IBM, Concentric aim to make e-commerce easier

LOS ANGELES - If the thought of designing, launching and managing your company's electronic commerce Web site gives you the cold sweats, hold on to your hanky. ISPs IBM Global Services and Concentric Network will use this week's Spring Internet World '99 conference to roll out services that take these tasks off your hands.

Hosting and design services from ISPs are aimed at companies that don't have the personnel or in-house knowledge to build and run e-commerce Web sites, says David Baltaxe, an analyst at Current Analysis, a Sterling, Va., consulting firm.

Sources close to IBM Global Services say the organization will introduce a collection of services that will include consulting, a variety of e-commerce software packages and back-end systems integration tools for companies starting e-commerce Web sites.

IBM Global Services will consult with customers to help them evaluate their Web sites' goals before diving headfirst into a sea of Internet transactions. The organization will also provide a selection of IBM and non-IBM software that can be used for everything from creating online catalogs to establishing real-time payment authorization systems for business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions. Among the software offerings will be IBM's Net.Commerce suite.

One source says IBM Global Services will also work with customers to link their e-commerce Web sites to back-end systems, such as databases that store supply-chain information. IBM Global Services is also expected to roll out e-commerce packages for specific vertical markets, such as banking and retail.

The ISP is expected to reveal pricing and availability information this week.

Where IBM Global Services' efforts are aimed more at large companies setting up dedicated Web servers, Concentric's new offering is more for small and mid-size companies that don't mind running their Web sites on shared servers.

However, Concentric's Web hosting offering will support companies that need to sell just a handful of different items online and can settle for delayed invoice processing. The service also targets companies that want to sell hundreds of different products and use real-time credit card authorization schemes.

ConcentricHost service is being offered in conjunction with software from Intershop, CyberCash and Netopia.

Intershop sells software featuring custom templates that make it easier for users to design online catalogs, shopping baskets and product databases. The company's Intershop 3 tools can also help customers monitor inventory and purchasing. PSINet is among the other ISPs already offering e-commerce services in conjunction with Intershop.

Concentric is including CyberCash software to help users set up payment authorization processes on their sites. Netopia's Site Builder software lets users build Web pages without doing any HTML programming themselves.

Concentric is offering its business customers five levels of service, starting with EasySite, which lets users host 15 products with an off-line transaction-processing tool. The top level of service is called Full Store and includes all Intershop 3 options and real-time credit card authorization capabilities.

The services will be available by May for $20 to $266 per month.

Senior Writer Marc Songini contributed to this story.