SAN JOSE, Calif. -- JM Family Enterprises has built a business-to-business portal on BEA WebLogic Platform(TM) designed to help simplify the sale of F&I products for auto dealers.

JM&A Group, a division of JM Family Enterprises, offers and administers F&I solutions such as service contracts, warranties, pre-paid maintenance plans, gap protection and credit insurance through a network of more than 1,800 dealers. The wide range of products offered and administered by JM&A could result in 76,000 potential pricing scenarios for any given customer. The new BEA-powered application, known as Menu Presentations, is designed to automatically calculate those prices for F&I managers based on the vehicle type, desired coverage, geographic location and contractual agreements between JM&A Group and each dealership. With this solution, page-load times for the new Menu Presentations running BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 are now less than two seconds.

"Rapid access to pricing information is critical to our sales cycle," said Mike Miller, director of strategic architecture, JM Family Enterprises. "When the opportunity to offer and sell one of JM&A Group's products arises, it's at the end of an auto sale, and time is of the essence. The customer just wants to leave as soon as possible to drive their new car. We recognized that we could add a lot of value for dealers and customers by tightening up the F&I experience. Working with BEA, we can now help dealers and customers by giving them better selling tools. Improving the sales experience for dealers and consumers is a key to our growth strategy."

JM&A Group selected BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 as the foundation for Menu Presentations because of its flexibility, performance and scalability.