Commerce One, Along With Industry Leaders, Establishes Next-Generation Standards to Power Open E-Marketplaces.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

eLink Conference

HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 29, 2000

Compaq, Microsoft, SAP and Sun Microsystems Support xCBL Standards

for Business-to-Business E-Marketplaces

At the eLink Conference here today, Commerce One, Inc. (Nasdaq:CMRC), the leader in global e-commerce solutions for business, announced Commerce One XML Common Business Library (xCBL) 3.0, the next generation of Commerce One's leading interoperability standard for the exchange of business documents. Commerce One also announced that industry leaders Compaq (NYSE:CPQ), Microsoft, SAP and Sun Microsystems will leverage xCBL 3.0 as a key standard in the development and delivery of B2B solutions.

xCBL 3.0 provides a comprehensive set of standardized XML document formats, allowing buyers, suppliers and service providers to integrate their existing systems quickly and efficiently into e-marketplaces. Since it is built from a thorough analysis of existing e-commerce standards such as EDI (Edifact and X12), RosettaNet and OBI, it is expected that xCBL 3.0 will enable users of different e-commerce standards to communicate with one another with an ease that has previously not been possible.

xCBL 3.0 is built from a set of document components or "building blocks" that are reused by businesses to support automation of multi-company supply chains, collaboration, direct and indirect procurement, planning, auctions, invoicing and payment in an international multi-currency environment. It is expected that this component architecture will enable more efficient, robust, and scaleable integration of trading partners and gives e-marketplaces the flexibility to support diverse business services. Furthermore, xCBL 3.0 will be the underlying XML technology that will enable the interoperability of all the e-marketplaces within the Global Trading Web (GTW).

In addition, xCBL 3.0 will make it much simpler for suppliers to participate in e-marketplaces by providing significant enhancements that make it easier to define, construct, manage, maintain and share catalog content across multiple e-marketplaces.

"Standards for XML documents provide the foundation for e-commerce and the cornerstone for e-marketplace transactions," said Kevin Schick, vice president of product marketing for Commerce One. "With support from the industry's leading B2B solution providers, we believe xCBL 3.0 will provide a broad technology platform for building dynamic e-marketplaces and enabling the move of global business commerce onto the Web."

MarketSet(TM), the joint solution from Commerce One, SAP and SAPMarkets, will support xCBL 3.0.

"With xCBL, our joint customers have a common language to efficiently move their business transactions to the Web and to drive business process across enterprise boundaries for increased value creation," said Peter Graf, vice president of marketing, SAPMarkets. "Since xCBL 3.0 technology provides one language all marketplace participants can understand, companies are able to take part in global e-business without the fear of barriers presented by coordinating different languages and corporate communication standards."

"Since xCBL 3.0 is based on XML and Internet standards, businesses can use it to easily deploy the rich e-commerce solutions that they need to be competitive," said James Utzschneider, director of Web Services in Microsoft's Business Applications Division. "xCBL 3.0 nicely complements Microsoft products like BizTalk Server and other industry B2B standards efforts like UDDI."

Like earlier releases, xCBL 3.0 is available for free to other organizations and businesses to use on an unrestricted basis. The full set of xCBL 3.0 documents and accompanying documentation will be available in mid-December at http://www.xCBL.org website. Commerce One is working with its partners, customers and industry standards organizations to place xCBL completely in the public domain and align with initiatives such as ebXML.

"Building e-marketplace solutions based on industry standards is the best way to ensure that companies of all sizes can easily adopt the technology and quickly realize the benefits of e-commerce," said Rick Fricchione, vice president of Applications and Internet Practice, Compaq Global Services. "Compaq's enterprise integration strategy is to enable competitive advantages for our customers by automating complex business processes and building the next generation of integrated e-commerce solutions. Commerce One's xCBL standard provides an easy, effective solution to the problems of document sharing, and helps pave the way for both buyers and suppliers to participate in e-marketplaces."

"Sun supports open, standards-based efforts that facilitate the growth of network-based applications, such as e-marketplaces. We see xCBL as an initiative that will help further the development of e-commerce applications," said Bill Smith, software/XML engineering manager, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Open standards provide the foundation for application flexibility and interoperability, two crucial components to successful e-commerce."

