IBM announced an agreement with Extricity Inc. wherein IBM will license and integrate the Extricity B2B software platform with the next version of IBM’s WebSphere Business-to-Business Integrator. As a result of this agreement, the enhanced product will help companies and electronic marketplaces automate the flow of information and business processes among groups of businesses on the Internet, saving time, money and improving competitiveness and responsiveness. IBM will license the Extricity B2B software platform as an integrated component of the WebSphere BtoB Integrator. The Extricity B2B software platform allows companies to automate the flow of information among groups of businesses by integrating and extending applications and business processes to work with those of their partners. The inclusion of Extricity’s technology in WebSphere BtoB Integrator will help customers to easily build B2B business process management solutions that will span functional and organizational boundaries. This integration further complements the IBM, Ariba and i2 alliance by providing an integration platform with additional B2B process management capabilities. This agreement will help traditional companies extend their supply chain for proactive process management between enterprises and help e-marketplaces facilitate buying and selling among industry consortiums. www.ibm.com/software/websphere/, www.extricity.com

Interwoven, Inc. and AlterEgo Networks, Inc. announced a strategic alliance to deliver an integrated solution that will allow their joint customers to create, adapt and publish enterprise Web content to wireless devices such as Web-enabled phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or pagers. In conjunction with the partnership, Interwoven also has announced that it will make a minority investment in AlterEgo. Under the terms of the agreement, Interwoven and AlterEgo will integrate elements of AlterEgo’s adaptation technology with Interwoven’s content management system in order to optimize delivery of “intelligent” wireless Web content. The integrated solution is expected to ship in Q1 2001. Together, Interwoven and AlterEgo are working to ensure that companies can effectively extend their Web content to customers, partners and employees, who choose to access information via Web-enabled phones or PDAs. Interwoven TeamSite software and XML-based TeamSite Templating, which allows content to easily be re-purposed for wireless devices will be integrated with AlterEgo’s device adaptation and delivery network. Together, AlterEgo and Interwoven technology will determine the required data and representation format for each type of wireless access device. Once these transformation rules are defined, they will be published to AlterEgo’s high-performance, scalable Adaptive Network, which then delivers the transformed content to mobile devices. This will allow businesses to provide consistent, timely, relevant content to employees and customers who access corporate networks through wireless devices in addition to through computers. www.aego.com, www.interwoven.com

Commerce One, Inc. announced plans to develop a global content network to deliver high-quality content to Commerce One-powered e-marketplaces, buyers and suppliers across multiple industries worldwide. Final terms are expected to be reached, and definitive documents are expected to be executed, in the fourth quarter of 2000. The network will be based on the Commerce One Content Refinery technology infrastructure and will also include: Commerce One certified content processing partners authorized to deliver content development and processing capabilities in specific regions and industries; Pre-packaged content libraries, delivered through syndication arrangements via Commerce Ones Global Trading Web; and Published content interoperability standards to enable easy content syndication. The foundation of the global content network is the Commerce One Content Refinery solution, a set of software applications, services and methodologies that enable e-marketplaces and content development operations to create, integrate, enhance and maintain catalogs. The Content Refinery solution also enables the syndication and re-use of catalogs across multiple e-marketplaces, via the Global Trading Web. By tapping into pre-built content, the solution can offer reduced time-to-market and lower content cost for e-marketplace operators. The Commerce One Content Refinery solution is currently in limited release, with general availability scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2000. www.commerceone.com

WebCollage unveiled WebCollage Syndicator, a software solution that lets companies expand their reach and interact with users not only on their own sites but wherever they are on the Web. Designed to ensure rapid time to market for premium partnerships, Syndicator lets e-businesses package live and complete Web-based business applications as “e-services,” then syndicates them by placing them directly on partner Web sites. With WebCollage Syndicator companies can define e-services that capture their entire Web experience. Business partners can then exchange and incorporate all the relevant e-services that their users need to complete specific tasks into one place. WebCollage Syndicator replaces today’s phenomenon of sending users to other sites in order to access services and applications by bringing these applications to where users already are. WebCollage Syndicator applies dynamic Web site integration. When users visit a Web site, it pulls and “blends” syndicated e-services into the pages presented to users. Any Web page that is fused together dynamically from multiple sources would still appear to users as a single uniform page. WebCollage Syndicator’s unique capabilities then enable users to carry out complete Web transactions from multiple sources without leaving the site they are at. Other Web integration approaches, often using XML, focus on data exchange but do not address the sharing of an application’s user interface and Web experience. Companies can spend months re-building a partner application’s user experience into their own site, slowing time to market. Syndicator, using WebCollage’s Web Services Markup Language (WSML) technology, is designed specifically to overcome these limitations. It powers the syndication of complete e-services to multiple partner sites while maintaining the user experience and without requiring the partners to install any software. WebCollage Syndicator is available from WebCollage, Inc. The license fee for the Syndicator software is based on the number of partners served with e-services. Pricing starts at $50,000. www.webcollage.com

Members of the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI) announced plans to use ebXML as the backbone of their new data exchange standard for business-to-business trade in the consumer goods industry. ebXML, an initiative of the United Nations CEFACT and OASIS, will provide the technical infrastructure for the Global Commerce Internet Protocol, a set of recommendations governing the management of data for Internet communication and other B2B interactions. GCI members include 40 major manufacturers and retailers as well as eight trade associations, which in total represent 850,000 companies around the world. Exchanges such as Transora, the WorldWide Retail Exchange, GlobalNetXchange, and CPGmarket.com are taking active roles in the GCI development. EAN and the UCC have made a major contribution to GCI’s effort to quickly standardize Internet trading in the consumer products industry with the first in a series of electronic commerce standards. In order to support the GCI Internet Protocol, the UCC and EAN undertook to provide GCI with a series of electronic commerce standards for the following processes: Item Synchronization, Party, Simple Purchase Order and Dispatch (Advance Ship Notice). This project encompassed the creation of business models, global data dictionaries, and XML schemas. GCI proof-of-concept trials are underway and the organization plans to demonstrate its protocol at the upcoming ebXML meeting in Tokyo, November 6, 2000. www.ebXML.org

Progress Software Corporation and Commerce One, Inc. announced that Commerce One has selected Progress SonicMQ E-Business Messaging server for Commerce One’s MarketSite Portal Solution. SonicMQ provides a scalable and reliable transport for the exchange of business-critical information over the Internet, which helps companies move global trade to the Web. Messages, which can range from simple purchase orders to complex CAD documents, may be instantly and securely delivered over the Internet by using sophisticated routing algorithms to determine the fastest delivery path and ensure high system availability. As new trading partners or communities are added to the Commerce One Global Trading Web, an extensive worldwide B2B trading community, the SonicMQ-based infrastructure provides access to all new destinations without requiring any local configuration or application changes. MarketSite Portal Solution allows corporations and Internet market makers to build open electronic marketplaces and link them to the Commerce One Global Trading Web. This set of products and services enables real-time, interactive transactions between trading partners, suppliers, service providers and market makers. Through the use of SonicMQ and an XML-based transaction infrastructure, value-added business services such as auctions, content management, payment services and logistics can be rapidly deployed and leveraged on e-marketplaces. www.commerceone.com, www.progress.com