WEBM Webmediabrands (MM)

webMethods Ranked Number One by End-Users in First Annual Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) Buyers' Choice Award ebizQ, an interactive online community (www.ebizQ.net) focused on business integration, today announced a ranking of the top three Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) vendors, as selected by end-users. webMethods was selected as the winner of the first annual ebizQ EAI Buyers' Choice Award. Receiving votes on ten judging criteria, webMethods received its highest marks in the areas of technical excellence, flexibility, ease-of-use and return on investment (ROI). The top three EAI vendors were ranked as follows: 1. webMethods 2. Extol 3. Oracle First unveiled in February, ebizQ conducted a live webinar and an on-line poll of its members to determine the most important criteria for choosing an integration solution. Then, up until April 15th, only end-user customers (vendors were carefully screened out) were permitted to vote only once (multiple votes were also screened out) for their favorite Enterprise Information Integration (EII) and EAI vendors, based on these criteria. The awards are based on the average raw scores each vendor received in each category, multiplied by the weight ebizQ members gave to each criterion. "One of the key areas where webMethods scored highly was ROI. In fact, this is an area of particular focus for them," said Beth Gold-Bernstein, vice president of strategic products and services for ebizQ. "It is clear that companies can not get value from a system if it is never deployed. webMethods tracks deployments very closely as a key performance metric, and awards incentives based on successful deployments. This focus is somewhat unique among integration vendors, and is clearly translating to demonstrable ROI for their customers." Judging criteria for the Buyers' Choice Awards include ease-of-use, technical excellence, flexibility and reuse, maintenance and support, security, support for standards, skills required to implement the solution and ROI. For EAI and EII, ebizQ members stated the most important criteria are ease-of-use, technical excellence, flexibility and reuse, skills required, and ROI. Second-place finisher Extol received enthusiastic support from end-users for its customer service. Receiving the third-highest point total, Oracle scored highest on technical excellence. In all, ten EAI vendors received enough valid votes to be considered for this award. "Integration continues be an important strategic driver for both business and IT investments," said David A. Kelly, president of Upside Research, Inc. "Organizations that can integrate and manage business processes and transactions across applications and business boundaries effectively and efficiently are in a stronger position to increase revenues and lower their costs. The results of this ebizQ integration survey highlight the importance that fast ROI (as seen in webMethods' results), strong support and services (as seen in Extol's results), and excellent technical capabilities (as seen in Oracle's results) play in EAI purchase decisions and overall satisfaction." "We are honored to win this award. It is especially significant, because it is coming from the business integration community and directly from end-users," said Deborah Rosen, executive vice president, Worldwide Marketing, webMethods, Inc. "The results of the ebizQ integration survey highlight the important role ROI plays in EAI purchase decisions and overall satisfaction. We take pride that customer success is at the very core of our values." At 12 noon EDT on June 29th, ebizQ will hold a webinar with webMethods and Oracle (the winner of the 2005 ebizQ EII Buyer's Choice Award). Customers and executives of these two companies will join Ms. Gold-Bernstein in this webinar, focusing on the formal results of the Buyers' Choice Awards. NOTE: Please visit http://www.ebizq.net/to/eaiaward to sign up for this webinar About webMethods webMethods (Nasdaq: WEBM) provides business integration software to integrate, assemble and optimize available IT assets to drive business process productivity. webMethods delivers an innovative, enterprise-class business integration platform that incorporates proven integration technology with next generation capabilities into one interoperable set of tools that delivers a unique combination of efficiency, agility and control. webMethods combines industry leadership with a zealous commitment to customers to deliver tangible business value to more than 1,300 global customers. webMethods is headquartered in Fairfax, Va., with offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan. More information about the company can be found at www.webMethods.com. About ebizQ ebizQ is the definitive venue for business and IT professionals, vendors, and industry analysts with the need to exchange information on business integration technologies, problems, and solutions. We are singularly focused on business integration, providing the most comprehensive and timely information available on vendors, products, market directions, best practices, and any other industry element that comes into play. ebizQ communicates with its audience through the ebizQ Web site, the Virtual Integration Conference, and the Integration Insider magazine. All of ebizQ's content through each of its channels is freely available to subscribers. For more information, visit www.ebizq.net.