Covast Improves Scalability, Ease of Use and Trading Partner

							Covast Improves Scalability, Ease of Use and Trading Partner
Support with Launch of EDI Accelerator for Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006

ATLANTA – November 16, 2005 – Covast, a leading provider of Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) integration solutions for collaborative business environments, today
launched the Covast EDI Accelerator for Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006. As the newest
addition to the company’s suite of B2B integration solutions, the Covast EDI Accelerator
2006 has an easy to use interface and advanced end-to-end EDI capabilities to extend
the B2B integration functionalities of the latest version of Microsoft’s single integration
platform, Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006. Using the Covast EDI Accelerator in conjunction
with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, an enterprise can easily and quickly integrate its EDI
infrastructure with internal applications and Internet-based trading partners.

Since the first release of the Covast EDI Accelerator for BizTalk Server 2000, this solution
has helped bridge the gap between legacy EDI investments and Microsoft BizTalk Server.
The launch of Covast EDI Accelerator 2006 marks the release of the first version of the
solution that is completely and fully integrated in the Microsoft BizTalk Server
architecture.

“Since its inception, the Covast EDI Accelerator has helped businesses quickly and easily
integrate their legacy EDI systems onto the Microsoft BizTalk Server single integration
platform,” said Daan Scheer, CEO of Covast. “The latest version of the Covast EDI
Accelerator solution has been developed to meet the integration demands of today’s
growing enterprise. This includes the need for increased scalability, improved ease of use
and wider support of all of the global standards and protocols.”

Specifically, Covast EDI Accelerator 2006 features the following significant improvements
over past releases:

   •   Full Scalability and Fail-Over Architecture: The Covast EDI Accelerator 2006
       product helps enterprises using EDI for B2B communication realize the full
       potential of improved scalability provided by Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006. As a
       company adds more servers to its infrastructure, the processing power of its EDI
       systems grows proportionately and also provides for a full and natural fail-over
       architecture.

   •   Connectivity built on the BizTalk Server Transport Adapter Framework:
       The complete list of communication protocols supported by the Covast EDI
       Accelerator 2006 is now available as a set of BizTalk Transport Adapters. This
       means that any message, regardless of if the message is EDI or not, can be sent
       and received via any of the available protocols, like AS2, a value added network
       (VAN) or FTP. It also means that EDI messages can be sent and received via
       Transport Adapters that are not developed by Covast.

   •   Comprehensive Support of EDI Formats, Standards and Protocols: The
       Covast EDI Accelerator 2006 supports a wider range of formats and protocols.
       Additionally, the product supports the complete end-to-end handling of multi-byte
       encoded EDI messages often found in Chinese, Korean and Japanese character
       sets.

   •   Integrated Trading Partner Management: Trading partner configuration data
       can now be managed from one centralized location within the appropriate BizTalk
       toolset, extending the native BizTalk capabilities with EDI specific handling. Unlike
       in BizTalk Server 2004 this is no longer a developer’s task, but an administrator’s
       task. Additionally, these new trading partner management capabilities also enable
       bulk import and export of configuration data.
   •   Full Leverage of BPM and BAM Capabilities: Companies implementing the
       Covast EDI Accelerator 2006 solution are able to fully integrate their EDI message
       flows in the configured business process management (BPM) and business activity
       monitoring (BAM) environment, thereby enabling a complete management and
       monitoring experience for the entire integration infrastructure.

   •   New User Interface: The EDI Accelerator’s developer user interface has been
       integrated in the Visual Studio workbench, which is the single toolset environment
       for developers of Microsoft BizTalk Server solutions. All administrative tasks
       specific to the EDI Accelerator can be accomplished from within the BizTalk
       Administration Console.

   •   Simplified Migration of EDI Systems to Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006:
       Customers implementing the Covast EDI Accelerator 2006 as an upgrade to
       BizTalk Server 2002, 2004 or 2006 Base EDI Adapter or Covast EDI Accelerator
       2002 or 2004, are able to seamlessly migrate their current EDI environment to
       the new version.


The Covast EDI Accelerator 2006 is currently being tested by Covast customers. The
official release of the solution is scheduled for March 2006. To learn more about the
Covast EDI Accelerator for Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, please visit www.covast.com.

About Covast
Covast provides Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) integration solutions that bridge the
gap between legacy applications and today’s new Internet standards. The company offers
a suite of products designed to facilitate fast, cost-effective integration of EDI
applications and systems into single platform environments, such as those supported by
Microsoft BizTalk Server and IBM WebSphere. With its European headquarters in the
Netherlands and its U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, Covast has strategic relationships with
partners and customers including Microsoft, IBM, Accenture, EDS, HP, Citrix and
Siemens. For more information, visit http://www.covast.com.
NOTE: The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT:
Hannah Bower
Covast
(404)812.7150
pr@covast.com