SAN FRANCISCO (03/30/2000) - At the giant Internet World show taking place in Los Angeles next week, GTE Internetworking will unveil a partnership with IBM Corp. to offer a hosted electronic commerce solution aimed at medium- and large-sized customers.
The technology bundle, dubbed Hosted E-Commerce, will combine GTE's managed hosting services with IBM's WebSphere Commerce software suite, and will also use networking equipment from Cisco Systems Inc., according to a spokesman for GTE.
Hosted E-Commerce will provide an end-to-end "sell-side" system allowing companies to engage in B2C (business-to-consumer) e-commerce. Customers will be able to expand the system to integrate more complex "buy-side" B2B (business-to-business) activities, the GTE spokesman said in a phone interview today.
GTE and IBM declined to provide any further details of the announcement ahead of the show, including information about pricing or when the package will become available. IBM's WebSphere Commerce product includes software for creating catalogs and storefronts as well as for merchandising, relationship marketing and payment processing.
GTE Internetworking, a division of GTE Corp., is on the Web at http://www.bbn.com/. IBM, in Armonk, New York, can be reached at +1-914-765-1900 or on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/. Cisco, in San Jose, California, is at +1-408-526-4000, or at http://www.cisco.com/.