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Toyota Australia Selects BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 as Foundation For eBusiness Transformation Program

BEA Accelerates Development of Seamless Value Chain Across Toyota Australia's Extended Enterprise

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 10 -- BEA Systems, Inc. , the world's leading application infrastructure software company, today announced that Toyota Australia has chosen BEA WebLogic Integration(TM) 8.1 as the software platform for its eBusiness Transformation Program, one of the largest information technology (IT) integration projects ever undertaken by the company in Australia. The program, elements of which have already gone into production, is an initiative to integrate the systems and processes that connect Toyota and its trading partners to achieve real-time information access, enhanced two-way business visibility, and improved supply chain performance.

"More than $10 billion annually flows through Toyota Australia's extended value chain," said Chris Thomas, senior manager for Toyota Australia's eBusiness Transformation Program. "We realized that integrating the disparate systems throughout that value chain would allow us to achieve considerable process improvements and cost savings while improving customer satisfaction. BEA is a key partner, and we are extremely happy with the close working relationship that we have established."

Toyota chose BEA WebLogic Integration after a thorough review of integration platforms, which included proprietary enterprise application integration (EAI) products and open, standards-based offerings such as the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform(TM).

"We conducted a formal evaluation to find the best product to support our enterprise architecture," said Ellis Brover, principal architect for eBusiness Transformation. "On a technical level, we needed a platform that could provide the plumbing for J2EE applications and Web services, act as an integration broker, and provide an adapter capability for our legacy systems.

"After careful study and a successful pilot phase, we selected BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 due largely to BEA's aggressive support for open standards, which can maximize our flexibility and adaptability, and the reliability and scalability of BEA's products, which are crucial for mission-critical computing. Our experience leads us to believe that BEA is a market leader in the J2EE space, and is well positioned as the integration market moves towards open standards."

Toyota Australia's eBusiness Transformation Program calls for all integration to be carried out via Web services interfaces built with BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 to ensure that neither Toyota nor its trading partners are limited by proprietary technologies. Since early 2003, Toyota has successfully delivered six projects using BEA software. These projects include electronic proof of delivery, on-line accounts payable status for suppliers, fleet management integration, the Toyota Vehicle Ordering Procurement System (TVOPS), advanced shipping notice for vehicle deliveries, and a dealer interface designed to allow dealers to receive automatic updates from Toyota's SAP system regarding the status of vehicle production and delivery. Response to the new applications has been positive across Toyota's supply chain with considerable benefits already being realized.

These projects were initially built on BEA WebLogic Integration 7.0. After participating in the beta program for BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 and becoming familiar with the development and functionality enhancements, Toyota began migrating to BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1. During the next 12 months, Toyota will be implementing additional projects as part of the eBusiness Transformation Program, all of which will be built on the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform.

"As one of the first companies to use BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1, Toyota Australia worked side-by-side with our engineering team in the U.S. to ensure that the product met Toyota's needs," said Chet Kapoor, vice president and general manager, BEA Integration Group. "In its approach and vision towards integration, Toyota Australia is a leader, not just in the automotive industry, but on a global scale. As a product vendor, we consider participation in Toyota's eBusiness Transformation Program to be invaluable. It has allowed us to prove our product in a live, complex manufacturing environment."

"We are fully supportive of the new paradigm behind WebLogic Integration 8.1 -- merging application development and integration -- as it matches our own vision of where the industry is going," said Toyota's Brover. "We believe the new version of BEA WebLogic Integration can help us to significantly accelerate our time to value and reduce the coding required for development. Despite being early adopters of this technology, our systems have been running without a hitch and delivering real benefits to the company."

BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 is designed to provide a seamless production environment for integration specialists and application developers alike by leveraging the BEA WebLogic Workshop development environment and a catalogue of standards-based application integration adapters. Toyota's in-house team of four developers has been using the Workshop development environment to create custom Java and Web applications. Despite having no previous experience with BEA WebLogic Workshop(TM), Toyota's team was able to become proficient very quickly and begin producing usable code almost immediately.

"BEA has been an excellent partner," said Toyota's Thomas. "The work we are doing is leading edge and we are often breaking new ground due to our extensive use of emerging Web services standards. We could only achieve the success we're enjoying through close cooperation with BEA and mutual trust. BEA has never hesitated to provide us with access to all appropriate resources whenever we have an issue to resolve, including direct access to the engineering team behind the BEA WebLogic 8.1 product."

Toyota Australia represents the successful marriage of Australian and Japanese expertise in high-quality motor vehicle manufacture and marketing. The company's headquarters and manufacturing operations are located in Melbourne, while its sales and marketing activities are based in Sydney. Toyota Australia's world-class Altona plant in Melbourne produces the Camry and Avalon passenger cars. Toyota Australia is the current market leader in Australia and is on target to sell about 180,000 vehicles in Australia during 2003. The Altona plant expects to produce 117,000 Camry and Avalon sedans this year with 66,000 of the locally produced Camry cars being exported to more than 20 international markets.

About BEA

BEA Systems, Inc. is the world's leading application infrastructure software company, providing the enterprise software foundation for more than 15,000 customers around the world, including the majority of the Fortune Global 500. BEA, Tuxedo, and its WebLogic(R) brand are among the most trusted names in business.

Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 77 offices in 31 countries and is on the Web at www.bea.com.

NOTE: BEA, Tuxedo, and WebLogic are registered trademarks and BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform, BEA WebLogic Server, BEA WebLogic Integration, BEA WebLogic Portal, BEA WebLogic JRockit, BEA WebLogic Platform, BEA WebLogic Express, BEA WebLogic Workshop, BEA WebLogic Java Adapter for Mainframe, BEA Liquid Data for WebLogic and BEA eLink are trademarks of BEA Systems, Inc. All other company and product names may be the subject of intellectual property rights reserved by third parties.