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BEA Systems Introduces New Global Telecommunications InitiativeSAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- http://bea.com/more_info.jsp?p=276&r=8.22.27 BEA Systems , a world leader in infrastructure software, today announced a new initiative designed to help telecommunications companies increase revenue by helping them more readily capitalize on emerging service delivery opportunities. This multi-pronged initiative includes new products, along with expanded solutions and services being developed to address critical business and technical challenges of the telecommunications industry. Supported by several partners and customers worldwide, this new initiative is a strategic element of BEA's long-term strategy, and a significant step towards the convergence of IT and telecom. "The telecommunications industry is at an inflection point. The implementation of new 3G and VoIP telecommunications networks creates a remarkable opportunity to apply widely-available, general-purpose, industry-standard IT to what, historically, has been an expensive, proprietary landscape," said Alfred Chuang, chairman and chief executive officer, BEA Systems. "The primary change in telco is that the industry has become more software-driven -- moving towards BEA's strengths. This network/IT convergence promises all the economies and benefits of a common platform." Businesses and consumers are driving industry transformation by demanding new converged voice, data and video services. The ability to meet these demands often can be limited by existing IT and network infrastructures that are closed, proprietary and too rigid to support these next generation services. As a result, telecommunications companies are transitioning from traditional, circuit-switched Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN), the common wired telephone system used around the world to connect any one telephone to another telephone, to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks. VoIP technologies enable voice communication over "vanilla" IP networks, such as the public Internet. Additionally, a steady decline in voice revenues has resulted in heightened competitive pressures as carriers vie to grow data/service revenues and reduce churn through the delivery of these more sophisticated data services. Increased federal regulation, security and privacy issues, as well as newly emerging standards can further compound the pressure. BEA is well-positioned to serve those telecommunications companies that are turning to standards-based computing technologies and platforms to help address these challenges. BEA has been a leader in telecommunications software since the company's founding 10 years ago. BEA's first telecom product, BEA Tuxedo(R), followed by its second, BEA WebLogic Server(TM), are the foundation of many operators' operational and billing systems. Additionally, many leading carriers have deployed the WebLogic Service Delivery Solution as their Service Delivery Platform (SDP). With the introduction of this new telecommunications initiative, the company is expanding its offerings to better help telecommunications customers transform their business to meet their customers' demands. This new initiative includes: Products: The BEA's WebLogic Communications Platform is a suite of products and technologies being developed to help telecommunications companies reduce the cost and effort required to provide core telecommunications services by using general purpose computing platforms instead of traditional proprietary solutions. The suite of products includes: -- BEA WebLogic SIP Server(TM), the industry's first standards-based, carrier-grade, J2EE application server with integrated Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) support. SIP is a standard protocol for establishing a communication path between two or more entities for exchanging information in a variety of media (e.g., voice, images, video, etc.), and the BEA WebLogic SIP Server is a product designed for building and deploying services in a SIP environment. Built on the proven foundation of the industry-recognized BEA WebLogic Server(TM), BEA WebLogic SIP Server is designed to allow carriers to extend their network infrastructure with standards-based computing technologies which can provide such new, converged voice and data services as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), integrated fixed and wireless services, multi-player gaming (with voice), real-time interactive voting and conferencing applications. -- BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper(TM) is a product under development that is designed to allow carriers to define, manage and enforce access and quality of service (QoS) parameters for network resources. BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper can act as a single point to define and enforce policies for accessing key network capabilities, such as content charging, mobile terminal position information, SMS and MMS message delivery. BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper is a critical component of the BEA WebLogic Communications Platform because it can give telecom service providers greater visibility into and control over their network infrastructure while helping allow third party developers to build services that access those networks. These and additional technologies in development, along with existing BEA Tuxedo and WebLogic(R) products, including the recently announced MobileAware Interaction Server, BEA WebLogic Edition(TM), are all aimed at helping carriers better serve their customers while increasing Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) through the rapid delivery of such sophisticated mobile data services such as email, calendaring, games, and a wide variety of digital content. Solutions: BEA plans to continue to develop and expand its overall telecom solution, BEA WebLogic Service Delivery. One of five BEA Enterprise Solutions, BEA WebLogic Service Delivery is a specialized solution framework for the telecom industry designed to bring to market a single, standardized, and scalable framework to help rapidly develop, integrate and deploy new digital and data services that can be