Baan Company Unveils Vision for E-Business Collaboration Through New Baan OpenWorld(TM) Integration Framework

Vienna, Austria (PROTEXT) - Standards-based E-Collaboration Framework Enables Responsiveness and Agility for Improved Competitiveness in $1.3 Trillion B-2-B Internet Marketplace. Baan Company N.V. (Nasdaq: BAANF; Amsterdam: BAAN), a global provider of enterprise business solutions, today announced its Baan OpenWorld(TM) Integration Framework. Baan OpenWorld is an enterprise integration architecture that enables new levels of inter-enterprise collaboration to optimize traditional and Internet-based business to business commerce. The market for Business to Business (B-2-B) electronic commerce is estimated to grow to over $1.3 Trillion by 2003 according to Forrester Research -- with more than 65% of this market opportunity controlled by manufacturing companies. Baan OpenWorld is the first integration framework designed specifically to help manufacturing companies collaborate across the Internet to deliver higher value and profitability. Today, manufacturing organizations spend more than 35% of their IT budgets integrating disparate applications, tying together CRM, ERP, and Supply Chain applications. Yet, the level of integration most organizations achieve is simple point-to- point data exchange-sharing customer information between front and back office applications, or batch transfer of supply chain planning information to/from an ERP system. Such low levels of integration may solve tactical IT problems, but do not enable organizations to truly collaborate at the business processes level with customers and business partners and to address the rapidly changing dynamics of today's Internet economy. With Baan OpenWorld, Baan is painting a vision of true business to business collaboration over the Internet. With this vision, business partners are able to seamlessly share information and collaborate on business processes to deliver new levels of customer responsiveness. Baan OpenWorld is an integration framework built on four tiered levels of exchange: * Data Level: At this first level, applications share or exchange common elements such as customer information, part numbers, and inventory levels. This level of integration includes data migration, replication, and data connectivity. Baan has provided this level of data exchange as batch processes for more than 10 years through its BaanExchange data transfer mechanism. As part of Baan OpenWorld Integration Framework, the data exchange is expanded and provided as real time interfaces. * Application Level: At this second level, applications exchange data in the form of objects at the sub-process level. This level of integration includes connectivity between applications, and certified integration interfaces for 3rd party applications. Building on the Business Object Interfaces (BOI) which have been released over the last 2 years, this application level integration takes advantage of a new hub-and-spoke model to provide true enterprise-wide integration between the various application components. * Business Process Level: At this third level, organizations are able to integrate business processes between applications using standards like XML and based on IBM MQ Series or MSMQ messaging queues. At this level, businesses are able to use common process modeling and workflow tools, common user interfaces and business intelligence systems to seamlessly solve multi-functional business problems like Available to Promise, order fulfillment, demand management, etc. Baan delivers this level of integration this year through its new Baan Enterprise Solutions suite of products (See related announcement: "Baan Enterprise Solutions Suite Delivers the Broadest Set of Tightly Integrated Enterprise Solutions Available," November 10, 1999). This includes BaanDEM (Dynamic Enterprise Modeling) which allows organizations to model their business processes from the front office to the back office, BaanWorktop which allows organizations to provide a seamless, unified user interface across all application components, and BaanBIS (Business Intelligence Suite). * Business Community Level: This top-level of exchange enables true business process collaboration within an enterprise, and across the heterogeneous enterprises of business partners and customers. True business collaboration allows organizations to partner with suppliers and customers to flexibly adapt business processes, and business models to best meet customer demands. In true Business E-Communities, multiple business partners' processes are loosely coupled to allow business process workflow across organizations that can dynamically adjust to changing conditions. Adaptable business logic, real-time alerts, and a publish and subscribe communications model allows organizations to work together, using XML standards-based Internet messaging to react quickly to customer demands. "For companies to compete effectively in the emerging business to business Internet economy integration across the various business domains is an absolute requirement," said Mary Coleman, Chairman and CEO, Baan Company. "As consumer expectations of service and support have changed dramatically with the advent of Internet sales -- today customers expect 7 x 24 service, next day delivery and more competitive pricing -- Baan believes that the changes brought about by the Internet on B-2-B commerce will be even more dramatic. To compete, manufacturing businesses will need to learn to partner with suppliers and customers to deliver custom configured solutions, while maintaining minimal inventory in reduced timeframes. Businesses that don't learn to E- Collaborate will lose a competitive edge." The first three tiers of the Baan OpenWorld Integration Framework are included in the Baan Enterprise Solutions suite. Beta customers for new products supporting the Business Community level are planned for the first half of 2000. About Baan Company Founded in 1978, Baan Company is a global provider of enterprise business solutions. Baan Company offers a comprehensive portfolio of integrated services and best-in-class, component-based applications that span an organization's entire value chain including E-Business and Web Commerce, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain Management, and Corporate Knowledge Management. Deployed at more than 13,000 customer sites worldwide, Baan Company solutions enable organizations to drive strategic business growth, improve business processes, reduce operating complexity, and increase corporate flexibility. Baan Company has dual headquarters in Barneveld, The Netherlands and Herndon, Virginia, USA and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.baan.com. Statements in this press release using the words "believes," "expects," "anticipates," and the like are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as such are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect outcomes. Actual outcomes, therefore, may differ materially from the expectations, estimates, or assumptions expressed in or implied by any such statements. Typical risks and uncertainties may be reviewed in the Baan Company's public filings on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (including its most recent Form 20-F and 6-K). "Baan" is a registered trademark of Baan Company, and any trade, product, or service name referenced in this release using the name "Baan" is a trademark and/or property of Baan Company. All other company, product, and service names may be trademarks of their respective owners. ots Original Text Service: Baan Company N.V. Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Andrew Hoerner of BaanWorld Vienna PR +43-260-692023, or press@baan.com; or Bill Pendergast of Fleishman-Hillard (USA) 202-828-8880, or pendergb@fleishman.com, for Baan Company Web site: http://www.baan.com Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT