InformationWeek

December 7, 1998

Web-Based Service

App integration is key to server-based customer-service systems

By Justin Hibbard

hile front-office software makers such as Siebel Systems Inc. ship products for managing all forms of customer contact, some smaller vendors are focusing on Web-based customer interactions. SilkNet Software Inc. and Pivotal Software Inc. have released server systems that unite several customer-service functions in one Web interface. Blue Martini Software, a startup, will ship a Web sales package in the spring.

SilkNet's eBusiness System is server software that ties together several back-end applications. For instance, companies can make order-entry, call-center, and help-desk applications available from one Web site. In addition, a workflow engine links processes across several applications. A user can, for example, order a product and schedule a service call in one Web form, and the engine will route the right information to the right back-end systems.

SilkNet's eBusiness System also manages security and user authentication. But companies must provide their own linking software between SilkNet's server and their other applications, either by writing it themselves or by buying it from vendors such as CrossWorlds Software, Extricity Software, or Scribe Software.

InaCom Corp., a $4 billion computer reseller, uses eBusiness System to give its business customers access to InaCom's online procurement, asset-management, call-center, and help-desk systems from a password-protected Web site. "Instead of coming at them with multiple packages, we come at them with a single interface," says Mike Moore, VP of services marketing at InaCom.

Moore says InaCom considered all-in-one customer-service packages but chose eBusiness System instead because it lets the company use the best application in an individual category, such as help-desk, and tie several of them together.

Pivotal offers an all-in-one customer service package called Relationship 99. But the company has shipped two add-on apps that extend the package to Web users. Pivotal's eRelationship Customer Hub makes Relationship 99 available to Web consumers, who can access a knowledge base, submit questions, and chat with service representatives. The information the customers submit funnels into a central system used by sales and service staff. Also, eRelationship Partner Hub opens the system to distributors and suppliers, giving them access to customer data via the Web and letting them collaborate in the sales process.

Server For Commerce, Too
Blue Martini will ship E-Merchandising Solution, a server that performs commerce as well as customer-management functions. The server gathers data on consumers' preferences and applies traditional merchandising techniques, such as segmenting people into demographic groups and offering them targeted products on personalized Web pages.

Built-in tools in E-Merchandising Solution let companies analyze data from their Web customers and identify sales opportunities that apply not only to E-commerce sites but also to conventional shops. "We believe it will drive revenue on the Web and in brick-and-mortar stores," says Monte Zweben, CEO at Blue Martini.

Pricing for E-Merchandising Solution hasn't been set. SilkNet's eBusiness System starts at $250,000. Pivotal's eRelationship Customer Hub starts at $10,000; eRelationship Partner Hub starts at $50,000.