MONTREAL (Quebec), Aug. 25 2006 – Alphinat Inc. (TSX-VN : NPA), a leading provider of business process automation tools aimed at line-of-business managers, today announced its acceptance to the IBM SOA Specialty after successfully completing IBM’s rigorous SOA technical and business requirements.  With this achievement, Alphinat’s software suite integrates with the IBM SOA Foundation, a single, integrated platform that combines the industry’s top application server and integration capabilities.

The IBM SOA Specialty in the PartnerWorld for Industry Networks provides technical enablement and skills-building roadmap for partners who want to access the growing SOA market opportunity. The Specialty will also provide SOA-specific marketing and sales benefits for those who achieve key milestones such as SOA Connection Events to meet directly with IBM SOA Sales specialists and discounted print advertising and telemarketing. IBM Sales Connections, a consultative service in the PartnerWorld Industry Networks, helps business partners close SOA deals quickly by connecting them with the relevant IBM SOA and local field sales team.

As part of Alphinat’s acceptances into the SOA Specialty, Alphinat software assets for SOA are also listed in the IBM SOA Business Catalog, a comprehensive resource to make it easier to find reusable IT services based on IBM and IBM Business Partner software. The IBM SOA Business Catalog allows clients to search for information on service-oriented architecture (SOA) spanning more than 15 industries to solve specific business problems. The Catalog directs customers to the appropriate IBM or qualified IBM Business Partner software — including process templates, web services, tools and adapters — along with details on how customers can easily obtain and integrate these IT services into their existing IT infrastructures.

«SOA is an increasingly important architectural requirement for customers in nearly every industry» said Sandy Carter, vice president, SOA and WebSphere, IBM Software Group. «Building a close relationship with partners including Alphinat helps us to assure our customers that they have the business and technical resources to successfully use an SOA to drive business results.»

«With the combination of our software suite and the IBM infrastructure, we can now present a compelling SOA offer that speaks to both the business and technical sides of an organization» said Alain Lecoq, vice president of marketing at Alphinat. The Alphinat software suite bridges the divide between business and IT. Using the Alphinat tools, line-of-business managers and domain experts can build composite applications with little or no recourse to IT resources. «Our clients love that they can automate a wide range of business processes without IT assistance. And their developers are pleased as well because they are no longer called on to perform simple content updates» concludes Lecoq.

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