Foreseeing dramatic growth in the middle market for customer relationship management (CRM) software, IBM is expected to announce in the US an extension of its business relationship with Siebel Systems to "complex, multimillion-dollar" companies in the sub-Fortune 500 realm.
Hoping to provide more options for users with two- and three-tier client/server implementations, SAP AG and IBM announced Tuesday at IBM's Solutions 2000 Conference in Las Vegas that the SAP Application Server in SAP's R3 ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite can be co-located on IBM's S/390 Enterprise Server, often the site for the database application server of R3.
Not content to wait on the sidelines, banks and other financial services firms are moving into the Web's business-to-business fray, looking to provide the underlying financial services that have until now been an afterthought for many exchanges that trade goods and services online.
The founders of a new business-to-business exchange for the energy industry are laying the groundwork for a launch by the end of the year, and have tapped Commerce One Inc. and SAP AG as the infrastructure technology providers for the global, direct and indirect procurement e-marketplace.
With the goal of providing more streamlined access to business-to-business electronic marketplaces, BroadVision Inc. and Commerce One Inc. agreed this week to integrate the sell-side procurement offerings of BroadVision with the buy-side links of Commerce One.
The dismantling of Baan NV has begun. London-based Invensys announced this week that it has 72 percent of Baan's outstanding stock shares and has "assumed full management control" of the troubled ERP (enterprise resource planning) software company.
Foreseeing dramatic growth in the middle market for CRM (customer relationship management) software, IBM will officially announce next week an extension of its business relationship with Siebel Systems Inc. to "complex, multi-million dollar" companies in the sub-Fortune 500 realm.
With business-to-business exchanges either dropping out of the race for liquidity or combining, they are entering a period of consolidation and heading for a split along public and private lines.
U.S. banks might be getting authorization from the Federal Reserve Board to compete via the Internet with nonbanks as "finders" for buyers and sellers of goods and services, according to a rule change proposed last week by the Fed.
The days are numbered for companies that strictly do business-to-consumer commerce as these organizations begin to adopt practices from their business-to-business counterparts.
Although the initial rush to create business-to-business online trading exchanges has been dominated by industry consortia and start-ups, suppliers are likely to find themselves in the catbird seat in deciding whether new exchanges live or die.
Two years ago, Syntel, a Troy, Mich.-based enterprise software consulting and outsourcing firm, found itself in a perplexing situation. Its business was taking off, but to keep up with demand the firm had to increase its use of foreign IT consultants.
Business-to-business exchange heavyweights Global eXchange Services and Commerce One Inc. are combining forces in joint development agreements that will bring together their technologies as well as pave the way for combined sales and marketing efforts.
In the red hot (customer relationship management) space, E.piphany Inc. is edging closer to competitor Siebel Systems Inc. with next week's debut of Epiphany E.5, according to analysts.
Foreseeing a huge demand, Oracle and Cisco Systems are combining technologies to provide voice-based and CRM (customer relationship management) over the internet via VoIP (voice over internet protocol), company officials said.