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SeeBeyond and Sun Microsystems Jointly Address RFID for Retail

Posted on: Monday, 17 January 2005, 09:00 CST

SeeBeyond Showcases RFID Composite Application Network and Outlines Plans for Joint Development of Sun RFID Industry Solution Architecture for Retail at NRF 2005

Extending its technology leadership in the Retail space, SeeBeyond (Nasdaq:SBYN) in partnership with Sun Microsystems, Inc., today announced its plans to participate in the development of the Sun RFID Industry Solution Architecture (ISA) for Retail. This new solution being jointly developed by Sun and SeeBeyond will offer retail customers a complete, integrated offering to improve business processes and quickly obtain business altering insight from transformational data collected via radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies. This announcement comes on the heels of the introduction of the SeeBeyond RFID Composite Application Network solution offering, which will be showcased at this week's NRF Convention in New York.

Partnering for Complete RFID Solution

Sun and SeeBeyond first announced their partnership to deliver on the true potential of RFID information at SeeBeyond's annual customer conference, HORIZONS, in late 2004. The joint technology and marketing agreement features Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)-based solutions and composite application delivery via the Sun Java(TM) Enterprise System.

Today's announcement unveils plans for the joint development of the RFID ISA for Retail which will couple Sun's Java System RFID Software with the SeeBeyond RFID Composite Application Network solution offering. The joint offering is intended to provide customers with an end-to-end solution that addresses the specific business challenges of retailers while fully leveraging the power of RFID data. A key benefit to customers will be the ability to alter core business processes to leverage RFID demand and movement signals. More information about the RFID ISA for Retail will be available later this quarter, along with demonstrations of the solution in Sun's RFID Test Center in Dallas, TX.

"Sun believes that one of the key components needed for customers to maximize the potential of RFID technology is a solid infrastructure that can manage high volumes of information and scale to support growing system requirements. SeeBeyond has a similar focus on scalability within its organization and product architecture, and together Sun and SeeBeyond are providing customers with the necessary pieces to help them successfully adopt and deploy RFID. Working with SeeBeyond on the development of the RFID ISA for Retail extends our partnership and we look forward to the upcoming release of our retail-specific RFID solution," said Vijay Sarathy, director, RFID product marketing and strategy, Sun Microsystems.

"Sun has been at the forefront of the RFID middleware market for some time now and this latest announcement will further enhance its offering with integration and composite application development capabilities," said Shawn Willett, Principal Analyst at Current Analysis. "Through this joint partnership, Sun and SeeBeyond will offer a comprehensive solution for capturing and maximizing the use of RFID event data, and as a result, help users address the specific business challenges and ROI opportunities facing retailer supply chain firms today."

In addition to Sun, SeeBeyond has tapped a strategic network of RFID partners including Bent Systems and sbkLabs to provide support for a range of core services and packaged composite applications that are readily available today.

Achieving RFID ROI with SeeBeyond

First announced in late 2004, the SeeBeyond RFID Composite Application Network enables organizations to rapidly deploy next generation, composite-based applications leveraging existing IT assets to accelerate the return on RFID investments. The SeeBeyond RFID Composite Application Network brings together best-of-breed architecture, software and services to enable real-time access to RFID events and a development environment from which to build and deploy process-centric applications that maximize the vast amount of information available from RFID readers.

A key enabler of the SeeBeyond solution offering is the SeeBeyond RFID eWay Intelligent Adapter, which provides the EPC Data Collection Service to the SeeBeyond RFID Composite Application Network. The Data Collection Service is designed to be scalable across a heterogeneous and distributed infrastructure, allowing customers to scale their deployments with minimal impact to existing infrastructures. Coupled with the power of additional capabilities made available with the SeeBeyond RFID Composite Application Network powered by SeeBeyond ICAN 5, the Data Collection Service reduces the future risk of change as standards mature and as multiple event manager technologies require support.

In addition, the RFID eWay adapter provides a simple wizard to dynamically build RFID integration services for out-of-the-box connectivity with EPC Event Managers from vendors such as Sun Microsystems. These RFID services can then be simply modified to support other non pre-packed RFID Event Managers, such as those from vendors such as GlobeRanger. This solution is available today.

Leading Platform for Retailers

The SeeBeyond ICAN Suite is the most usable, scalable and open platform for developing, executing and managing end-to-end integrated business processes as composite applications for Retailers. Many leading global retailers have standardized on SeeBeyond's best-of-breed integration solutions to address their mission critical business needs including removing supply chain inefficiencies, having more effective demand forecasting and merchandising, increasing product availability, reducing stock levels, facilitating business expansion through M&A, and more. In addition, SeeBeyond boasts a long-term partnership with leading provider of retail software solutions, Retek, offering customers a significant reduction in both the cost and risk associated with integrating non-Retek legacy applications.

For more information about SeeBeyond's solutions for Retail, please visit booth #378 at the National Retail Federation's (NRF) 94th Annual Conference and Expo, being held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City on January 16-19, 2005. For additional information, please visit http://nrfannual05.expoexchange.com/.

About SeeBeyond

Based on 15 years of software innovation and real-world experience in integrating systems across Global 2000 organizations, SeeBeyond (Nasdaq:SBYN) delivers the industry's first integrated composite application network built on a comprehensive integration platform. Beyond eAI, the SeeBeyond(R) Integrated Composite Application Network Suite(TM) helps organizations rapidly assemble and deploy enterprise-scale end-user applications built on existing systems and infrastructure to dramatically improve business operations. SeeBeyond has nearly 1,950 customers worldwide, including ABN Amro, BHP Billiton, The Cleveland Clinic, The Dial Corporation, DuPont, Florida Power & Light, Fluor Daniel, Fujitsu, General Motors, Halliburton, Hertz Corporation, HP, Lockheed Martin, Pfizer, Samsung, Sprint and Sutter Health. For more information, please visit www.seebeyond.com.

SeeBeyond is a registered trademark of SeeBeyond Technology Corporation in the United States and select foreign countries. SeeBeyond Integrated Composite Application Network Suite and eWay are trademarks of SeeBeyond Technology Corporation. The absence of a trademark from this list does not constitute a waiver of SeeBeyond Technology Corporation's intellectual property rights concerning that trademark. All other brands or product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

This news release includes statements that are not historical in nature and as such are intended to be forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provided by the Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements, including those related to plans between Sun Microsystems Inc. and SeeBeyond to jointly develop, market and offer products and or solutions, are statements based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections, its industry and its future prospects. These statements are predictions, and actual events and results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements based on certain risks, including market acceptance of the jointly developed products and services, and the potential release of competitive products, among other factors. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Annual Report filed on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003, and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. SeeBeyond does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.

Source: Business Wire

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