WRQ Customers Extend Host Investments With SOA; at Gartner ITxpo, WRQ Outlines How SOA-Based Verastream Speeds Host Integration

Business Wire, Oct 18, 2004

ORLANDO, Fla. -- WRQ, Inc. today announced that an increasing number of WRQ(R) customers are leveraging Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to achieve quick return on new business initiatives that include host assets. Using WRQ Verastream and SOA, customers have reported as much as an 87 percent reduction in host integration project length and increased agility within their IT departments.

At Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, WRQ executives will showcase how the WRQ Verastream(R) host integration platform serves a variety of SOA-centric customers at booth number 302 at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, Fla., from October 18-22, 2004. Balboa Insurance Group, First American Default Technologies, Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services, NEC America, Southeastern Freight Lines, Raytheon, and Wells Fargo, among others, have all selected WRQ Verastream as their SOA-based host integration platform.

"WRQ Verastream has become the host integration platform of choice for many customers leveraging Service Oriented Architecture," said Randy Robinson, vice president of products at WRQ. "WRQ Verastream customers are achieving increased ROI and faster production of web-based business initiatives by service-enabling host components for reuse in web services, web self-services, portals and other web-based applications."

WRQ's SOA and Host Integration Expertise

SOA is a framework that enables application functionality to be provided, discovered and consumed as re-usable web-based services. Many WRQ customers are relying on SOA and Verastream to reuse host functionality trapped within legacy systems:

--  First American Default Technologies -- automated its loan
        foreclosure process by tying its host functionality to its
        web- and .NET-based loan tracking application,
        Vendorscape/CMS. In weeks, FADT created a web self-service
        application that provides bankers and lawyers with the web
        access necessary to acquire critical loan information. For
        more information:
        http://www.wrq.com/aboutwrq/news/2004/081604pr.html.

    --  Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services (Minnesota DVS) --
        helped adapt 25 years of mainframe logic and data to provide
        web self-support. The solution, delivered in four weeks,
        helped the agency slash license-processing times by 75 percent
        and saved $260,000 in programming and legacy storage costs.
        For more information:
        http://www.wrq.com/customers/casestudies/0810.html.

    --  Raytheon -- developed a web service within a .NET development
        environment in eight weeks that tied its mission-critical host
        applications to a new web-based material tracking application.
        Raytheon has saved $8.6 million to date, with additional
        savings expected over the next four years. For more
        information:
        http://www.wrq.com/aboutwrq/news/2004/021004pr.html.

For Minnesota DVS, SOA-based Verastream enabled developers to gain thousands of dollars in ROI, reduce development times, and increase productivity:

"Creating and assembling interchangeable components that correspond to legacy business processes allows us to save programming time and money," said Judith Franklin, manager of Minnesota DVS Enterprise Support. "If we had needed to reconstruct the accepted business logic for the legacy system and rewrite code, each new module would cost upwards of $200,000 and would have taken up to six months to deliver. With Verastream, we can provide our customers with a new service in less than six weeks at a substantial cost savings."

WRQ Verastream is positioned in the Leaders Quadrant on Gartner Inc.'s Programmatic Integration Server Magic Quadrant(1). Verastream is the only legacy extension platform to provide a complete spectrum of solutions, from basic rejuvenation to full programmatic integration. Gartner also recently released a vendor note on WRQ. View the vendor note and the updated Programmatic Integration Server Magic Quadrant by visiting www.wrq.com/gartner.> About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with a look at the future of IT. For more than 10,000 IT professionals from the world's leading enterprises, Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of their annual planning efforts. Attendees are responsible for more than $35 billion in IT spending for their respective companies, and rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use technology to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. For more information, please visit www.gartner.com/us/symposiumorlando.> About WRQ

WRQ(R) builds software for accessing and integrating legacy applications. WRQ Reflection(R) software provides a broad range of terminal-emulation and PC X server solutions. WRQ Verastream(R) integration server provides a single platform for reusing legacy logic and data in web applications, CRM applications, or portals. Our products help companies get the most from their hosts today as they advance their long-term IT strategy.