Bowstreet and Sun Microsystems partner to offer integrated soluti ons

[Ann Kelly <akelly@bowstreet.com>]

Bowstreet and Sun Microsystems partner to offer integrated solutions for
building intelligent web services and business web infrastructures

Bowstreet(TM) Business Web Factory, running on the Sun(TM) platform, will
help high-growth businesses collaborate with partners dynamically across
Internet


LYNNFIELD, MA, and SAN FRANCISCO, CA, February 5, 2001 - Bowstreet, a
leading business web platform provider for the creation, integration and
management of a new class of dynamic e-business applications composed of
plug-and-play web services, and Sun Microsystems, Inc., a leading provider
of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the
Internet, today announced a strategic alliance to offer tightly integrated,
scalable solutions that e-businesses can leverage to build highly
customized, collaborative business webs. The two companies are working
closely to integrate their technologies and services to help customers build
intelligent web services architectures and business web automation
infrastructures that dynamically increase the speed, flexibility and
effectiveness of e-business, while reducing cost and complexity. The
alliance is announced in conjunction with Sun's launch of its Sun(TM) Open
Net Environment (Sun ONE). 

Also at the Sun ONE launch in San Francisco today, Bowstreet will
demonstrate a true "smart services" scenario that leverages networked
software that can be repurposed on-the-fly to morph business processes and
user interfaces based on where and by whom the services are accessed. This
business-to-business web purchasing cycle highlights how an architecture can
unify access to any kind of back-end services provider. The Bowstreet(TM)
Business Web Factory running the Solaris(TM) Operating Environment on a
Sun(TM) Enterprise server dynamically assembles intelligent services and
user profiles across the Internet using iPlanet's LDAP directory and EJB(TM)
components hosted on industry-leading, Java(TM) 2 platform, Enterprise
Edition (J2EE)-compliant application servers.  The result is the integration
of content, process and user interface to present a customized web
application tailored to the context of the request. The Bowstreet Business
Web Factory provides discovery and "just-in-time" dynamic assembly of
e-business applications. This dynamic construction and profile enablement
provides a made-to-order, just-in-time, "smart service" application by
returning HTML, ebXML or SOAP requests based on profile information.


Bowstreet and Sun collaborate to uniquely tailor customer business webs

Together, Bowstreet and Sun are enabling enterprise companies to
significantly enhance the way they establish and maintain partner
relationships on the Internet. By connecting with partner companies through
customized business webs, enterprises can lower transaction costs, generate
new revenue, enable collaboration on new products and services, and deliver
greater value to customers. Sun's Java(TM) technology is emerging as the de
facto standard for e-business, and Bowstreet has embraced Java technology
and Sun's Solaris(TM) Operating Environment as the foundation upon which
Bowstreet has built its Business Web Factory platform. 

Bowstreet and Sun are already working together to deliver enhanced, open web
services to industry innovators. SONICblue(TM) Incorporated (Nasdaq: SBLU),
a leader in the converging Internet, digital media and consumer device
marketplace and the company behind the popular Rio digital audio device, has
augmented its ability to monitor its sales channel by standardizing on the
Bowstreet Business Web Factory and Sun's Solaris Operating Environment.
SONICblue's business web will provide its channel partners and internal
sales managers with the ability to streamline the flow of sales and
inventory information in real-time over the Internet, without hard-coded
programming or technical help. 

"Bowstreet and Sun are working closely with SONICblue as we implement our
business web strategy," said Steve Kennedy, senior vice president of sales
and marketing, SONICblue. "In the fast-moving digital media device market,
the demand level can change every week. The Bowstreet- and Sun(TM)
platform-enabled business web application allows us to monitor our sales
channel on a daily basis. Bowstreet and Sun helped us design a robust
solution that will help our company scale its IT infrastructure and take us
through our company's planned growth over the next several years."  

SONICblue has long relied on Sun to deliver the scalable web commerce
platform that manages partner relationships. SONICblue turned to Bowstreet
to develop a web services framework for automating business-to-business
transactions and forging stronger relationships with its leading sales
channel partners. 

In addition to uniquely tailoring business webs for joint customers,
Bowstreet and Sun will continue to work together on current and developing
technology standards. Since the company's inception, Bowstreet has
collaborated with Sun to extend open standards-based business-to-business
transactions over the Internet.  Together, both companies have worked on the
Directory Services Markup Language (DSML), Transaction Authority Markup
Language (XAML) and Electronic Business XML (ebXML) standards - all
important initiatives in supporting and extending interoperability across
the Internet.  

"Bowstreet and Sun offer powerful enabling technologies to enterprises that
want to quickly and confidently expand the reach and distribution of web
services to their partners and customers. The Bowstreet solution running on
the Sun platform enables companies to more easily customize web applications
to provide greater value and a richer customer experience," said Doug
Kaewert, vice president, Market Development at Sun Microsystems, Inc.
"Because of our common commitment to open standards and technologies,
Bowstreet's web process integration solution running on Sun's scalable
systems and software can help our customers decrease solution time to market
and the cost of managing dynamic web sites."

"Sun systems power many of the most aggressive e-business applications on
the Internet, making them a perfect industry partner for Bowstreet as we
execute our goal of delivering dynamic business webs into the hands of
business people," said Bob Crowley, president and CEO of Bowstreet. 

About Sun ONE
Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) is one of the industry's most
comprehensive offerings to deliver web services today and includes an
architecture and roadmap based on open standards, such as Java and XML, to
take advantage of the new generation of smart web services and beyond. Smart
web services are enhanced web services with a level of intelligence based on
context, span multiple networks beyond the web, and provide a richer
experience for both enterprises and end-users.  Sun ONE will simplify the
way in which both web and open smart services are created, assembled and
deployed - benefiting enterprises with better business-wide productivity,
developers with faster time-to-service and increased market opportunity, and
consumers with an enriched user experience. More information about Sun ONE
can be found at www.sun.com/software/sunone.

About Bowstreet
Bowstreet is one of the first companies focused exclusively on creating the
software breakthroughs required to support business webs - the emerging
model for companies in the digital economy. Bowstreet provides one of the
industry's first business web platforms for the creation, integration and
management of a new class of dynamic applications composed of plug-and-play
web services. Unlike hard-wired solutions, Bowstreet's Business Web Factory
platform was designed from the ground up to be totally vendor-neutral,
employing highly innovative, parametric change-automation technology.  With
Bowstreet's Business Web Factory, technologists can design massively
customizable business web applications that empower business people to
expand their business web relationships instantly. More information can be
found at www.bowstreet.com or by calling 781-586-7100. 
 
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.	
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision - "The Network Is The
Computer(TM)" - has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), to its
position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and
services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to dot-com
their businesses. With $17.6 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in
more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com. 

###

Bowstreet is a trademark of Bowstreet, Inc. 

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, Solaris, Sun Enterprise, EJB and
The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other
company names and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective companies or owners.

Contact:	

Ann Kelly					
Bowstreet					
603-559-1557				
akelly@bowstreet.com		

Ingrid Kambe
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
650-786-4705
ingrid.kambe@sun.com

Tim Munroe					
Beaupre & Co. Public Relations, Inc.	
603-559-5820	
tmunroe@beaupre.com 

Meghan Shamon
Burson-Marsteller for Sun
415-591-4104
Meghan.Shamon@sfo.bm.com