Playing Field Brings Grand Central Communications' 'Pay For Success, Not Pray For Success'(SM) Model to the Automotive Industry

Grand Central's Business Services Network '05 Enables Industry Pioneer to Deliver Single Point of Integration for Complex Applications and Services

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15 -- Grand Central Communications, the leading provider of Integration On Demand(SM) solutions that eliminate the risk and increase the success of business integration, today announced that Playing Field, Inc. has selected Grand Central's Business Services Network to deliver "plug and play" integration between the many and varied companies serving the automotive retail community. Playing Field enables automobile dealerships of any size to deploy the integrated IT applications and services necessary to succeed in a fiercely competitive industry.

"The automotive retail industry is driven by incredibly complex relationships, and one application typically must integrate with up to 40 different points. Dozens or even hundreds of providers are involved in managing inventory, customers, financing partners, and other critical processes across the automotive retail industry, and dealers have a desperate need for integration," said Mark Allen, CEO of Playing Field, Inc. "Grand Central's 'Pay for Success, Not Pray for Success' model provides the only successful integration solution that simplifies technology access while eliminating the risk."

Integrating all the applications and services a dealership may use is far beyond the reach of any single dealership, in time, cost, and expertise. Without integration, smaller players can't compete with the larger players, further narrowing industry choices and choking competitive growth.

By providing integration-as-a-service, Grand Central relieves Playing Field of solving the technical challenges of developing and managing multiple point-to-point relationships. In addition, Grand Central's Business Services Network functions as the single, trusted source to extend integration to Playing Field's extensive community of dealers and customers.

Playing Field chose Grand Central's Business Services Network because it allows them to provide an integration solution to the automotive marketplace without having to build and manage their own network. "We were looking for a partner who would get us to the marketplace before anybody else," said Allen. "We don't want to own the technology or the network. We want to take our process expertise on how to manage all of the different relationships, put them together on a market level and then build on top of the network."

Although it is concentrating on the automotive marketplace in the near term, Playing Field sees opportunities for its model to be extended to healthcare and other complex marketplaces. "Building our operations on Grand Central's Business Services Network allows our customers to select their preferred IT providers, without the need for time-consuming, costly integration projects," said Allen.

"We are building a community of customers, partners and service providers who are dedicated to changing the broken model of enterprise software. Playing Field is a perfect example of the kind of customer we enable," said Halsey Minor, chief executive officer and founder, Grand Central Communications. "With our integration technology delivered as a service they can get to market faster, without the risk associated with traditional software deployments."

About Playing Field, Inc.

Playing Field provides integration services for vendors of IT and IT-related services to automotive dealers through a unique Internet-based transaction hub network. By providing a single point of integration for the many companies that serve the automotive retail community, Playing Field enables each company to extend its reach to all of the other participating companies.

About Grand Central Communications, Inc.

Grand Central Communications provides Integration On Demand(SM) solutions through its award-winning, subscription-based Business Services Network. Enterprises can easily integrate and share applications, data, and processes throughout the extended enterprise, without installing, maintaining, or supporting costly hardware or software. By offering integration as an on demand service, Grand Central eliminates the risk and increases the success of business integration, providing a better alternative to complicated, lengthy, and expensive traditional software deployments.

Grand Central's market-changing approach has received significant recognition in the industry, including an Excellent rating from InfoWorld Test Center labs, the 2004 Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Differentiation Innovation, InfoWorld's 2003 Technology of the Year Award for "Best Web Services Integration Solution", 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.

The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Call 1-800-845-4313 or visit www.grandcentral.com for more information.