BEA Systems Inc. and Gauss Interprise announced a strategic relationship to provide optimized e-business solutions. As part of the agreement, Gauss will embed BEA WebLogic in its VIP Enterprise products, and offer its U.S. base of more than 1,000 primarily IBM iSeries (AS/400) customers an upgrade to VIP Enterprise built upon the BEA WebLogic E-Business Platform. VIP Enterprise runs natively on the iSeries (AS/400) server platform in addition to IBM-AIX, Sun Solaris, HP/UX, Windows 2000/NT, Compaq Tru64 and Linux platforms. As a member of the BEA Star Partner Program, Gauss will participate with BEA in joint marketing, sales training, education and technical development. VIP Enterprise embedded with BEA WebLogic will be available by September 2001, and the upgrade program for Gauss customers to the BEA WebLogic E-Business Platform is expected to be completed by March 2002. www.bea.com, www.gaussinterprise.com