IBM will start selling its Web software with enhancements to let companies conduct fully automated electronic commerce on the Internet without people clicking on browsers.

The software maker said it will sell upgraded versions of its DB2 database and WebSphere Web-management software in June, and other products will follow before year's end. The move grows out of talks among U.S. software makers that drafted standards to let one company's software communicate with another's. The goal is to go beyond a procurement officer clicking on a browser to order parts; it would let programming take over and even search for the best prices from vendors. Companies that already do business with each other will be among the early buyers, said Ted Schadler, a software analyst at the consulting firm Forrester Research. When a human-resources department adds an employee, for example, one command can start software to buy equipment such as a desk, phone and computer. If red phones are out of stock, the software could search a directory for companies that have red phones and learn how to connect automatically to place an order. IBM joined last year with rival Microsoft and with Ariba, a maker of electronic commerce software, to devise a registry to let companies list on the Web their products, business-to-business software and the technical means to get in touch. The free registry is called UDDI, for Universal Description, Discovery and Integration, and it works like an automated Yellow Pages. IBM and Microsoft also devised SOAP, or Simple Object Access Protocol, the standard messaging system companies can use to conduct fully automated transactions. They helped to create WSDL, or Web Services Description Language, an advanced way for a software application to describe its capabilities in a standard way to other software. Microsoft also is configuring its .Net software line with these open industry standards. Similar enhancements are expected from other Web software makers including BEA Systems, Sun Microsystems and Oracle.