SAN MATEO (02/11/2000) - A new breed of technology suppliers is feeding off the proliferation of dot-com startups.
New companies such as Xtime, FaceTime, NotHarvard.com, Fresher Information, and Acteva are provisioning e-commerce sites with additional services that allow start-ups to hold down their own development costs and speed time to market.
These provisioners -- who showed off their wares at this week's Demo Showcase -- are not merely licensing their technology or being linked to a Web site.
Instead they are wired directly and invisibly into the e-commerce site while hidden behind the facade of the storefront.
Xtime offers dot-coms a scheduling platform for time-based inventory management to track reservations and appointments.
Midas Muffler, for example, is able to give its customers round-the-clock scheduling at its Web site using Xtime. However, when the appointment icon is clicked, the customer is routed across the network to the Xtime site.
Other sites using Xtime include Foodline.com, a restaurant reservation site.
Using Xtime, regular Foodline.com customers can be queried via e-mail if the system detects that they have not made their regular dinner reservation.
NotHarvard.com builds online courses to augment Web sites with training.
NotHarvard.com developed its FreeSchool EduCommerce software suite, which includes message boards and chat, calendar, and notebook capabilities.
In January the company created a C++ course for Metrowerks' CodeWarriorU.com site. Metrowerks is a division of Motorola Inc.
FaceTime Communications Inc. offers business-to-business solutions through its instant messaging service for customer service and help desks.
FaceTime includes instant messaging, chat, e-mail management, customer support, and collaboration services.
FaceTime Instant Customer starts at $500 per month, based on usage and features.
Fresher Information's business model offers syndicated content as a service, formatted and integrated to a site's look and feel.
Acteva does payments and transactions related to conferences, workshops, benefits, and events. Harvard alumni, for example, who buy tickets for the Harvard-Yale football game would access Acteva via the alumni Web site.
"It's hard for companies to focus on their core business and manage the infrastructure at the same time," said Acteva CEO Lu Cordova.
Cordova said there is no latency between the time a visitor clicks on the icon and accesses Acteva's site via a dot-com.
Xtime Inc., in San Mateo, Calif., is at www.xtime.com. NotHarvard.com in Austin, Texas, is at www.notharvard.com. FaceTime Communications Inc., in Foster City, Calif., is at www.facetime.net. Fresher Information Corp., in San Francisco, is at www.fresher.com. Acteva Corp., in San Francisco, is at www.acteva.com.
Buy it, don't build it
E-commerce sites are buying services from other companies.
* Midas Muffler: Xtime for appointment scheduling* Motorola: NotHarvard for C++ courses* LinuxWorld Web magazine: Fresher to dynamically update content* Wingspan: FaceTime for instant messaging customers.