Boeing Selects Hubspan for Supply Chain Integration.

Business Editors

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2003

Hubspan, a leading integration solutions provider, today announced that The Boeing Company, the world's largest manufacturer of satellites, commercial jetliners, and military aircraft, has selected the Hubspan solution as the technology and service platform behind eBuy@Boeing, a company-wide e-business initiative.

Hubspan's innovative, service-based integration solution enables Boeing business systems to exchange transactions with diverse trading partners around the world through a single point of integration. Hubspan's ability to provide not only leading-edge technology, necessary to manage Boeing mission-critical supply chain and financial transactions, but also comprehensive integration services that together enable Boeing to significantly reduce cost in IT infrastructure build-out and maintenance, were critical factors in their selection. Real time integration with a broad range of suppliers through Exostar, an aerospace trading exchange, and a traditional EDI VAN are among the initial production deployment successes.

"The supply chain integration market is gaining momentum. Recent Yankee Group survey data indicates budgets and transaction volumes are increasing," said Jon Derome, Program Manager at the Yankee Group. "Companies are looking to vendors like Hubspan to deliver unified net connections that leverage existing technology investments, minimize total cost of ownership of integration and maximize supply chain responsiveness. As the Boeing example demonstrates, reaching the entire supply chain community through a single point of integration delivers impressive business value."

With more than 20 disparate procurement systems operating independently in over 50 global sites, over 8,000 worldwide trading partners targeted for integration utilizing EDI and XML technologies, millions of transactions processed annually, and more than 40 unique supply chain and financial business processes targeted for automation with Exostar, Boeing required a comprehensive, secure and highly scalable external integration solution. After an in-depth evaluation of multiple integration approaches, such as VANs and software-based methods, Boeing selected Hubspan because it provided robust integration technology, a complete service-based offering, proven ability to deliver to Global 500 enterprises, and the flexibility to provide a path to the Boeing e-business future.

"After a detailed analysis and evaluation of whether Boeing should develop middleware as a core competency or outsource to third party with an established competency, we decided to outsource," said Paul Pasquier, Boeing director of the eBuy@Boeing program. "Hubspan's selection was based on their ability to meet our challenges by implementing cost effective, reliable technology in a manner that brings about high customer satisfaction."

In addition to Boeing's key selection criteria, rapid time to market is another driver of the initiative, as there were a variety of external factors requiring aggressive implementation timelines. With Hubspan, Boeing was processing live transactions in a production environment in 4 months.

"The Boeing Company has long been recognized for its tradition of technical excellence and innovation. Hubspan is excited to be a part of extending this tradition and proud to be selected," said Alan Higginson, Hubspan CEO. "More and more we are seeing that IT organizations in large enterprises, such as Boeing, are being required to deliver more value with fewer resources. Hubspan offers the technology and the proven ability to meet aggressive deployment timelines that helps our customers deliver rapid return on investment to the enterprise."

About Boeing:

The Boeing Company is the world's leading aerospace company, with its heritage mirroring the history of flight. It is the largest manufacturer of satellites, commercial jetliners, and military aircraft. The company is also a global market leader in missile defense, human space flight, and launch services. In terms of sales, Boeing is the largest U.S. exporter. Total company revenues for 2002 were $54 billion.

About Hubspan:

As a leading integration solutions provider, Hubspan delivers on the promise of the Business Internet. Hubspan's service-based integration solutions enable companies around the world to exchange mission-critical information with their partners, providing maximum security and world-class reliability. Robust standards-based technology combined with rapid implementation and superior service deliver strategic value to trusted customer relationships. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Hubspan is trusted to deliver by industry leading customers including Graybar, Tradeplace, and PC Connection. Additional information can be found at www.hubspan.com.