Commerce One Releases Next Generation of Composite Process Management Platform: Reduces Development and Management Costs by up to 60%.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 2003

Commerce One, Inc. (Nasdaq:CMRC) today announced the release of version 6.5 of its composite process management (CPM) platform, Commerce One Conductor(TM). Since the launch of the Commerce One Conductor platform and supply chain Process Accelerators in March 2003, over 15 leading companies have reported on its benefits including Eastman Chemical, EDS, Open GIS Consortium (OGC), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Taiwan, Schlumberger, the Saskatchewan Property Management Corporation (SPMC), mymarket and Enporion.

Composite processes are a new breed of cross-functional or multi-organization business processes that can combine and connect features, functionality, data and/or business context from existing applications to create new business functionality. CPM is the act of not just developing and deploying composite processes, but managing the inevitable change throughout their lifecycle.

Based on feedback from current customers who have deployed Commerce One's Conductor platform, the platform can cut the cost and time of initial process development and integration efforts by up to 50%. Because of its registry-based approach, the platform provides a unique method to centrally and dynamically manage all process changes, offering additional savings of up to 60% in ongoing maintenance and support.

The Commerce One Conductor platform has been designed to co-exist and complement existing IT investments. "Commerce One Conductor has allowed us to reduce application development time and total cost of ownership as a result of utilizing our existing IT infrastructure," said Eddie Paige, purchasing manager at Eastman Chemical. "We chose Conductor because it contains an integrated set of components necessary to create, manage and execute composite processes. Other technology vendors, such as those proposing an enterprise application integration (EAI) solution, only supplied one or two of the key components and they were not integrated."

IDC's recently completed pro forma analysis of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of alternative approaches to deploying composite processes further supports the benefits of Commerce One Conductor. "Cutting development costs and ongoing costs of change in half is of significant value for IT departments with tight resources, unique needs and distributed processes," said Sandra Rogers, director of Web Services and Integration Software at IDC. "Our pro forma analysis indicates that using a unified, registry-based platform, compared to using a combination of discrete tools, such as stand-alone integration brokers, portals and development tools, can help gain efficiencies across the entire composite application lifecycle." IDC's analysis of the TCO benefits of a unified platform for composite applications is available for download at http://www.commerceone.com/download/.

Commerce One Conductor eliminates or reduces three key cost drivers in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of building and maintaining composite processes, including:

1. Pre-integration costs of disparate tools: Eliminates the

need to pre-integrate discrete tools, such as EAI, portal,

business process management (BPM) and development tools.

2. Process and application development costs: Provides a

top-down business process driven development methodology

supported by unique capabilities to allow more effective

user participation within the business process; an

out-of-the-box business document library; and an

integrated set of reporting tools and design center.

3. Process change management costs: Controls the cost of

ongoing change and maintenance through its unique

standards-based, registry approach that allows the system

to be managed on a 100% policy basis versus hands-on

development.

"The Conductor platform offered us an entirely different approach to create a process management system that could handle the complex interaction required for intellectual property exchange," said Roger Jen-Chieh Cheng, director of Internet Software Technology of the Computer and Communications Research Labs of ITRI. "We were able to create a flexible process that could handle search and discovery, purchase and business term negotiation, along with role-based privilege and security in about 45 days. Commerce One Conductor allowed us to not only enable processes and capabilities that are not possible with other approaches, but also allowed us to do these at lower cost and with less effort to maintain them."

Commerce One Conductor 6.5

The release of Commerce One Conductor 6.5 extends the platform by adding new features and capabilities that significantly increase both the design and development capabilities of the technology as well as its performance and scalability.

"As one of the first CPM solutions deployed in the market, we have already worked with customers to successfully leverage Conductor to automate business processes more widely and enable new application functionality more easily," said Narry Singh, chief marketing officer and SVP of professional services at Commerce One. "This next generation of Conductor provides new capabilities that further increase the platform's unique value and leadership in the market."

Key enhancements to Commerce One Conductor 6.5 include:

-- Simplified composite process creation and management -- The

Conductor 6.5 Integrated Design Center integrates the diverse

design activities in implementing a composite process. Built

on the industry-standard Eclipse framework, the Design Center

integrates user interface design, process definition and

business logic development using a simple visual drag-and-drop

mechanism.

-- Additional scalability and security -- Conductor 6.5 will

include new features to further enhance scalability, assure

availability and leverage clustering to support the most

demanding enterprise environments. This will help customers

operate at a larger scale and more efficiently manage

resources.

-- Wider interoperability with existing systems -- New

partnerships enhance the Conductor platform's ability to

provide interoperability with over 200 enterprise applications

and existing EAI infrastructures. Operating system and

application server compatibility is expanded with Solaris and

WebSphere support. These capabilities further extend seamless

interoperability across vendors, systems and protocols without

requiring extended training time or new technology

investments.

For more information on 6.5 and its enhancements, please go to http://www.commerceone.com/solutions/conductor_gen.html.

"Composite process management is not only about developing and deploying composite processes, but managing the inevitable change throughout their lifecycle. Traditional coded solutions have been prohibitively expensive, time consuming and rigid," said Mark Hoffman, chairman and CEO of Commerce One. "Composite process management is allowing our customers to achieve incredible cost and time savings of up to 50 and 60% to meet development and management requirements of their extended business processes. Combined with the benefits of unprecedented visibility and control enabled by our platform, we are offering a very compelling business and technical value to the market."

About Commerce One

From its initial roots in Internet-based software applications to its establishment of the world's largest e-commerce trading network, Commerce One has consistently been at the forefront of delivering advanced technologies that help global businesses collaborate with their partners, customers and suppliers over the Internet. Commerce One has defined many of the open standards and protocols established for business networks today and our global customer base represent leaders in a wide range of industries. The Commerce One Conductor platform and industry-specific Process Accelerators represent the leading Composite Process Management solution that enable enterprises to combine and connect features, functionality, data and/or business context from existing applications to create new business functionality. For more information, go to http://www.commerceone.com/.

Forward-Looking Statements 

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities laws, including statements regarding Commerce One's release of the newest iteration of its Commerce One Conductor platform, as well as the benefits of that platform to existing and potential customers, including potential cost savings, added efficiency, and easier and less expensive deployment and support of business software applications and processes. The words "believe," "expect," "intend," "plan," "project," "will" and similar phrases as they relate to Commerce One are also intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the current views and assumptions of Commerce One, and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. These factors include, but are not limited to, the nascence of the Commerce One Conductor technology and the possibility that the market for composite process management solutions such as the Commerce One Conductor platform may not materialize or grow as quickly as expected, competitive pressures for other composite process management solutions or product providing similar functionality, the possibility that the Commerce One Conductor platform and/or other Commerce One solutions may not meet user expectations, the ongoing recession and depressed market for new technology investments, customer concerns regarding Commerce One viability which may affect our ability to sell our solutions, various external factors, including economic, political and other global conditions that may impact the demand for Commerce One products and services, and various other risks including, without limitation, those discussed in Commerce One's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2003. The information provided in this press release is current as of the date of its publication. Commerce One expressly disclaims any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any changes in expectations, or any change in events or circumstances on which those statements are based, unless otherwise required by law.

Commerce One and Commerce One Conductor are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Commerce One Operations, Inc. All other company, product, and brand names are trademarks of their respective owners.