InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

Customers can now choose from 17 models of PCs, workstations, and notebooks offered through IBM's "Buy Today, Ship Today" program-up from the original nine. "A lot of businesses, especially small businesses, need instant gratification when they buy PCs," says Rich Fennessy, VP for IBM's PSG Direct group. Fennessy adds that IBM will continue to increase the number of products offered through the program. "Right now, we're focusing on the hot sellers," he says. Among the systems currently available is an Intel Celeron IBM 300GL PC with 64 Mbytes of memory, and IBM is adding three Netfinity systems with 500-MHz Pentium III chips. Computers ordered through "Buy Today, Ship Today" can't be configured by customers.

IBM has also integrated telephone support into its E-commerce site. By clicking a "Call Me Now" button, Web shoppers will receive a phone call from a sales rep within 45 seconds.

The enhanced site is girded by an E-commerce ordering and fulfillment system that IBM began constructing last May in partnership with Direct Alliance Corp. Telephone requests are routed to Netfinity servers at call centers in Phoenix and Toronto. Fulfillment is handled from an IBM warehouse in Raleigh, N.C. Company officials declined to say how much it cost to build the system.

Observers laud the effort, but point out that the company lags far behind some of its competitors in online sales. "They're late to the game on this," says Bill Lesieur, an analyst at Technology Business Research. Through the end of last year, IBM's Personal Systems Group derived 14% of its revenue from online sales. In contrast, Internet sales accounted for more than half of Dell's revenue last year.