(August 19, 2003) - As an industry leader in driving open standards and interoperability, BEA Systems has long worked with industry organizations such as the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) to drive Web services adoption through innovation. In addition to serving as a founding member, BEA is also a coauthor of the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 - a set of implementation guidelines on how the core Web services specifications should be used together to develop interoperable Web services. Working with the WS-I, BEA is helping to develop essential industry guidelines to simplify adoption and implementation of interoperable Web services.

"Completion of the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 is a significant milestone for WS-I and the industry," said Ed Cobb, vice president, architecture and standards, BEA Systems, Inc. "We believe the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 can significantly reduce the risk and complexity of Web services adoption, and is designed to enable customers to more effectively leverage Web services and service-oriented architecture for greater business responsiveness and adaptability."

BEA invests ongoing resources in the development of Web services by maintaining leadership positions in key standards bodies, including seats on the Board of Directors for OASIS, Object Management Group and the WS-I. Additionally, BEA holds a seat on the Java Executive Committee that oversees Java enterprise standards, and either leads or participates in over 20 Java Specification Requests (JSR) within the JCP. BEA also remains a pacesetter in bringing these standards to market, by consistently being one of the first to implement new standards and technologies, such as WS-Security and reliable messaging for Web services. BEA has long collaborated with industry leaders to drive new Web services standards, as evidenced by its collaborations with IBM, Microsoft, and others regarding business processes, transactions, security, and reliable messaging, including the new WS-Federation specifications.

For more information on WS-I and Basic Profile 1.0, visit the following: http://www.ws-i.org.