INDUSTRY

Sun Microsystems, the creator and leading advocate of Java technology, announced that it is providing the technology foundation for the RouteOne Credit Application Management System (CAMS), a web-based credit application process for automobile dealers. Jointly sponsored by DaimlerChrysler Services, Ford Motor Credit Company, General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), and Toyota Financial Services, the RouteOne CAMS is currently being deployed to auto dealerships nationwide. Recently, Ford Credit began enrolling its dealers in the Southeast and mid- Atlantic regions, while DaimlerChrysler Services has pre-enrolled 85 percent of its dealers. Additionally, Toyota Financial Services and GMAC will migrate dealers to the RouteOne CAMS in late summer/early fall. RouteOne is aggressively targeting 50 percent of these new franchised dealers to be activated by year end. "Sun is focused on helping RouteOne reduce the time, cost, and risk of transforming its business through the deployment of innovative technologies and services for a sustained business advantage," said Marissa Peterson, Executive Vice President, Sun Services. "Dealers using the RouteOne solution, along with their customers, should benefit from a faster and more secure credit application process, as well as an anticipated reduction in credit application errors." In October 2002, Sun Services began working with RouteOne to develop a web- based Credit Application Management System using an infrastructure that includes Sun Java System Software, Sun Fire servers and Java Web Services. RouteOne selected the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology as the standard development platform for the CAMS application because of its proven success for enterprise class application development on a variety of operating systems. Sun identity management software provides a secure, unified identity management infrastructure. Sun Fire V480 servers running the Solaris Operating System power all tiers of RouteOne's services- architecture, delivering a stable, high performance platform. Sun Cluster software enables RouteOne to manage the solution through a single interface and a highly available infrastructure. Sun Cluster software also works in conjunction with the Solaris Operating System to support continuous network and data availability. "Our goal is to transform the way dealerships and finance sources handle vehicle financing transactions by making the process easier, faster and more accessible. As a new venture with an aggressive time-to-market objective, we wanted to go with proven technology that would scale to meet our ongoing requirements and also minimize our risk. Sun has the right combination of technology and expertise to help us build a reliable and secure solution that we believe will become the industry standard for vehicle financing," said Joel Gruber, RouteOne CIO. Sun Services quickly met RouteOne's aggressive nine month time-to-market objective, as well as the budgetary goals assigned to the project. By eliminating inefficient business processes that can be associated with vehicle financing, RouteOne is anticipating that its 22,000 franchise dealer customers will use CAMS to collectively process as many as 120,000 credit applications per day, with a projected average of more than 40 million transactions per year. The CAMS application is already showing signs of success and is currently achieving 99.999% system availability. Sun Java System Access Manager and Directory Server Enterprise Edition provide secure access to CAMS. Access Manager delivers web-based single sign-on and authorization across the RouteOne infrastructure. Sun's market-leading Directory Server Enterprise Edition provides a highly scalable and available central repository for storing and managing user identity profiles, access privileges, and related information. Because RouteOne views security as a critical component of the CAMS, its technical team attended a week long security workshop conducted by Sun, which resulted in more aggressive security policies that will help the joint venture exceed regulatory requirements related to financial reporting. Sun iForce Partners, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGE&Y), DataPower, and Oracle worked together with RouteOne to develop and deploy the RouteOne Credit Application Management System, securely integrating vehicle financing resources into one convenient web-based channel. CGE&Y's application development methodology and accelerators helped to significantly shorten the time to market for the solution. In addition, CGE&Y led three Rapid Solution Workshops that involved all project stakeholders and resulted in decision making that normally would have taken weeks. Sun Services collaborated with DataPower engineers to build a Web Services architecture that enables CAMS users to process loan applications securely. The CAMS application utilizes the Oracle9i database to store information and the Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) configuration, with its shared cache architecture, boosts the performance levels and reliability of the Oracle database. 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 financial institutions. RouteOne is a web-based credit application management system that will enable 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.