IBM Brings Wireless and Realtime Technology to E-markets

Business Wire, May 16, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2000

New Software Enables Creation of On-line Marketplaces that Extend

to Mobile Devices

(Net Market Maker Conference) -- IBM today announced the first software that enables businesses to create on-line marketplaces that interact with handheld devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, and pagers.

The software provides a fully integrated e-commerce solution for integrating buyers and sellers in an electronic marketplace. In addition, the software will securely communicate with wireless devices through the support of the wireless application protocol (WAP) and SMS (Short Message Services).

By extending essential business-to-business transactions to wireless devices, participants can remain engaged from anywhere, thereby increasing market efficiency and improving inventory liquidity. For example, bidders can receive notifications on auctions they are participating in -- such as a request for higher bid, an outbid notice, or even a winning bid notification -- in realtime through a wireless device. This enables exchanges to rapidly move liquid inventory, thus saving time and money.

The WebSphere Commerce Suite, Marketplace Edition software offers all the functions and tools for building a successful and scaleable marketplace, including: various dynamic trading models, such as, exchange, RFP/RFQ and auctions. In addition, the solution provides powerful aggregated catalog, secure membership registration and access control management, as well as easy-to-use business intelligence and reporting functions. Combined with Lotus Sametime(superscript: tm) , buyers and sellers can communicate and receive on-line customer assistance to easily exchange goods and services. The WebSphere Commerce Suite is part of IBM's WebSphere Software platform, the industry's most flexible and reliable software platform for building next-generation e-business applications.

Business-to-business on-line commerce is growing rapidly. The Gartner Group estimates that over 400 trading markets have been launched to date, and the number will rise to 10,000 by 2002. Over 3 million sellers are expected to participate in e-marketplaces by that time, with an estimated $438 billion in business-to-business transactions taking place.

"This year alone, hundreds of new e-marketplaces will emerge, changing the way business is done in some of the largest and most traditional industries in the world. This new wave has the potential to fully leverage the Internet's inherent potential for creating truly dynamic, interactive communities and marketplaces that are exchanging business critical information --- from virtually any device," said Ed Kilroy, general manager, IBM electronic commerce software. "IBM is leading this revolution by offering comprehensive solutions that facilitate all aspects of business-to-business e-commerce. WebSphere Commerce Suite, Marketplace Edition provides the infrastructure and tools that market makers need to quickly and effectively create a fully functional, scaleable e-marketplace ."

Customers

A variety of customers have been selected to participate in the limited availability program. Customers include: Beihai Yinhe, DynCom, Inc., Fishmonger.com, Freeboarders.com, HotSamba, Inc., LinkOpp.com, OneSea.com, SciQuest.com, and Unibex. These customers join the thousands of customers currently using IBM e-commerce software for business-to-business and retail commerce sites.

"IBM's WebSphere Commerce Suite, Marketplace Edition represents the next-generation of e-commerce functionality," says Rob Fusillo, CIO for SciQuest.com, a leading e-marketplace for science-intensive organizations. "We chose it for our marketplace infrastructure because it's a solid, complete e-business solution. The IBM software solution supports multiple commerce mechanisms featured on SciQuest.com's e-marketplace, such as bid/ask, request for quote, and reverse auctions. Our experience with IBM's commerce products over the past two years gives us the confidence that WebSphere Commerce Suite, Marketplace Edition will be able to scale and handle large transaction volumes reliably and securely."

IBM Business Partners

Business partners are teaming up with IBM to provide essential, value-added services to the offering:

IBM Global Services offer comprehensive integration services to

help market makers of all sizes thrive in this fast-paced market

Xerox Connect and Ernst & Young are providing key services to help

market makers succeed CheckFree i-Solutions and eBX are providing

electronic bill presentment and payment services that market makers

can offer as a value-added service to their buyers and suppliers

eCredit.com is teaming with IBM to provide real-time identity

verification, credit and financing services to enable

e-marketplaces to quickly add qualified partners to the hub

Suppliers are able to rapidly transform their catalog and product

content into the format defined and required by the hub via an

easy-to-use graphical user interface through IBM's relationship