UK Retailer WHSmith Selects SeeBeyond to Integrate Retek and Legacy Applications

Business Wire, Jan 14, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

LONDON and REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Jan. 14, 2002

SeeBeyond To Facilitate Supply Chain Integration To Create A Flexible

Integration Architecture For Increased Customer Satisfaction

SeeBeyond (Nasdaq:SBYN), the leading global provider of eBusiness Application Integration solutions, today announced that WHSmith PLC, the UK's largest magazine and book retailer, has selected the award-winning integration suite from SeeBeyond to act as the platform to streamline connectivity between legacy and back-end systems as part of the company's integrated supply chain strategy. This strategic initiative will drive significant benefits across sourcing and procurement, as well as supply chain planning and fulfilment through a common I/T infrastructure -- resulting in considerable inventory reduction, increased forecast accuracy, reduced transportation expenses and increased customer satisfaction.

WHSmith will be using SeeBeyond to facilitate the integration of its existing legacy application architecture with the Retek Merchandising System (RMS) and Retek Demand Forecasting (RDF). Retek's collaborative solutions help the retail industry create, manage and fulfill consumer demand. The project will create a flexible and scalable architecture to provide a platform for future growth that will ensure data integrity and ongoing system manageability. The SeeBeyond(TM) integration platform will help reduce the cost and complexity of system management by providing a centrally managed integration environment to monitor complex business processes and streamline data flows. SeeBeyond was recently named as the global eBusiness Integration standard for Retek.

"By utilizing the SeeBeyond integration platform, we will be able to achieve new levels of operational efficiency by ensuring we get the right product mix to our stores as soon as they need it," said Iain Winskill, Senior Project Manager for WHSmith. "Our continued investment in technology such as SeeBeyond will allow us to create a robust and flexible infrastructure, which will help us optimize the management of both processes and data, and enable us to continuously improve the customer experience."

"In today's market, retailers need to respond to the challenges of increased competition, lower margins and enhanced customer service levels by implementing a real-time supply chain infrastructure," said David Bennett, Vice President and General Manager of EMEA for SeeBeyond. "End-to-end business process management and visibility is vital to the transition away from the inefficiencies of a batch-oriented systems architecture. This real-time, optimized information flow capability sits at the heart of our solutions, and as a result, is increasing our dominance of supply chain integration in the retail sector."

SeeBeyond has become the leading eBusiness application integration standard for many of the major players in the retail space, including Barnes & Noble.com, Boots, Carrefour Belgium, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, GlobalNetXchange, Lands' End, FNAC, Hallmark, Lechters, LEROY-MERLIN, PETsMART, Sainsbury's, Supermarches Match and Sumitomo Shoji.

About WHSmith

WHSmith was established in London in 1792 and has developed into one of the largest retail and distribution groups in the UK.

About SeeBeyond

As the leading global provider of eBusiness Application Integration solutions, SeeBeyond (Nasdaq:SBYN) enables the seamless flow of information within and among enterprises in real time. The SeeBeyond solution suite offers a rapidly deployable and infinitely scalable infrastructure for application integration, business-to-business connectivity and business processes optimization. SeeBeyond has more than 1,580 customers worldwide, including ABB, ABN Amro, Barnes & Noble.com, Bausch & Lomb, BHP Billiton, DuPont, Florida Power & Light, Fluor Daniel, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Pfizer and Sprint. Key global business and technology consulting partners include Accenture, EDS, Computer Sciences Corporation, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, KPMG Consulting and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Software partners include BroadVision, Commerce One, Oracle, Retek, SAP and Siebel Systems.

SeeBeyond has global headquarters in Monrovia, Calif., and sales and marketing headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif. For more information, please visit www.seebeyond.com.

SeeBeyond is a trademark of SeeBeyond Technology Corporation. All other trade names are the property of their respective owners.