webMethods Details the Future of Business-to-Business Integration At B2Bi Leadership Forum.

Business/Technology Editors

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2000

Industry Leaders Including Eastman Chemical Company, EDS, W.W. Grainger, Hitachi Data Systems, Ventro and VeriSign Lend Support

to webMethods' Vision

Today, during the webMethods B2Bi Leadership Forum, webMethods, Inc. (Nasdaq: WEBM), the leading provider of business-to-business integration (B2Bi) solutions, will address the key challenges and solutions affecting the broad adoption of B2B e-commerce with a range of new products and services. Leading Global 2000 companies and major B2B marketplaces, such as Eastman Chemical Company, EDS (NYSE: EDS), W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE: GWW), Hitachi Data Systems, Ventro (Nasdaq: VNTR) and VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN), are key supporters of the company's vision.

This inaugural webMethods customer and partner event was launched with keynotes from Charles Phillips, lead enterprise and B2B analyst with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and from Phillip Merrick, president and CEO of webMethods. Ted Schadler, group director at Forrester Research, will also deliver a keynote address.

"With more than 160 customers to date, webMethods has extensive experience in building out B2B trading networks for both Global 2000 companies and major B2B marketplaces," said Phillip Merrick, president and CEO of webMethods. "The depth of this expertise provides the foundation for these new initiatives, and specifically addresses the challenges of the growing B2B market. Companies are looking for ways to quickly realize the substantial benefits of broad integration and collaboration with their customers and suppliers. These new products and services truly deliver."

As companies seek to gain competitive advantage through B2B e-commerce initiatives, the ability to build, deploy and extend trading networks to limitless trading partners remains a challenge. To realize the true potential of B2B, it is critical to leverage solutions that address rapid trading partner integration, provide expertise for integration and extend functionality through value added services.

With the introduction of new products and services such as B2B.com, the B2B Rapid Integration Team and the webMethods Value Added Services program, webMethods is once again raising the bar in B2B integration.

B2B.com Revolutionizes Rapid Trading Partner Integration

webMethods has leveraged its unmatched experience in developing and deploying B2B trading networks to build the foundation for B2B.com (www.b2b.com), the industry's first comprehensive "best practices" solution for guiding companies through the entire trading partner integration process. B2B.com provides the software, methodology and services needed to rapidly enable, deploy and maintain B2B trading networks with hundreds or even thousands of participants. This solution removes much of the technical complexity and effort involved with B2B integration, enabling trading exchanges to accelerate the growth and management of their networks while staying focused on their core business competencies. (See related press release for more details.)

Who's Who of Systems Integrators Lead webMethods B2B Rapid Integration Team

The webMethods B2B Rapid Integration Team is made up of twelve of the e-commerce and Internet industry's leading systems integrators and consultants including, AppNet (Nasdaq: APNT), Deloitte Consulting, EDS (NYSE: EDS), Eleris, Hitachi Data Systems, InfoKall, Inventa (Nasdaq: INVA), KPMG Consulting Inc., Lante, Metalogic Systems, Rare Medium (Nasdaq:RRRR) and SeraNova. To join the B2B Rapid Integration Team, each of these firms has committed to building a practice of at least 100 trained consultants focused on implementing webMethods B2B solutions. (See related press release for more details.)

webMethods Value Added Services Program Extends B2B Functionality

In today's highly competitive business environment, organizations are eager to harness the power of B2B e-commerce initiatives to further extend the connections and business processes between buyers and suppliers. Many companies are seeking solutions that provide a fast and easy way to connect their trading partners and enable them to extract additional value from trading networks and marketplaces. Through easy-to-use, integration-ready solutions, Dun & Bradstreet, FedEx, Slam Dunk Networks and VeriSign, the charter members of the webMethods Value Added Services program, will enable companies to access the mission-critical services needed to rapidly deploy and extend the functionality of their B2B trading networks. (See supporting press release for more details.)

Future Product Announcements

webMethods also previewed webMethods for Trading Networks, an upcoming software solution that will provide Global 2000 companies with a fully functional trading network infrastructure and business-level views of participants and the information exchanged across the trading network. With webMethods for Trading Networks, companies will have an out-of-the-box solution to build, manage and analyze their trading networks. webMethods for Trading Networks was demonstrated at the webMethods B2Bi Leadership Forum and the product will be introduced this summer.

webMethods provides a comprehensive solution that allows organizations to effectively realize their B2B e-commerce strategies. Through broad support of open standards and protocols, such as XML, RosettaNet, FpML, cXML, OBI, OAG, ACORD, Microsoft BizTalk and legacy EDI, the webMethods B2B family of products provides the critical B2B integration software that enables companies to form powerful trading networks with customers, suppliers and partners. With webMethods B2B, companies can conduct business-to-business over the Internet with minimal stress to corporate resources and existing technology infrastructure.

About webMethods, Inc.

webMethods, Inc. (Nasdaq: WEBM) is the leading provider of software solutions for business-to-business integration (B2Bi). Leveraging the open standards of the Internet, the award-winning webMethods B2B(TM) family of products provide the B2Bi infrastructure enabling Global 2000 companies and B2B marketplaces to connect customers, suppliers and partners to form real-time B2B trading networks. webMethods B2B allows companies to create new revenue opportunities, strengthen relationships with customers and substantially reduce supply chain inefficiencies.

Founded in 1996, webMethods is based in Fairfax, Va., with offices across the U.S. and Europe. webMethods has more than 160 customers worldwide--from Global 2000 leaders such as Dell, Eastman Chemical Company, Bell Atlantic, Lucent and W.W. Grainger to major B2B marketplaces like ChemConnect, e-STEEL and Ventro. webMethods' strategic partners include Ariba, Commerce One, Deloitte Consulting, EDS, KPMG, Microsoft, Sterling Commerce and SAP AG. More information about the company can be found at www.webMethods.com.

webMethods and webMethods B2B are trademarks of webMethods, Inc. All other company and product names are property of their respective owners.

This press release contains various remarks about the future expectations, plans and prospects of the Company that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The actual results of the Company may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the Risk Factors section of the Company's recent Registration Statement on Form S-1, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.