InformationWeek

June 28, 1999

New Model For E-Commerce

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StoreFront can't use FrontPage's Navigation Bars, which don't work with Active Server Pages, but it does take advantage of FrontPage 2000's check-in/check-out tools and workflow reports, and the ability to update links when pages are dragged and dropped from one folder to another. The program has built-in support for AuthorizeNet, CyberCash, PaymentNet, and PC Authorize real-time credit-card processing services, and products can be set as tax and shipping exempt on a product-by-product basis. Since FrontPage now shares design-time control support with Visual InterDev, IT managers may be able to integrate StoreFront projects with existing intranet and extranet business-to-business sites.

Elemental Software's eStore Builder uses the Drumbeat 2000 development engine (bundled for $599) to create data-driven E-commerce sites that use Active Server Pages. Drumbeat abstracts data access, multiple browser detection, and complex component interactions into a set of point-and-click tools that let nonprogrammers duplicate the efforts of Visual InterDev and FrontPage developers. Drumbeat's re-entrant Data Form wizard and hierarchical template inheritance let you customize the default eStore Builder store without requiring reprogramming or repetitive formatting.

Drumbeat spans the divide between the low and middle segments, offering rapid deployment of sophisticated E-commerce sites while allowing department-level management of product content and design refreshes. In addition, eStore Builder supports tax and shipping calculations, automatic order confirmation, and drag-and-drop integration of the CyberCash CashRegister3 payment service. Drumbeat supports multimedia interactions that make site development easier for business IT developers; we think companies with in-house JavaScript development resources will use this product to prototype high-end sites.

In the middle segment, Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition blends elements of the NT/Back Office toolset: IIS, SQL Server, Index Server, Transaction Server, FrontPage, Visual InterDev, and add-ons including Personalization Server, Ad Server, and Intelligent Cross-sell. The business-to-business Commerce Interchange Pipeline builds on Site Server 3.0's business-to-consumer Order Processing Pipeline to provide data interchange in multiple formats and transport protocols. Microsoft's forthcoming BizTalk Server subsumes Commerce Interchange Pipeline in an Extensible Markup Language framework, giving small and midsize businesses a migration path into Web E-business portals.

Exchange Server's Windows 2000-reliant Platinum will likely trigger a significant realignment of development strategy, with its Web Store integration of file system and messaging stores. If your company is al- ready committed to Microsoft tools and wants to jump into E-commerce now, third-party tools such as Visual Commerce's Constructor piggyback on Site Server Commerce Edition to deliver additional services: back ordering, invoicing, computing taxes and shipping, registering customers, a CyberCash pipeline component, and a Store Manager application that makes it easy to add featured product promotions.

This kind of value-added development tool is the forte of Lotus Development Corp.'s Domino platform. Binary Tree Inc.'s ezMerchant 1.5, priced at $4,995, steps into the void left by the demise of the easily installed but difficult to customize Domino.Merchant. Exploiting Domino's cross-platform strengths in Java, Corba, and COM on both NT and the AS/400, ezMerchant leverages Domino's bundled real-time connector and Lotus Enterprise Integrator connectors to back-end data sources. Domino's core security, workflow, and rapid development technologies lurk beneath the surface of the product's installation and maintenance programs, and Lotus' lead in emerging real-time communications tools such as Sametime and QuickPlace give Domino and Notes developers a head start in the high-end E-commerce market.

Tools For The High End
High-end tools are at the junction between entrepreneurial and enterprise E-commerce initiatives. InstantObjects Inc.'s InstantObjects Java integration platform, priced at $35,000 per processor on Unix, Windows NT, and Mac OS, is aimed at E-business site transformations that Forrester Research estimates take $780,000 to $1.5 million and from 26 to 39 weeks. The product's object-oriented framework lets nontechnical administrators update the resulting site in real time while letting developers prototype new functionality without interrupting site traffic.

Multiactive Software Inc.'s Entice, priced at $25,000, rides Microsoft's Windows DNA architecture, using BackOffice, Office 2000, and Visual Studio tools to deliver 10 modules that integrate all aspects of business data to automate lead generation, prospect qualification, customer profile management, electronic transaction routing, and personalized relationship building. The product anticipates Microsoft's Digital Dashboard initiative with the Key Indicator executive information system, which runs in a corner of the screen with updates on the number and Web trends of current site visitors, the value of daily Web sales, and the total number and forecasted value of opportunities in the sales pipeline.

The main factors in the success of E-commerce giants have been rapid adaptation and excellent timing. Market leaders pay for their leadership by adopting new technology early and delivering it to customers when they're ready for it. For now, the current approach is what most online shoppers expect. Whoever manages to bring support for high-touch customer service to market as customers' expectations rise will most likely be the winner in their market.

Steve Gillmor is director of Southern Digital Inc., a Charleston, S.C., IT consulting firm; he can be reached at sgillmor@southerndigital.com. Jeff Angus is a senior technology editor and Sean Gallagher is the managing editor of InformationWeek Labs.

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