GartnerGroup Identifies `C-commerce' Supply Chain Movement: an Emerging Trend in Collaborative Web Communities

Business Wire, August 16, 1999

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 1999--

Gartner Group, Inc. (NYSE: IT) has identified a complex form of e-business that is emerging as a dominant trend in the information technology (IT) world. The new "collaborative commerce" (c-commerce) model describes the collaborative and fluid interaction of a community of personnel, business partners and customers that is joined together by Internet, component and integration technologies, resulting in agile but highly integrated "virtual" multicompany enterprises.

By enabling multiple trading partners to work interactively online, c-commerce strategies will produce lower costs, improve the quality of products and services, increase innovation and optimize trading opportunities. Analysts will provide an in-depth look at this concept at GartnerGroup's Symposium/ITxpo 99, to be held October 11-15 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

According to the GartnerGroup report "C-Commerce: The New Arena for Business Applications," c-commerce network applications will replace Web-enabled, but static, supply chain applications as the dominant business application model by

2002. The emerging c-commerce trend will be a part of Fortune 1000 IT strategies by 2004.

"C-commerce is the next paradigm that business applications such as enterprise resource planning will have to address," explained GartnerGroup Analyst Bruce Bond. "Current ERP and supply chain applications are focused on supporting transactions and optimization within the single enterprise or, at best, within and among the enterprise and its more traditional, strategic trading partners. C-commerce applications will move beyond that level of support to enable multiple enterprises to work together online within a dynamic trading community, or `cybermarket,' in which relationships are far more fluid and opportunistic." Current leaders in applications and infrastructure, including IBM, i2 Technologies, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP, are developing c-commerce strategies and software applications.

Some business segments in the manufacturing and distribution industries -- such high-tech electronics and automotive -- are already using more proactive, collaborative technologies such as:

- Digital mockup technology, which enables a real-time 3-D design

session to be invoked across a project Web site between a

manufacturer and the manufacturer's suppliers, is used to

collaboratively design a product, thus reducing cost and product

time-to-market.

- "Processware," which enables interenterprise business processes

and workflow, can substantially reduce inventory and

manufacturing/distribution cycle-times.

While these examples deal with immediate trading partners, c-commerce applications will ultimately expand capabilities across the supply chain. For example, supply chain "available-to-promise" functionality will enable enterprises to offer customers a more accurate reflection of when and how much of an order may be distributed, based on looking beyond the next upstream supplier all the way to the supply chain source.

C-commerce will also bring about an increase in application hosting as enterprises look to c-commerce vendors to manage the c-commerce "traffic" and tackle the integration challenges that will require specific and scarce skills.

What is driving the creation of c-commerce? The emergence of global shop floors and virtual enterprises, as well as the proliferation of marketing and delivery channels, is creating the need for c-commerce communities. Moreover, the speed at which business is transacted and the increased emphasis on time-based competition enables the substitution of technology for human contact in high-velocity information and knowledge exchange applications.

The technologies that are enabling c-commerce evolution include the growth of the Web, component architectures, acceptance of emerging standards such as XML (Extensible Markup Language) and collaborative technologies, including agents. In addition, integration technologies from more established IT vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and SAP are gaining wider acceptance as de facto standards, according to Bond.

The next evolution of business applications, including ERP, enterprise asset management, engineering, supply chain planning and front-office systems, will have to incorporate c-commerce strategies. Application vendors that do not build c-commerce infrastructures (and most will not) will have to enable their products to connect to them. IT managers will have to develop strategies so that they align with the vendors that demonstrate a strategic focus on the enterprise's industry -- for example, demonstrating an understanding of consumer packaged goods, automotive, financial services, healthcare and others.

In preparing for the future of c-commerce-based business, GartnerGroup advises enterprises to extend, open and secure their application architectures to accommodate a broader universe of potential business partners.

About Symposium/ITxpo 99

GartnerGroup Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with a look of the future of IT today. To accommodate the growing numbers of IT professionals who want to attend this event, GartnerGroup will also hold a West Coast Spring Symposium/ITxpo, April 10-13, 2000, in San Diego, Calif. For nearly 10,000 IT professionals from the world's leading enterprises, GartnerGroup Symposium/ITxpo is a key component of their annual planning efforts, a place to gain insights into how their enterprises can use technology to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. Registration for the Orlando event is expected to sell out and admission will be issued on a first-come basis.