Wales & West Utilities Selects webMethods as its Integration Platform for Rapid Migration to a New IT Infrastructure
December 06 2005 - 8:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
New stand-alone utilities company to implement trusted solution for
mission- critical business processes FAIRFAX, Va., Dec. 6
/PRNewswire/ -- webMethods, Inc. (NASDAQ:WEBM), a leading business
integration and optimization software company, today announced that
Wales & West Utilities Limited has selected webMethods Fabric
as its enterprise platform for integrating a range of new IT
systems as part of a large scale, front office systems replacement
project. "We needed a proven, well-known technology to make
integration simple for us that would also provide us with an
infrastructure that would be easy to maintain and develop," said
Phil Pike, Chief Information Officer for Wales & West
Utilities. "We were looking for a technology that was future-proof
and that would represent a low cost of ownership over time." Wales
& West Utilities was formerly the Wales and South West England
gas distribution division of utilities company National Grid
Transco plc until its sale to private investors in June. As a
result of the sale, Wales & West Utilities had 18 months in
which to move away from National Grid's front office business
systems to a completely independent, business process architecture.
"We are changing all the mission-critical systems for running a gas
business within an aggressive timeline, so we need to use tools
that are tried and tested," said Pike. "But this is also a great
opportunity to remodel all of our business processes in the most
efficient way possible and achieve world-class best practice."
Wales & West Utilities chose webMethods Fabric as a result and
is using a range of purpose-specific adapters, including those for
integrating directly to SAP, JMS and JDBC-based interfaces, to
speed the implementation. In evaluating the best approach, Wales
& West Utilities had chosen Wipro Technologies as it systems
integration specialist. The company rated a wide range of competing
integration software products against Wales & West Utilities'
requirements criteria prior to recommending webMethods. "webMethods
has a history of hundreds of installations under its belt and a lot
of these are with the SAP technologies that form the backbone of
our front and back office systems architecture, so that was key to
us," said Pike. "Wipro had also implemented webMethods before and
were familiar with it for this kind of installation." Among the
kinds of business processes webMethods will be integrating are the
handling of emergencies, repair and replacement of the gas network
and the connection of new customers -- all high profile
public-facing functions that must be robust for reasons of safety,
regulation and reputation. "It's hard to overestimate what a
massive project this is," said Pike. "Given the pressures, we could
have just replaced like with like, but we decided to employ
best-of-breed applications, like webMethods, throughout."
"webMethods has long prided itself on helping clients 'get there
faster' with this project for Wales & West being a superb
example of this commitment in action," said Martyn Eley,
webMethods' SVP and General Manager for EMEA. "As they evolve to
compete within more competitive markets, energy sector firms like
Wales & West are adding new requirements around system
adaptability and flexibility to their non-negotiable demands for
flawless performance. With our long track record of serving these
firms on a global basis, webMethods is well acquainted with these
challenges, including the need to comply with a variety of
regulatory requirements while supporting mission- critical
operations. By combining this experience with the unique
capabilities of webMethods Fabric, we can provide them with a
robust, flexible platform for integrating, automating and
optimizing their most critical business processes." About
webMethods, Inc. 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
http://www.webmethods.com/. The webMethods name and logo are
registered trademarks of, and webMethods Fabric is a trademark of,
webMethods, Inc. All other marks mentioned are trademarks or
service marks of their respective companies. This press release may
contain various remarks about the future expectations, plans and
prospects of webMethods that constitute forward- looking statements
for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of U.S. securities laws.
Actual results of webMethods may differ materially from those
indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of
various factors, risks and uncertainties, including those discussed
under the heading "Factors That May Affect Future Operating
Results" in the Business section of webMethods' Form 10-K for the
year ended March 31, 2005 and Form 10-Q for the three months ended
September 30, 2005 which are on file with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission and may be accessed at http://www.sec.gov/ or
webMethods' investor relations web page at
http://www.webmethods.com/investors. DATASOURCE: webMethods, Inc.
CONTACT: John Conley, +1-703-980-8259, or , and Brianna Boyle,
+1-703-460-6034, or , both of webMethods, Inc. Web site:
http://www.webmethods.com/ http://www.webmethods.com/investors
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