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webMethods, Inc. (Nasdaq:WEBM), a leading provider of business integration and optimization software, today announced that Bank Mandiri, Indonesia�s largest bank in terms of total assets, loans and deposits, has implemented webMethods technology as the Unified Payment Gateway for its end-to-end cash management system. Building upon webMethods Fabric�, webMethods� fully-integrated product suite for business process integration, the Unified Payment Gateway establishes a comprehensive service-oriented architecture (SOA) as the underlying infrastructure for the bank�s cash management system. Through this approach, the bank expects to reduce the development and deployment time associated with bringing new products and services for payments processing to market. The use of an SOA will also allow the bank to improve customer service levels as corporate users can more easily and cost-effectively integrate with the bank�s cash management system, which reduces processing and transaction costs for both parties. �As the leading bank in Indonesia, Bank Mandiri serves many of the country�s largest and most sophisticated corporations. Due to these organizations� demanding business requirements, it is critical that they continually improve their performance and service levels,� said David Wright, Director of Financial Services, webMethods, Inc. �As a result, we are excited to be working with the bank in implementing a service-oriented architecture within their operations. What this approach offers them is a more efficient means for creating new and more innovative financial products, which can be quickly rolled out to market without the need for extensive development. Ultimately, this initiative is designed to provide Bank Mandiri with a significant, competitive edge as it ensures that existing services can be packaged together to address each customer�s unique and often highly specialized requirements.� According to Forrester Research [Topic Overview: Service-Oriented Architecture by Randy Heffner and Larry Fulton (May 16, 2006)], �SOA is a hot technology for Forrester clients for three reasons. First, the business benefits of SOA-based flexibility and reuse have created strong user satisfaction with SOA. Nearly 70% of users say they will increase their use of SOA, while only 1% of users will decrease their use. Second, an organization can implement SOA incrementally, starting with small, near-term requirements and later expanding its SOA as other business needs arise. You don't have to invest heavily to build an extensive architecture before you can see real benefits. Third, enterprises can use SOA to leverage their existing applications and infrastructure to solve business problems without having to rebuild everything from scratch. These three reasons make SOA attractive to IT shops with post-bubble IT budgets trying to deliver business flexibility via faster, lower-cost integration and solution delivery.� Bank Mandiri�s initial deployment of the Unified Payment Gateway was undertaken in partnership with Pertamina, Indonesia�s state-owned oil and gas company. Under this initiative, Web services are being used to speed and simplify integration between Pertamina�s order management and payment systems and the back office payments processing offered by the bank�s cash management system. This will provide each of Pertamina�s service stations throughout Indonesia with the ability to submit, manage and pay for their sales orders using their existing Bank Mandiri accounts. Subsequently, Bank Mandiri expects to use this framework to extend the system�s core cash management processing engine to all of its corporate customers in order to further streamline their integration with the bank�s back office systems. The value offered by an SOA is its ability to integrate these features within a specific business process using a simplified �plug and play� approach. Eventually, the Unified Payment Gateway will serve as the common interface for all corporate customers, which will allow the bank to accelerate the shift of these customers to a more powerful and cost-effective �touchless� fulfillment channel. �Bank Mandiri has demonstrated a long-term commitment to being recognized as �the trusted and preferred bank in Indonesia�. We�re extremely proud to support this mission,� said Eric Lim, General Manager, ASEAN and India, webMethods, Inc. �By creating a service-oriented architecture as the platform for its cash management system, Bank Mandiri can now bring new products and services to market with far greater speed and flexibility. Through this approach, they�re establishing new benchmarks for innovation and responsiveness that others within the Indonesian banking market will be challenged to match.� About Bank Mandiri Bank Mandiri is the largest bank in Indonesia in terms of total assets, loans and deposits. It has IDR262.3 trillion (US$25.2 billion) in total assets, representing 23.9 percent of the total assets of the Indonesian banking system. Through its more than 19,200 employees, based across 1400 branches, Bank Mandiri provides comprehensive financial services to more than 6 million corporate and individual customers as well as small and medium-sized enterprises in Indonesia. The Bank also has six overseas branches and a subsidiary. 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. More information about the company can be found at www.webMethods.com. The webMethods name and logo are registered trademarks of, and webMethods Fabric is a trademark of, webMethods, Inc. 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