ATLANTA and FAIRFAX, Va. - ForestExpress, a global e-commerce marketplace dedicated to the forest products industry, and webMethods, Inc. (Nasdaq: WEBM), the leading provider of business-to-business integration (B2Bi) solutions, today announced a strategic partnership. Recently named by The Industry Standard as one of the most influential companies driving today's Internet economy, webMethods lends complete, end-to-end solutions for integrating ForestExpress' customers, suppliers and partners into real-time B2B trading networks, directly connecting the inventories and back-end systems to improve the efficiency of the purchasing process. "Combining our current applications capabilities with webMethods' B2B integration expertise will provide a complete solution for our customers with the ability to conduct online transactions with ease and efficiency," said Bob Renner, ForestExpress CTO. "We believe effective use of integration technology will result in a significant bottom line reduction of administrative costs." To enable user adoption among the forest products industry, ForestExpress will be using webMethods to develop a strategic integration platform to facilitate business transactions via common industry standards in the timber, recycling, paper, and building materials market segments. With webMethods' B2Bi solutions, the ForestExpress marketplace will link the procurement and sales functions for thousands of buyers and sellers. Companies utilizing the ForestExpress marketplace will benefit from streamlined purchasing operations, reduced inventories, lower internal costs and increased capital efficiency through online, fully-automated transactions. "We are extremely pleased to be partnering with ForestExpress as they work to enable greater collaboration and productivity within the forest products industry," said Phillip Merrick, president and CEO of webMethods, Inc. "webMethods' B2Bi solutions provide ForestExpress with the seamless integration capabilities to link participants' business processes with this major industry exchange." As companies in the B2B market move toward more direct online communication, ForestExpress will lead the initiative to facilitate Internet technology user adoption among the many communication networks in the timber, recycling, paper, and building materials market segments. ForestExpress plans to build the technology capability for a neutral platform, providing an automated Internet transaction based model equipped for the made-to-order product that constitutes the bulk of what the industry sells.