SYSTEMS

IBM and Siebel Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SEBL) today announced their expanded commitment to Universal Application Network with the product release of Siebel Business Integration Applications for the IBM WebSphere Business Integration platform. With this announcement, the companies have delivered comprehensive, customer-driven business process integration solutions that aid customers in building on demand businesses. Developed by Siebel Systems in collaboration with leading technology companies, including IBM, Universal Application Network (UAN) is a standards-based architecture for business integration. UAN includes packaged integration applications -- Siebel Business Integration Applications -- that run on industry-leading integration servers, eliminating the cost and complexity associated with traditional integration methods. With UAN, companies can leverage their existing IT investments, deploy best-in-class applications, and optimize their cross-application business processes, resulting in greater organizational agility and a lower total cost of ownership. "IBM and Siebel Systems are bringing customers the best of both worlds -- industry leading integration middleware with industry-specific processes -- so they can improve operations and increase return on investment," said Marie Wieck, vice president of WebSphere Business Integration. "With Siebel Business Integration Applications running on WebSphere Business Integration, customers can simplify Siebel application upgrades, and optimize their cross-application business processes. This can enable them to become on demand businesses with improved organizational agility and lowered total cost of ownership." Siebel Business Integration Applications are pre-built, industry specific integration processes, common objects and transformations that are built upon the Universal Application Network architecture. IBM WebSphere Business Integration is the market leading middleware solution for rapidly integrating applications, transactions and business processes across the enterprise and with customers, trading partners, and suppliers. Together this offering provides key functionality for customers that wish to integrate disparate applications across their enterprise in order to streamline business processes that support customer lifecycle management, product lifecycle management and order management, among others. Additionally, this offering provides joint customers with a standards based set of common objects and common services to enable IT organizations to rapidly extend and customize their integration architecture across the enterprise in a cost effective, scalable manner. "Many of the corporations that we serve have hundreds, and even thousands of applications that need to be integrated, resulting in an enormous challenge for CIOs today. Partnering with IBM has been invaluable to our ability to develop market leading business integration solutions to meet these challenges, and deliver on the promise of standards based integration to our customers," said Nimish Mehta, Group Vice President, Universal Application Network. "Together we are providing companies with more business agility and flexibility, so that organizations can react with speed and acumen in the marketplace." In the coming quarters, Siebel and IBM plan to extend their commitment to Universal Application Network by expanding joint development to industry-specific Siebel Business Integration Applications, tailored for communications, media, and energy companies. The Cross-Industry Siebel Business Integration Applications for IBM WebSphere Business Integration 4.2 are generally available today from Siebel Systems.