Stamford, Conn.-based Thomson Learning, a professional and academic testing company, is already building Web services that conform to the JSR-168 and Web Services for Remote Portlet standards that BEA will support in both portal products. Thomson uses Web services and portals from BEA and Microsoft Corp. to schedule tests with and transmit scores to its partners.

"The portal standards allow our services to be exposed not just through our own customer-facing portals but also through our customers' portals," said Christopher Crowhurst, vice president and principal architect at Thomson.

Thomson plans to use the new BEA portal features next year, he said.