Dear Team,

First, congratulations on a successful FY04! Our performance continues to be strong in the marketplace and in delivering superior value to our customers. In early March, we had a productive Sales Kick Off meeting based on the theme "Seize the Momentum". It's vital that we harness this momentum as we drive toward what I know will be a record-shattering year selling 8.1.

To reach the goals I outlined at Sales Kick Off, BEA will continue to rely on our three most valuable assets: our vision, our products, and our people.

Our vision (Code Name Sierra) is to create a highly compatible state of computing-one that delivers breakthrough productivity while fundamentally lowering the cost of IT. This productivity and IT responsiveness speeds results from months to minutes. We'll be announcing this vision at eWorld in May. To learn more about Sierra, check out the video of my speech from SKO, along with the Sierra overview document.

The second key element is our award winning products. We're simply years ahead of the competition. Industry Analysts, Trade Publications, and Press agree and continue to shower 8.1 with awards and accolades. Here are just a few:

Java Developers Journal 2004 Readers Choice Awards
Best Java Application Server - BEA WebLogic Server
Best J2EE Application Development Framework - BEA WebLogic Workshop
Best Java Virtual Machine (JRockit) - BEA WebLogic
Best Java Web Services Toolkit - BEA WebLogic Workshop
Best Team Development Tool - BEA WebLogic Workshop

Web Services Journal 2004 Readers Choice Awards
Best App Server for Web Services - BEA WebLogic
Best Web Services BPM Engine - BEA WebLogic Integration
Best Web Services IDE - BEA Weblogic Workshop

PC Magazine Editors Choice Awards
Editors Choice, Application Servers - BEA WebLogic Server

Lastly, the third and most important asset is YOU. You develop our award-winning products. You provide the support, services, and infrastructure needed to take our products to market. You anticipate the needs of our customers and help them realize better, faster, less costly ways to do business. You are responsible for the first 10 years of BEA's success.

In 2004, we are celebrating our 10 year anniversary. As part of this celebration, we are gathering historical information to reflect on and tell the story of our first ten years. I'd appreciate hearing your stories, customer quotes, old photos, and exciting, historical BEA moments. Please send them to thefirst10years@bea.com, or hard copies and photographs to TheFirst10Years at BEA in San Francisco by April 7 (Note: original photos and items will be returned).

Thank you again for the first 10 years and for a successful FY04. I'm looking forward to building an even stronger, more successful BEA family with you over the next 10 years.

Alfred