LAVA Systems Latest Solution Builder, Business Process Enabler , To Be Generally Available In November

LAVA BPE Exemplifies Benefit of Reusable, Component-Based Lava Application Framework Architecture

Toronto, ON - 1998-10-14 - LAVA Systems Inc. (TSE:LVA) today announced that the first version of its multi-faceted solution builder, LAVA Business Process Enabler (LAVA BPE), will be generally available to clients beginning in November. LAVA BPE together with LAVA KMS (Knowledge Management System) are the core products on which LAVA s DEVA solutions are built, as announced at the May 98 GartnerPredicts Conference.

"With LAVA BPE we have combined our enabling technology with workflow, customer management features and system administration tools into a single product. LAVA BPE is everything that our customers and our business partners need to deliver vertical solutions our packaged LAVA ENABLER offerings to solve today s business problems," said Peter Hamilton, President and CEO, LAVA Systems Inc.

"BPE is the first of our new products to be built on the LAVA Application Framework, which speeds the delivery of enterprise solutions while lowering a customer s total cost of ownership by providing centralized administration and security functions, and automatic configuration and distribution of enterprise solutions," said Hamilton. "Delivered by consultants experienced in the issues and dynamics of the industries we target, our solutions help customers manage and control their business processes, rather than simply automate them."

A business rules engine is embedded into the product. This allows business analysts to define service level agreements and skill set profiles of their organization. Additionally, the workflow model is simplified because exceptional cases are dealt with through rules rather than multiple "if" conditions. Rules are maintained using a graphical front-end that does not require programming language knowledge.

LAVA APPLICATIONS FRAMEWORK TECHNOLOGY BOLSTERS LAVA BPE

The architecture of the LAVA Application Framework is n-tiered, highly scaleable and supports a distributed computing environment. Key features include

End users may use a browser or the LAVA Integrated Desktop (LAVA LID), a 32-bit Windows application built specifically for process automation, to access the solutions and their interfaces that are built using LAVA BPE;

The middle server tier of the architecture uses JAVA Servlet technology to communicate with domain libraries implemented as Enterprise JAVA Beans. This is built on top of IBM s WebSphere technology, allowing LAVA s solutions to leverage the e-commerce capabilities built into WebSphere;

The distributed middle tier applications access data by communicating through repository adapters code which integrates with and searches against enterprise applications including J.D. Edwards and SAP, as well as document management repositories, using XML as a means of collecting the data.

"Business automation consultants, developers and administrators tasked with building and managing transparent, integrated solutions will be pleased that LAVA BPE comes with its own Business Process Studio," said Gavin Terrill, VP, Development, LAVA Systems. "This comprehensive toolkit assists in the design and integration of workflows with enterprise applications by defining standard and customized actions, views, rules and events that are needed to build an integrated business solution."

CUSTOMER SERVICE SOLUTIONS POWERED BY LAVA BPE

Typical customer-facing solutions, such as claims processing, lack the breadth of features and functionality required by customer service representatives to build positive, loyalty-engaging customer relationships. LAVA BPE forms the basis for delivering solutions that empower these front-line end users, while shielding them from the complexity of designing, implementing and managing the solution s many components.

Whether developed internally by a LAVA customer using LAVA BPE, or supplied via a turnkey LAVA ENABLER solution, companies can now arm their end users with complete solutions to help them do their jobs, providing .

Industry-specific, "best practices" workflows that prioritize and route customer issues for quick action and resolution; Unstructured and time-related information such as client-related diary entries, referral references and scheduled telephone calls or follow-up correspondence that are fully integrated with the workflows; and Critical customer information and data from enterprise, host and legacy systems, through the Enabler component of LAVA BPE, by which " an organization can integrate old and new systems together and provide a comprehensive solution to the difficulties of data management," as described in a recent report by Doculabs Inc. of Chicago, Illinois.

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