WEBM Webmediabrands (MM)

webMethods' Fifth Annual Global Customer Conference Highlighted by World- Renowned Visionaries and Thoughts Leaders, Industry-Leading Best Practices and Customer Innovations FAIRFAX, Va., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- webMethods, Inc. (NASDAQ:WEBM), a leading business integration and optimization software company, today unveiled the formal program for Integration World 2006. webMethods' fifth annual global customer conference is taking place in Washington, DC at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel, November 6-8, 2006. This year's conference is dedicated to helping IT professionals and business leaders 'OUTPERFORM' through the use of best-in-class technology, innovative strategies and proven methodologies for improving business and IT performance. Keynote presenters include political pundits James Carville and Mary Matalin; Peter Van Kralingen, vice president, Information Management, Ahold Netherlands; John Hagel, author of The Only Sustainable Edge; and Bruce Richardson, Chief Research Officer, AMR Research. "The role of IT is being transformed by the emergence of service-oriented architecture and business process management. This has resulted in the long- sought desire to create more agile and adaptive enterprise systems becoming an increasing reality for our customer base," said David Mitchell, president and CEO, webMethods, Inc. "This year's conference is dedicated to the pioneers that have seized this opportunity to OUTPERFORM their competition as they've been able to leverage these technology innovations to achieve far-reaching and long-lasting business change. Our formal program is designed to inspire others to follow their lead in harnessing this potential to become 'change agents' within their organizations." Washington's ultimate power couple -- media personality and political consultant James Carville and Mary Matalin, former advisor to President George W. Bush -- will open the conference on Tuesday, November 7th with their enlightening and entertaining analysis of that day's unfolding U.S. national elections. webMethods President and CEO David Mitchell's keynote address -- Driving Business Transformation Through Process Improvement -- will highlight the next-generation of innovation being enabled by the simultaneous emergence of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM). With SOA increasingly serving as the blueprint for the business, IT is being confronted with the need to redefine its organizational role as it shifts its focus from enabling business users to empowering them. Fundamental to this transition, Mitchell argues, is the need to create a strategy for overcoming the current obstacles inhibiting IT performance. Peter Van Kralingen, Vice President, Information Management, Ahold Netherlands, will detail the global retailing giant's success in transforming its supply chain through real-time integration of more than 700 stores. Through this effort, Ahold has been able to streamline, centralize and automate product replenishment as a means for reducing or eliminating stock outs, minimizing operational costs, and enhancing business visibility and forecasting accuracy. webMethods Executive Vice President for Product Development Kristin Muhlner will conclude Tuesday's General Session with the debut of webMethods 7, the latest version of the multiple award-winning webMethods Fabric(TM) product suite, which is being released this December. This forthcoming release builds upon the recently announced acquisitions of Infravio and Cerebra as well as webMethods' OEM partnership with Fair Isaac for business rules management to introduce new breakthroughs in business process productivity. By seamlessly integrating SOA with BPM, webMethods Fabric 7 will foster improved collaboration between business analysts and developers, enable lifecycle governance for automated process and services, and deliver advanced monitoring for guided process improvement. Opening the General Session on Wednesday, November 8th is John Hagel. He is the author of numerous IT and business strategy best-sellers, most recently The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization, which was co-authored with John Seely Brown. In this work, the authors argue that " ... the only sustainable advantage will come not from using technology to cut costs -- but to get better faster than rivals." During his keynote presentation, Hagel will build upon this theme to discuss how IT can enable 'dynamic specialization' and 'productive friction' as cornerstones of their enterprises' competitive strategy. He will be followed by AMR Research Chief Research Officer Bruce Richardson, who is one of the industry's most sought after speakers. In his research-driven presentation, Richardson will benchmark where organizations are in their adoption of SOA as well as the successes that they are seeing in leveraging these efforts to drive and enable business transformation. Following his formal remarks, he will be joined by his fellow judges -- InformationWeek's Stephanie Stahl and Bruce Williams, chairman and CEO, Saavi International -- in presenting the 2006 webMethods Customer Innovation Awards. In addition, Integration World 2006 will feature forty in-depth track session presentations. These customer, practitioner, analyst and developer- led sessions will tackle key topics, including: * SOA -- This track will provide users with a framework for bringing together the right technologies, strategies and approaches for maximizing SOA success. * Business Process Management -- These sessions will outline how users can leverage webMethods Fabric to achieve greater alignment with the line- of-business through the more seamless implementation of targeted business improvement initiatives. * Best Practices -- This track will detail the unique methodologies and operational models needed to create and maintain a 'Center of Excellence' for business integration, SOA and BPM. * Focus on Process Improvement -- These customer-led presentations will outline the successful strategies that industry leaders are employing to outperform their competition. * Deep Dive on Technology -- These always popular sessions will provide advanced users with additional insight into optimizing the performance of their webMethods environment. * Government Solutions -- New this year, this one-day (Tuesday, November 7th) program will focus exclusively on the unique requirements of the government with actual implementations being highlighted as a model for sustainable process improvement within government agencies. Featured presenters include representatives from AMR Research, AMTRAK, AVNET, Baker Hughes, Colgate, Forrester Research, Gartner, Genentech, GXS, Johnson & Johnson, the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, Saavi International, and Tata Consultancy Services. Following last year's sold-out debut, webMethods is also expanding availability for the instructor-led, educational training being offered in conjunction with Integration World 2006. These hands on, technical sessions are the same ones currently being offered by webMethods Educational Services as a preresiquite for certification on webMethods Fabric. By taking advantage of these classes in a convenient pre- or post-show format, attendees are eligible for a significant discount over traditional rates. Event registration as well as additional information on Integration World 2006 is available by visiting http://www.integrationworld2006.com/. 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 1,400 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. DATASOURCE: webMethods, Inc. CONTACT: John Conley of webMethods, +1-703-460-5996 or Web site: http://www.webmethods.com/ http://www.integrationworld2006.com/

Copyright