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February 28, 2000

Software Package Eases Sales-Channel Conflicts
Exterprise's ActiveMarket 2 connects trading partners across the Internet

By Matthew G. Nelson

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he Internet can create channel conflicts when products are offered directly over the Net, cutting out partners and sales agents. But Exterprise Inc. says the Internet can smooth such conflicts by letting business partners collaborate.

This month, Exterprise began offering ActiveMarket 2.0, a Java application that lets trading partners promote, sell, and support complementary products and services across the Net. The idea is to create a site that links all partners and ultimately sends the customer to the sales channel for the purchase.

3M's office supplies division in St. Paul, Minn., is using ActiveMarket with its channel partner, US Office Products Co., to create a showroom of ergonomic office products. "Our focus is how we help our distributors sell their products better," says Paul Mullaney, digital initiatives manager of the 3M division. The Web site is co-branded. "With the integration so far, when someone clicks on a button to buy the products, it takes them to US Office Products," he says.

"What Exterprise's co-branding showroom allows you to do is not only to promote products aggressively on the Web," says Nathaniel Palmer, an analyst with Delphi Group, "but to capture the sales directly without threatening the indirect channel."

ActiveMarket 2 has six modules that handle tasks such as creating the marketplace and processing information between the partners, and an E-commerce engine for managing and securing transactions. The use of Java modules can assist in the installation of the system, which otherwise requires large amounts of custom integration, Palmer says.

ActiveMarket 2 is priced starting at $150,000; it's also available as a hosted system, with monthly fees starting at $25,000.

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