Gateway to Japan

Business integration and optimization software company webMethods, Inc. today announced an OEM agreement between its Japanese subsidiary webMethods K.K., and printing and imaging technology giant Canon Inc. The agreement is to cover the entire Japanese market and has Canon embedding webMethods technology as a standard feature in its imageWARE Enterprise Gateway.

The imageWARE Enterprise Gateway has been developed solely for the Japanese market. Canon will employ webMethods as an integration standard for linking Canon input and output solution in enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, and customer relationship management platforms. As an open platform with broad support for industry standards and ready access to pre-built adapters, webMethods technology promises to be easily embedded in a variety of applications.

Canon Inc. is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leader in the fields of professional and consumer imaging equipment and information systems. Canon employees over 115,000 worldwide; has manufacturing and marketing subsidiaries in Japan, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania; and a global R&D network with companies based in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Canon’s consolidated net sales for 2005 totaled US $31.8 billion. webMethods is a provider of business integration software to integrate, assemble and optimize available IT assets. webMethods is headquartered in Fairfax, Va., with offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan. Its clientele base numbers approximately 1,400.