tied to operations support systems. This includes helping launch new revenue-generating services as quickly and cost effectively as possible, leveraging investments in network infrastructure and operational support systems, reducing maintenance by creating a layer of abstraction above the physical network and leveraging the legacy network in new and innovative ways. In addition to service delivery, BEA can help telecommunications companies in Self-Service Provisioning, Network Resource Management and Billing. Services: In order to help enable customers to more quickly realize the benefits of the BEA WebLogic Service Delivery Solution, BEA Professional Services has developed a framework to support Systems Integrator (SI) partners and customers who are deploying the BEA WebLogic Service Delivery Solution. Using BEA Professional Service methodologies and capabilities, SI partners and customers can more rapidly deliver and realize business value when creating and delivering new services. Partners: Partners play a pivotal role in BEA's telecom initiative. [See related release "BEA Systems Expands Telecom Leadership with 'Project Da Vinci' and the Industry's First J2EE Application Server with Integrated SIP Support"] BEA partners bring trusted industry expertise, global market leadership, and important hardware, software, and services offerings that compliment BEA technology. BEA and its partners continue to work closely to better serve the evolving needs of the telecommunications industry. Incomit: Recently, BEA announced the acquisition of Incomit, a privately held Swedish company that provides infrastructure software for the telecommunications industry. Incomit's innovative technology, products, and people, especially in the area of policy management and universal connectivity for carrier networks, can help strengthen BEA's overall telecommunications offering. Pricing and Availability The first product in the BEA WebLogic Communications Platform -- the BEA WebLogic SIP Server -- became generally available on January 28, 2005. The second product -- BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper-is currently planned for release in Spring, 2005, and there are additional technologies under development. Contact your local BEA sales representative for pricing information. BEA WebLogic SIP Server is scheduled to be demonstrated at the upcoming 3GSM World Congress, February 14-16, 2005, in Cannes, France. Visit BEA at Stand K23 in Hall 4. For further information, please go to: http://eu.bea.com/events/3gsm/ For additional information on the BEA WebLogic Communications Platform, please visit: http://www.bea.com/wlcom/ . For information on BEA WebLogic Service Delivery, please visit: http://www.bea.com/solutions/telco . About BEA BEA Systems, Inc. is a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, helping enable companies to improve business responsiveness through service-oriented architecture (SOA), a software design approach that more closely aligns IT with business objectives. With 15,000 customers worldwide including the majority of the Fortune Global 500, BEA and its WebLogic(R) and Tuxedo(R) brands are among the most trusted names in business technology. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 75 offices in 36 countries. More information on BEA products and services is available at http://www.bea.com/. NOTE: BEA, BEA WebLogic Server, BEA Liquid Data for WebLogic, Tuxedo, and WebLogic 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 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 availability, plans, completion, release, delivery, goals, development, expected features, expected benefits and competitive position of BEA's telecommunications initiative technologies and products, including the BEA WebLogic Communications Platform, Project DaVinci, the BEA WebLogic SIP Server and the BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper (the "Telco Products and Technologies"); BEA's long-term strategy; the telecommunications industry transformation in response to customer demands for convergence; BEA being well-positioned to serve telecommunications companies; BEA expanding and developing its telecommunications offerings; the planned release date of BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper; and the opportunity created by the implementation of 3G and VoIP telecommunications networks. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties BEA faces that could cause results to differ materially include risks associated with: any unforeseen technical difficulties or software errors related to the final development and release of any of the Telco Products and Technologies or related services; any technological or standards changes in the application infrastructure, telecommunications IT and network infrastructure and related markets which could make Telco Products and Technologies less competitive or require feature changes in these products, such as a change in SIP standards for which the BEA WebLogic SIP Server is designed; any slowdown in the adoption by businesses of Internet technologies or standards based infrastructure solutions, especially a slow-down in the adoption of VoIP networks and technologies by businesses and consumers; any unexpected difficulties in the integration into BEA's commercial products of new products based on acquired third-party technologies; the introduction by competitors of new products, standards or technologies that compete with the Telco Products and Technologies; and BEA's ability to continue to invest in the Telco Products and Technologies if market and business trends were to require a reprioritization of business and technological goals. Readers should also refer to the risk disclosures set forth in BEA's 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 2004 as filed with the SEC and subsequent reports filed thereafter 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. BEA Systems, Inc. CONTACT: Karesha McGee of BEA Systems, Inc., +1-408-570-8099, [email protected]; or Michaela Wilkinson of Bite Communications,+1-415-365-0376, or [email protected], for BEA Systems, Inc. Web site: http://eu.bea.com/events/3gsm Web site: http://www.bea.com/solutions/telco Web site: http://www.bea.com/ |