Canopy International to Host OAGI Vendor Challenge Delivering B2B Interoperability.

Business/Technology Editors

NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2000

Complete Products To Be Demonstrated At Canopy's Boston E-Business

Integration Laboratory

Canopy International, an international professional services company specializing in business-to-business integration services, today announced that it will host and participate in the OAGI Vendor Challenge aimed at delivering B2B interoperability between leading business applications using OAGI standards.

The OAGI Vendor Challenge was issued by the OAGI Customer Council, including companies such as AT&T Wireless, Boeing, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Lockheed Martin and Lucent Technologies, in an effort to drive software vendors to deliver fully-integrated products that can be implemented to deliver value right away. Vendors who complete the challenge, and are able to produce a working product by June 30, 2000, will showcase their products at Canopy's eBusiness integration laboratory in Boston.

More than 20 vendors have signed onto the Challenge. They are Bluestone (BLSW), eXcelon Corp., Extricity Software, GloTech Solutions, HK Systems, Inc. (HKS), J. D. Edwards (JDEC), Mercator (MCTR), Netfish Technologies, OnDisplay, Inc., Oracle (ORCL), PeopleSoft (PSFT), PricewaterhouseCoopers, PSDI (PSDI), Requisite Technology, Robocom Systems International (RIMS), SAGA Software (AGS), SupplierMarket.com, Teklogix, Inc., webMethods (WEBM) and Wonderware. Several more vendors are poised to sign up very soon.

Canopy will provide the location, equipment, and project management and systems administration resources. Each vendor will also supply resources to come to Canopy's laboratory, install their software, and participate in the test. Members of the press, industry analysts, and other interested parties will be invited to view the live demonstrations upon their completion. The products will also be shown at exhibitions and conferences to be announced later.

Canopy's specialized integration skills and methodology, as well as its experience developing B2B integration solutions, will help vendors to create the industrial-strength, plug-and-play connections within the rapid timeframe of the Challenge.

Canopy's eBusiness integration laboratory contains the latest versions and features of various leading software applications, including enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, supply chain management, asset management, middleware, and business-to business, as well as a library of reusable integration solutions. The lab offers Canopy clients the ability to dramatically accelerate the development of B2B solutions. While the laboratories are available via the web, Canopy maintains integration laboratories in five locations around the world.

"Canopy's integration laboratory provides a perfect location for showcasing completed vendor demonstrations," said Dave Connelly, president of the OAGI. "Canopy's experience using OAGI standards in integration solutions is longstanding. They will provide a realistic software environment in which to test and demonstrate the B2B solutions."

"Each company involved in the challenge stands to benefit tremendously from the experience," said Bill Harrelson, chief technology officer for Canopy. "Our involvement in the OAGI, our hosting of this challenge, and our existing work in OAGI-based integration in the B2B world will position us as the integrator experienced in leading-edge, B2B opportunities and initiatives."

(See "Ford, Lucent and Lockheed Martin Lead the OAGI Vendor Challenge Driving Delivery of XML Standard-based eCommerce Solutions" dated March 16, 2000.)

About Canopy International

Canopy International is a professional services firm that specializes in the art of integrating systems across the enterprise and business community to unleash strategic information and drive business innovation. Based on leading middleware platforms, Canopy's business-driven integration approach enables companies to redefine business relationships, strengthen connections with customers, leverage intellectual capital, and improve business efficiencies. Canopy customers include Abbott Laboratories, Avon Products, Engelhard Corporation, Genentech, Shell Chemical, Slim-Fast Foods Company, and Warner-Lambert Company. Please visit our web site at www. canopyint.com or contact us at (1) 617-796-5400. Canopy International is a trademark of Canopy International.

About OAGI

The Open Applications Group (www.openapplications.org) is a non-profit consortium focusing on dramatically easier business software interoperability for eBusiness and application interoperability. It is the largest publisher of XML content for business software interoperability in the world. The Open Applications Group also builds and publishes the detail specifications necessary to use the XML content as well as publishing a common middleware API specification that has been endorsed by several major middleware vendors.

The OAGI membership is composed of many of the most prominent business software vendors, EAI vendors, systems integrators and end-user associated organizations in the world, including: Agile Software, American Software, AT&T Wireless, Bluestone, Candle, Canopy International, Compaq, Component Software, Computer Associates, CrossWorlds Software, DATEV, DHL, Extricity Software, Ford Motor Company, Fortress Technologies, GloTech Solutions, Great Plains, HK Systems, Inc., I2, IBM, Indus, Integrated Systems & Services Group, J.D. Edwards, Lockheed Martin, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, NEC, Netfish Technologies, OnDisplay, Oracle, PCS Inc., PeopleSoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PSDI, QAD, Requisite Technology, Robocom Systems, Saga, SAP, StreamServe, SupplierMarket.com, Teklogix, Trilogy, Mercator (formerly TSI), USData, Vitria, Wonderware, webMethods and XML Solutions.