Covisint announces the completion and launch of the Covisint Connect data messaging service

Service will improve data communication

Detroit, December 11, 2003 -- Covisint announced today, the completion and launch of its new Covisint Connect data messaging service. Covisint Connect has been developed with the support of a consortium consisting of General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, DaimlerChrysler, Johnson Controls, Delphi Corporation and Lear Corporation. Each company contributed financial and human resources to the development of the service. “The challenge and rewards of developing a game-changing service based on the needs of six large industry players is tremendous”; said Bob Paul, CEO of Covisint “The cooperative spirit of the Consortium prevailed and the development was completed as planned and on time”.

Covisint Connect provides a single connection for a company to exchange data with its partners. It provides an attractive XML alternative to current EDI transmission methods by reducing the complexity and cost of managing multiple and redundant formats with trading partners. It provides a single connection with sophisticated any-to-any translation capability that can handle both EDI and XML technologies in one environment. This single connection will permit transfer of data between customers and suppliers in the format that makes the most sense for their companies.

Covisint Connect pilots have been completed with all six consortium members including some of their suppliers. These pilots validated key aspects of the Covisint Connect services in a production environment. In addition to the pilots, each of the Consortium members completed detailed audits of the infrastructure to ensure that it satisfied their requirements for production messaging. In many cases, these pilots are the first phases of the rollout for several Consortium members. Customers are finalizing their individual rollout plans based on their specific situations. It is expected that the deployment by the six companies will be completed over the course of the next six to twelve months.

Johnson Controls has been piloting Covisint Connect since spring of this year and plans to begin a full-scale rollout during the first-quarter of next year. The Johnson Controls Automotive Group has formed aggressive plans based on the savings opportunity and ability to solve other critical business needs. “We estimate that we can significantly reduce our expenses to send and receive electronic documents with our suppliers and customers”, said Sue Kampe, Johnson Controls Vice President of Information Technology. “In addition to the savings, we believe that the added flexibility of the XML based approach will provide the basis for future interoperability with our customers and trading partners”.

Covisint Connect is designed to create an industry standard approach to information exchange between trading partners. Covisint Connect supports the latest Internet based protocols, XML standard messages, as well as traditional EDI messages. A key element of this standardization effort is the establishment of industry-wide standard formats for the most commonly used transaction document - technically called XML Business Object Documents (BODs). Covisint and the Consortium members have developed six key BODs that represent a majority of current data messaging volume and these have been submitted to AiAG as standards to be published to the rest of the industry. This forward-looking approach will help the industry create true interoperability between trading partners.

Covisint Connect is part of the Covisint Automotive Industry Operating System. Covisint has combined three elements that together create the basis for trading partners in the automotive industry to Connect, Communicate and Collaborate. Covisint Communicate portal services provide a turn-key approach to supplier portals that is easy to implement and will reduce redundant processes and infrastructure costs. The third element of service is Covisint Collaborate, a web hosting environment and trading partner management for implementing web services.

About Covisint
Covisint is the independent e-business service provider for the global automotive industry. Its business-to-business services connect and enable car manufacturers and their suppliers to reduce costs, increase efficiency, enhance quality and improve time to market. Covisint was founded by DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Renault, Nissan, Commerce One and Oracle in 2000. Since its inception, PSA Peugeot Citroën also has joined the initiative. Covisint has its headquarters in Southfield, Mich., and sales offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Paris, Brazil and Mexico. For more information about Covisint, visit www.covisint.com.

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