NEW YORK, National Retail Federation Conference Booth 2429, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BEA Systems today announced the general availability of AquaLogic High-Performance (HiPer) Workspace for Retail, a closed-loop notification and task management product for improving store operations, built with technology from the AquaLogic User Interaction product family. AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail allows retail store managers to consistently execute company objectives at the highest quality, communicate their store performance and share best practices. Applebee's International, known as the largest casual dining concept in the world, and Groupe Casino, a large French convenience and hypermarket chain, with over 9,000 stores and owner of Smart & Final in the United States, are two beta customers of the retail product.

In addition to manual notifications and task management, AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail proactively delivers data through system-driven notifications triggered by events in back-end retail systems and associated task a store manager should perform. As a result, retailers using the product can streamline store operations, manage inventory, control costs, improve customer satisfaction and provide a clear understanding of priorities and tasks to store and field managers.

"We see AquaLogic HiPer for Retail as a potential next step in the evolution of our portal deployment. We initially deployed AquaLogic User Interaction to provide a single point of entry for store managers, suppliers and corporate headquarters to access information and collaborate on projects," said Bruno Raybaud, applications integration manager of Casino Information Technology. "AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail brings new capabilities such as notifying targeted stores of business changes and allowing for two way communication. Apart from the benefit of fitting seamlessly with our portal, the product could help improve our business processes, specifically in distribution logistics, promotion execution and feedback solicitation from our store managers."

Deployed along with BEA's WebLogic RFID Edge Server and WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server, the AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail provides corporate headquarters and field and store managers with a central view of product movement throughout the supply chain as well as notifications of critical activity occurring within that supply chain. As a result, retailers are better able to identify bottlenecks and share information with key trading partners. Combined, the two technologies illustrate an innovative end-to-end retail product that integrates the supply chain through to the store floor.

The BEA RFID products and solutions rapidly turn raw RFID data into business relevant information, which help address several industry challenges such as reducing out-of-stocks for major retailers; improving public safety through targeted product recalls and reduced product counterfeiting; mobile asset tracking for high value goods; and enabling compliance for both retail and defense mandates.

BEA will demonstrate the AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail in conjunction with key components of the BEA RFID product family at the National Retail Federation Conference and Expo taking place from January 15-18, 2005 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, NY (booth 2429).

"BEA continues to demonstrate its technology and market leadership with the integration of two innovative products to provide improved corporate productivity and accountability," said Mark Carges, executive vice president at BEA Systems. "Combining the WebLogic RFID Edge Server with AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail is a step forward in automating SOA-based business processes. Because AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail is based on BEA's service-oriented portal technology it can help companies in a variety of industries quickly deploy new products that facilitate collaboration and achieve the highest operational efficiencies. By targeting a variety of industries, such as retail, BEA is delivering innovative products that address a unique set of business challenges."

AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail will be generally available on January 27, 2006. For more information, please visit http://www.bea.com/retail . To learn more about the BEA RFID infrastructure products and solutions, please visit http://www.bea.com/framework.jsp?CNT=index.htm&FP=/content/products/webl... fid/ .

About BEA

BEA Systems, Inc. is a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, providing standards-based platforms to accelerate the secure flow of information and services. BEA product lines -- WebLogic(R), Tuxedo(R), JRockit(R), and the new AquaLogic(TM) family of Service Infrastructure -- help customers reduce IT complexity and successfully deploy Service-Oriented Architectures to improve business agility and efficiency. For more information, please visit bea.com.

NOTE: BEA, Tuxedo, WebLogic, and BEA WebLogic Server are registered trademarks and BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform, BEA WebLogic Integration, BEA WebLogic Portal, BEA WebLogic JRockit, BEA WebLogic Platform, BEA WebLogic Express, BEA WebLogic Workshop, BEA WebLogic Java Adapter for Mainframe, BEA Liquid Data for WebLogic, BEA eLink and BEA WebLogic Enterprise Security are trademarks of BEA Systems, Inc. All other company and product names may be the subject of intellectual property rights reserved by third parties.

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in this press release are forward-looking, including the statements regarding the evolution of BEA's products and BEA's strategy for the acceleration of the adoption of SOA, customer's ability to enhance the value of investments in BEA portal technologies by allowing such customers to leverage a common set of services across both portal products and other Web applications, and new products scheduled for release and the ways in which such products may address the Service Infrastructure opportunity, the benefits of horizontally integrated "Service Networks," the benefits of AquaLogic Service Bus 2.1 and AquaLogic Service Registry(TM) and other features and the benefits of BEA's future products. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially include risks associated with: any unforeseen changes in the technology, standards or marketplace for enterprise information integration software; the timing of a recovery from the current economic and IT industry downturn; any unforeseen technical difficulties related to the development BEA's solutions; and any software errors related to BEA's solutions. Readers should also refer to the risk disclosures set forth in BEA's 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 2005 as filed with the SEC and subsequent reports filed thereafter by BEA from time-to-time with the SEC. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are made as of the date hereof, and BEA does not assume any obligation to update such statements nor the reasons why actual results could differ materially from those projected in such statements.

CONTACT: media, Dave Reddy of Weber Shandwick, +1-408-530-8400, ext.
2234, or dreddy@webershandwick.com, for BEA Systems, Inc.; or Marissa Lee,
+1-415-399-7109, or Marissa.Lee@bea.com, or industry analysts, Marissa Lee,
+1-415-399-7109, or Marissa.Lee@bea.com, both of BEA Systems, Inc.

Web site: http://www.bea.com/