Category: Content technology news (Page 551 of 627)

Bowstreet Software Inc. announced the commercial release of the Bowstreet Web Automation Factory, which breaks a critical e-commerce bottleneck by enabling companies to quickly deliver affordable, highly customized business-to-business Web sites for multiple customers and business partners. Bowstreet’s Web Automation Factory uses Directory Services Markup Language (DSML), an emerging e-commerce standard pioneered by Bowstreet and supported by IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and the Sun/Netscape Alliance. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory, based on patent-pending technology, eliminates what many industry observers believe to be the biggest obstacle to the adoption of B2B e-commerce: the challenge of creating, maintaining and linking Web sites that provide many tightly integrated B2B connections, each customized for the unique needs of a different partner or customer. With today’s tools and technology, this process is prohibitively time consuming, complex and costly, often creating a large IT backlog for new B2B capabilities and stalling critical e-commerce initiatives. In the first half of 2000, Bowstreet will launch the Bowstreet Web Services Marketplace, a central exchange on the Internet where companies can freely create, publish, capture and trade Web Services they can incorporate into their own custom B2B Web sites. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory 1.0 has been shipping to customers since September 1999. It is currently available through Bowstreet’s direct sales force and soon will be available through selected systems integrators. The product is sold on a subscription or perpetual license basis starting at around $250,000. Bowstreet also offers professional services to assist companies in developing, deploying and managing large Web programs. Bowstreet is giving away a version of the product, called the JumpStart Edition, to qualified businesses and software professionals at no cost. The JumpStart Edition will enable these users to create custom Web sites and publish Web services for a small number of partners on the Web. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory runs on the Sun Solaris and Microsoft Windows NT server operating systems. It requires one of these directory services: Netscape Directory Server, IBM SecureWay or Novell NDS. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory will also be available for Microsoft Active Directory and Oracle Directory Server. www.bowstreet.com

Ariba, Inc. Siebel Systems, Inc. announced an alliance that will integrate Ariba eCommerce solutions and the Ariba Network platform with Siebel Front Office Applications. As a result of the integration of Siebel Front Office Applications and the Ariba Network platform, organizations can access the Ariba cXML Internet Catalog and link to the supplier’s Web site to search for, configure and select products using Siebel eSales. Siebel eSales, a core component of the Siebel Front Office family, allows suppliers to deploy eCommerce sites that include a rich multimedia product catalog, on-line quotations, a product configurator to configure solutions, and the ability to take orders for business to businesses and business to consumer eCommerce over the web. The Siebel eSales application then transfers the selected products and services into the Ariba user’s electronic purchase requisition via cXML data feeds, which the Ariba application routes for approval according to the buying organization’s business rules. Once a customer places an order with a supplier, all of the specific information associated with that individual customer will be automatically captured in Siebel Front Office Applications and instantly shared across Siebel Systems’ sales, marketing and customer service information systems. Both companies plan to make Siebel Front Office Applications and Ariba eCommerce connectivity available to their customers in Q1 2000. www.ariba.com, www.siebel.com