Commerce One continues to work with leading standards, including RosettaNet and the ebXML initiative chartered by UN/CEFACT and OASIS to build this effective XML standard. xCBL 3.0 was built based on an analysis of existing EDI standards for a number of large industries, including automotive, aerospace, finance, transport, energy and retail.

xCBL 3.0 Facilitates Content Interoperability

High-quality, up-to-date content is a key to successful e-marketplaces. Operators are confronted with different naming and description models, proprietary formats, industry-specific product categories and attributes and different languages and currencies.

xCBL 3.0 directly addresses these issues by providing a uniform standard for catalog items, along with a method for defining catalog schema and content validation. Operators get a base set of attributes for each product, including names, descriptions, manufacturer data, dates of validity, prices, vendor information and attachments. In addition, xCBL 3.0 can support additional attributes such as weight, size, color as well as various currencies, date formats and multiple languages simultaneously.

A2i, Inc., the leading provider of next-generation content management and catalog publishing systems that efficiently manage complex product catalogs containing detailed parametric information on millions of products, will also leverage xCBL, enabling its customers to easily exchange content. A2i customers include many of the largest industrial distributors in the United States and Europe, as well as a variety of dot-coms, exchanges, and other publishers of large printed and electronic catalogs.

"The A2i system offers an intuitive way to structure and even think about product information," said Paul Weinberg, president and CEO of A2i. OxCBL facilitates the standardized exchange of this highly structured product content across a diverse e-commerce landscape, so that A2i's rich content can be fully expressed in a platform- and application-independent way."

Those capabilities make it easier for e-marketplace operators to consolidate content from multiple suppliers into a uniform catalog and structure, allowing faster and more effective searches for buyers, and facilitating transactions.

In addition to SAP, Microsoft and A2i, several catalog technology and content vendors have announced their intent to support xCBL for catalog content, including: Contivo, Enterworks, Inc., Excara, IAPEX, i-Mark, Inc., MartQuest, Inc., Mohomine, MROLink Corporation, POET Software, SAQQARA, SoftQuad Software, Ltd., TPN Register, Viveca, Inc., and X2N.

About Commerce One

Commerce One(R) (Nasdaq:CMRC) is the leader in global e-commerce solutions for business. Through its products and services, Commerce One creates access to worldwide markets, allowing anyone to buy from anyone, anytime, anywhere. The Global Trading Web(TM) is the world's largest business-to-business trading community. Composed of many open e-marketplaces, the Global Trading Web provides unprecedented economies of scale for buying organizations, suppliers, and service providers worldwide. Through its alliance with SAP AG and SAPMarkets, Commerce One enables enterprises and communities of all sizes and industries to more efficiently conduct collaborative business on the Internet. Commerce One is located in Pleasanton, Calif., and can be reached by phone at 800/308-3838 or 925/520-6000 or via the Internet at www.commerceone.com.

Forward-Looking Statements 

The foregoing paragraphs include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements include statements concerning the ease and capabilities of Commerce One's xCBL 3.0 and the anticipated benefits to be gained by users of the standard. Actual results may differ materially from those described in such statements as a result of a number of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, the risk that xCBL 3.0 may not perform with the ease and effectiveness that is expected, the extent of use by customers, actual efficiencies and economies of scale may not be as pronounced as those anticipated, unexpected operational difficulties may occur, fluctuations in operating results, general economic conditions, and intense and increasing competition in the market. For a discussion of these and other risk factors that could affect Commerce One's business, see "Risk Factors" in Commerce One's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999 and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2000.

Note to Editors: Global Trading Web, Commerce One.net, BuySite, MarketSite, Global Trading Platform, Common Business Library, XML Development Kit, XML Commerce Connector, MarketSite Builder, and SupplyOrder are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Commerce One, Inc. Enterprise Buyer and MarketSet are trademarks of Commerce One, Inc and SAPMarkets. All other company, product, and brand names are trademarks of their respective owners.