Celarix essentially acts as an application service provider, offering its iSuite application for a monthly service fee, which it declined to reveal. The application gives companies like Williams-Sonoma a secure Web site to view and track data from all of its logistics service providers, including shippers, shipment consolidators, customs brokers, and other companies in the supply chain.

Williams-Sonoma uses iSuite to integrate its external and internal data sources, so it can track the status of shipments from overseas suppliers in some 50 countries through delivery acceptance at its largest distribution center in Memphis, Tenn.

"Our previous system only tracked goods to the distribution center yard in Memphis, so our employees had to go to a different system to confirm the receipt of the goods within the center," says Lois Davis, VP of international operations at Williams-Sonoma in San Francisco.

Written in Visual Basic and Java with Extensible Markup Language messaging, iSuite pulls shipment status updates in flat files from Williams-Sonoma databases and via electronic data interchange (over the Web or a value-added network) from carriers, consolidators, and overseas sourcing agents. The Web application also acts as an information portal, offering news, weather updates, and data about cargoes available for a consolidated shipment.

"It's the new breed of enterprise application, combining content and functionality," says Celarix CEO Evan Schumacher. "It's service as much as software."

Celarix will make a bigger push into services this fall with the rollout of Global Logistics Exchange, a Web marketplace to bring shippers and carriers together to negotiate deals online. Ocean shipping for U.S. importers and exporters was deregulated May 1, freeing companies to negotiate custom contracts. Celarix hopes to bring that activity to the Web. It has signed up 15 shippers and two carriers so far.

Early next year, Celarix plans to introduce a Global Logistics Data Warehouse, which would anonymously combine shipment performance data from all its customers to provide industry benchmarks for global supply-chain efficiency.

Celarix is betting that its application outsourcing proposition will appeal to companies with limited technology resources. "Logistics is usually a low priority for IT support," says Schumacher, "so a rentable app should be a no-brainer."