Grand Central Communications Obtains Certification as RouteOne Integration Solution Provider

Certification provides finance sources and automotive dealers a fast, easy, cost-effective solution for integration with the RouteOne system

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13 -- Grand Central Communications, Inc., provider of Integration On Demand(SM) solutions that dramatically lower the cost, time, and risk associated with business integration, today announced that it has obtained certification as a RouteOne integration solution provider. This will enable Grand Central to quickly, securely, and cost- effectively integrate finance sources with the joint venture. Grand Central's Business Services Network provides the necessary mediation and data transformation to finance sources to integrate using the technology of their choice, thereby eliminating the need to install additional software or hardware.

Established in 2002, RouteOne LLC is a joint venture formed by DaimlerChrysler Services, Ford Motor Credit Company, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, and Toyota Financial Services to improve the credit application process for automobile dealers, their customers, and participating financial institutions. Using RouteOne, automobile dealers submit credit applications to and receive decisions from multiple finance sources, all from a single desktop.

"We're thrilled to offer Grand Central as a solution to our customers," said Mike Jurecki, chief executive officer for RouteOne LLC. "Using Grand Central's Business Services Network, our customers can integrate with our system much more rapidly and cost-effectively than before."

RouteOne certification, based on an XML industry standard defined by the Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) organization, has defined a specification that describes the manner in which credit application and credit decision messages are passed between a finance source and the RouteOne system. RouteOne only processes credit applications and credit decisions that conform to this specification.

All credit application and credit decision messages are defined using STAR XML and sent using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). To protect these messages from unauthorized access, messages must be encrypted via the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. Digital signatures are required for authorization and access.

As part of the certification program, Grand Central demonstrated expertise in implementing the RouteOne specification. In particular, it implemented the ProcessCreditApplication and ProcessCredit Decision interfaces as SOAP messages over secure HTTP. The Grand Central Business Services Network (BSN) ensures message delivery and security, providing support for digital signatures, encryption, and non-repudiation. Using Grand Central, finance sources can now quickly and easily integrate with RouteOne on demand without having to install additional hardware or software.

"We're committed to making it easier for companies across all industries to integrate with their partners, customers, and diverse business units," said Ron Palmeri, executive vice president of product development and corporate strategy for Grand Central Communications. "By adding support for the STAR XML standard, and obtaining RouteOne certification, enterprises in the automotive industry can now more easily leverage our unique integration on demand platform to get immediate tangible results within weeks of deployment."

About Grand Central Communications

Grand Central Communications provides Integration On Demand(SM) solutions through its award-winning, subscription-based Business Services Network. By offering integration as a service, Grand Central dramatically lowers the cost, time, and risk of business integration, providing a dramatically better alternative to complicated, lengthy, and expensive software deployments. As a neutral, trusted third party, Grand Central mediates the complex technical and business differences associated with integration. Enterprises can rapidly access and share information, services and business processes with partners, customers and internal business units, without installing or maintaining costly hardware or software.

Grand Central's market-changing approach has received significant recognition in the industry, including InfoWorld's 2003 Technology of the Year Award for "Best Web Services Integration Solution", the 2004 Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Differentiation Innovation, an Excellent rating from InfoWorld Test Center labs, the AlwaysOn 100 (AO100) Award two years in a row, the 2004 Red Herring 100 Award, the Readers Choice Award from .NET Magazine, Two Thumbs Up from Web Services Journal Product Review, and the 2003 Comdex "Iron Chef" Web Services Competition Award.

Grand Central's customers include leading enterprises such as Eastman Chemical, Wachovia and Xilinx. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Call 1-800-845-4313 or visit http://www.grandcentral.com/ for more information.

About RouteOne

Established in April 2002, RouteOne LLC is a joint venture formed by DaimlerChrysler Services, Ford Motor Credit Company, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, and Toyota Financial Services to improve the credit application process for automobile dealers, their customers, and participating finance sources. The joint venture has developed a web-based system that enables dealers and their finance sources, including captives, banks, and other financial institutions, to exchange credit application and decision information online. More information is available at http://www.routeone.com/