WEBM Webmediabrands (MM)

FAIRFAX, Va., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- webMethods, Inc. (NASDAQ:WEBM), a leading business integration and optimization software company, today announced that Sweden's Cerdo Bankpartner has implemented the webMethods Fabric(TM) product suite as part of its strategy to become a leading business process outsourcing provider for the Scandinavian banking industry. "webMethods has allowed us to rationalize our existing infrastructure and move to a service-oriented architecture (SOA). This is central to our strategic objective of providing cost-effective business process outsourcing services to the banking industry in this region," said Anna Werntoft, Manager, Projects and Development, Cerdo Bankpartner. "Given that so much of our business is based upon providing payment and other transaction services to banks, reliability was also an absolute pre-requisite in this decision as we have to minimize risk at all costs." Werntoft added, "The way in which webMethods Fabric can monitor a business process is completely different from other integration options as it provides us with Business Activity Monitoring (BAM), which we intend to use as much as we can in the future. It is a tool that not only solves a range of integration issues for us, but helps our business managers understand and improve the way our services are being used, developed and marketed." Cerdo Bankpartner was formed by merging the administrative units of Sparbanken Finn and Sparbanken Gripen with the jointly-owned companies Frispar Service AB and Frispar IT AB. Its strategy calls for aggressive growth of between 150-300 percent annually. "Our goal is to build a business services production centre that saves our customers time and money, allowing them to focus on where they can add value in their businesses, namely developing customer relationships. For that we needed a flexible and scalable integration platform," said Werntoft. Following a successful pilot, which streamlined various processes for issuing payment cards, Cerdo is expanding the rollout to additional operations, both internal and external, with a target of integrating over 200 processes using webMethods Fabric. Cerdo's integration partner and webMethods' distributor Component Software is managing the implementation, helping to develop process models and standards for the integration. "Without webMethods and Component Software, the cost of integrating all these connections might have been a major stumbling block to executing our strategy," said Werntoft. "Many large organizations are currently planning to implement an SOA strategy, in order to separate the business processes from the applications layer. Cerdo Bankpartner is a brilliant example of an organization already using SOA in the real world to achieve a strategic advantage. Now they can rapidly provide tailor-made back-office services to banks and financial institutions entering the Swedish marketplace," says Bengt Rogsater, Managing Director, Component Software. Martyn Eley, webMethods' senior vice president and General Manager, EMEA, said, "webMethods has long been recognized for the robustness, scalability and flexibility of our integration platform. This is particularly true as organizations build upon this platform to create a service-oriented architecture. As demonstrated by the innovative service strategy being employed by Cerdo, this ability to more quickly and easily on-board new applications and processes within an SOA can be a significant competitive differentiator." 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 over 1,400 global customers. webMethods is headquartered in Fairfax, Va., with offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan. 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. DATASOURCE: webMethods, Inc. CONTACT: John Conley of webMethods, +1-703-460-5996, Web site: http://www.webmethods.com/

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