Detroit June 25, 2001 webMethods may be experiencing déjà vu today after Covisint, the Big Three automobile marketplace, announced that it has agreed to use webMethods as its integration platform provider. The news is reminiscent of an announcement released in April of this year, stating that Ford Motor Co. had decided to use the webMethods platform. Ford, one of Covisint's founders, was likely a major player in this deal as well, which emphasizes the extending relationship between the two companies.
webMethods is hardly complaining, however, about the repeat customer. Its first deal with Ford helped the company boost its fledgling stock prices. And, although prices have leveled again from the April spike, webMethods stands to experience a stock rise as a result of today's announcement, and give the company another lift.
According to the agreement, webMethods is providing software licensing and professional services to Covisint. In addition, the integration platform will "interconnect" Covisint's primary suite of applications for product development, procurement, supply chain management and quality. In addition, Covisint customers worldwide will be offered the webMethods integration platform to facilitate a connection to the exchange.
"Covisint helps its customers to create operational efficiencies by offering powerful and feature-rich tools they cannot acquire anywhere else and webMethods provides the integration solutions for those tools," said Kevin Vasconi, chief technical officer, Covisint. "Covisint is using the webMethods toolset to not only integrate our products but also offer the platform to customers, giving each a strategic business advantage in the marketplace with a quick and easy connection to the exchange."
"The strength of Covisint lies in its breadth of applications and tools designed specifically for the automotive industry. The challenge is providing customers with seamless integration among the best-of-breed technologies those tools are based on so each can be used easily and effectively," said David Mitchell, president and chief operations officer, webMethods, Inc. "webMethods helps Covisint achieve that goal. Our integration platform provides for smooth integration among Covisint's differing products and the resultant benefits to customers are immeasurable."
