Poet to File for IPO; Touts New Online Catalog Apps >BY William Fellows

Computergram International, Sept 16, 1999

German object database ISV Poet Software Poet Software GmbH (Persistent Objects Extended Technology) is about to file for an IPO through its San Mateo, California operation and will list a new Ecatalog application that is about to be launched as its key future opportunity in its S-1 Red Herring filing with the SEC. Poet's core Object Server Suite will be described as the cash cow and its XML-based Content Management Suite as the tactical product. It hopes to file by the end of the month.

The new Ecatalog applications are claimed to enable suppliers to automate the process of assembling catalog information to send to buyers and content aggregation web sites. Poet is also planning host-based and enterprise versions of Ecatalog. It thinks companies will probably begin using Ecatalog applications hosted by service providers. However once online businesses become material, it thinks many will want to bring the process in-house.

Poet has struck a deal with business-to-business portal Ariba Technologies Inc which will recommend Ecatalog to its cupply customers. The two are also talking about a straight distribution deal. In addition, Poet expects Ecatalog to be used in conjunction with CommerceOne and by companies using any of the 300-odd vertical industry portals now serving business-to- business needs, plus the emerging portal packages such as MySAP.com. There are expected to be as many as 10,000 of these sites by 2002, according to market research says. The host version of Ecatalog will be specifically tailored for use by Ariba and CommerceOne.

Poet hasn't made much progress with its Navajo Java embedded database. Although LM Ericsson AB is using it, talks with Symbian ended after Symbian decided it couldn't afford to be tied to a single database and will leave it to the market to decide what to use. Sounds like a case of too many cooks. Perhaps Symbian's partners couldn't agree on which database they should adopt and so left it blowing in the wind.

Ecatalog is built on the Java-based Poet Object Server and has screens enabling users to plug in all kinds of product data which can then be exported in any of the major XML dialects including Ariba's cXML, AOL/Netscape's home grown versions, CommerceOne's common business language, Microsoft BizTalk and others. The application is accessed through a web browser.

Ecatalog is available this month and costs $40,000 on NT, Solaris, AIX or HP-UX. XML adapters are $3,000 each and an SDK is $9,000. An enterprise version will cost $60,000.