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Covast EDI Accelerator Enhances Trading Activity for Gasunie, Netherlands’ Largest Gas Transport Company Covast solution provides seamless support of European EDI Standard for Gas Industry ATLANTA and ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands - June 13, 2006 - Covast today
announced that N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie (Gasunie), owner and operator of one
of Europe's largest gas pipeline grids, has successfully deployed the Energy
& Utility version of the Covast EDI Accelerator for Microsoft BizTalk Server.
Covast, a leading provider of integration solutions for collaborative business
environments, offers the only Microsoft recommended EDI solution for BizTalk
Server. This industry solution supports EDIG@S, the European standard for the
gas industry. This standard has been defined by the European Association for
the Streamlining of Energy Exchange (EASEE), the counterpart of the North American
Energy Standards Board (NAESB).
Gasunie currently uses the Covast EDI Accelerator to support all external
document exchange with more than 70 national and international trading partners.
This external document exchange makes up the allocation and reconciliation process
that determines and adjusts the daily quantities of gas produced and delivered
throughout the entire Dutch gas grid, one of the largest in Europe. The Covast
EDI Accelerator, in combination with the Covast AS2 Adapter, allows all trading
partners to be connected through a dedicated virtual private network for ensured
availability, capacity and security.
As a result of the implementation of the Microsoft BizTalk Server and the Covast
EDI Accelerator, Gasunie is able to provide its gas transport management and
maintenance services more efficiently and reliably. This capability has become
increasingly important in the global gas marketplace and especially critical
within the integrating European free market.
"The combined Covast-Microsoft solution has given us the tools to conduct
business more efficiently and reliably with our suppliers and customers. This
can be quite a challenge in Europe's fast-changing gas market," said Wim
de Olde, ICT Architect, Gasunie.
The Covast solution has provided the following benefits to Gasunie:
- Management of and insight to all B2B communication through a single integration
platform. The Covast EDI Accelerator has improved operational efficiency
for Gasunie by enabling real-time visibility of all external communications
through the Microsoft BizTalk Server integration platform.
- Reliable support of all EDI messages. B2B communication in the European
gas industry uses the EDIG@S standard. The Covast solution is one of only
a few B2B integration solutions to support this standard in addition to supporting
the wide variation in messages inherent to EDI transactions in the industry.
- Secured, controlled communication. The Covast AS2 Adapter enables
companies like Gasunie to send and receive messages in a secure and controlled
way, thus ensuring message integrity and reliability.
- Ability to quickly add new trading partners. Covast's EDI Accelerator
is designed to be used by non-developer/non-programmer resources. This means
that new trading partners and document definitions can be added easily and
quickly. In Gasunie's case, new trading partners can be added in as little
as 30 minutes.
The Covast EDI Accelerator is one of the few B2B integration solutions that
support the EDIG@S standard. Furthermore, it's the only solution supports the
needed variety of communications protocols and gives users the flexibility to
easily modify document templates, while integrating with backend applications.
These capabilities, along with our history of successful Microsoft BizTalk Server
deployments, makes our solution a perfect fit for those European companies in
the gas industry that are looking to enhance their B2B operations," said
Daan Scheer, CEO, Covast. To learn more about the Covast's B2B integration solutions
for Microsoft BizTalk Server, please visit www.covast.com.
About Covast
Covast is a leading provider of business-to-business integration solutions for
collaborative business environments. The company provides integration solutions
that bridge the gap between legacy electronic data interchange (EDI) applications
and today's new Internet standards. The suite of products that Covast offers
is designed to facilitate fast and cost-effective business-to-business integration
with single platform environments, such as those supported by Microsoft BizTalk
Server and IBM WebSphere. Covast is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and an
IBM Business Partner. With its European headquarters in the Netherlands and
its U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, Covast has strategic relationships with partners
and customers including GXS, Accenture, EDS, HP, Citrix and Siemens. For more
information, visit http://www.covast.com. # # #
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