E-Catalogs Get Back-End Ties.

Commerce server vendors continue to entice users with more complete packaged e-commerce applications as an alternative to users building their sites from scratch. New commerce servers this month from Art Technology Group, BroadVision, Intershop, and InterWorld offer users more choice than ever in jump-starting their e-storefronts. Users such as OkiData Americas, a fax and printer manufacturer that launched its direct-to-consumer commerce site last March with the help of InterWorld, prefer the increasing enterprise-readiness of such platforms. "We looked at and easily ruled out a lot of solutions that weren_t much more than catalogs. We needed something capable of handling our full business processes," said Craig Broadbent, manager of electronic marketing at OkiData. Also a requirement: tight integration with an SAP back end, and the ability to move forward in the future with personalization and other advanced site features, said Broadbent.OkiData_s decision mirrors that of many high-end sites that are increasingly opting to choose and ride a commerce server vendor rather than be stuck with the cost and complexity of building a commerce infrastructure in-house.At Internet World this week, InterWorld launched Commerce Exchange 3.0. The release features an expanded repository of "best practice" templates for online merchandising, order processing and customer service. New merchandise techniques supported in Commerce Exchange 3.0 include personalized promotions, product alternatives, cross-sells, up-sells, and points programs. The 3.0 release also introduces a new family of role-based tools that pushes commerce site responsibility down to business line managers, systems managers, Web designers, and application developers. InterWorld Commerce Exchange 3.0 is available now and averages $400,000 for a typical installation. Intershop, perhaps best known for its software for commerce service providers (CSP), last week unveiled a new high-end commerce server, dubbed enfinity, directly targeting the enterprise. The vendor believes its experience in dealing with massive CSP implementations, along with a strong focus on back-end integration, will serve enterprise users well, said Sam Boonen, Intershop_s product marketing director. When Intershop questioned enterprise users, it found "that integration and extensibility are the primary needs, even on top of marketing and merchandising applications," Boonen said.Enfinity includes 75 preconfigured "pipelines" that let an enterprise integrate e-commerce transactions with external and internal business systems, including ERP, CRM, and custom mainframe applications, Boonen said.