrastructure software company, providing the enterprise software
foundation for more than 13,000 customers around the world, including the
majority of the Fortune Global 500. BEA and its WebLogic® brand are among
the most trusted names in business. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA
has 91 offices in 33 countries and is on the Web at www.bea.com.
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Voor meer informatie over BEA Systems kunt u ook contact opnemen met: Scott Johnston
BEA Systems
T: 020 201 8064
E: scott.johnston@bea.com
BEA, BEA Tuxedo, BEA WebLogic, BEA WebLogic Enterprise, BEA WebLogic
Enterprise Platform, BEA WebLogic Server, BEA WebLogic Integration, BEA
WebLogic Portal, BEA WebLogic Integration Business Connect and BEA
WebLogic Workshop are trademarks or registered trademarks of BEA Systems,
Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the company
with which they are associated.