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March 20, 2000

Xuma Targets Dot-Com Startups
Three new products aim to help small companies compete in E-commerce

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Startups Putting More B2B In E-Commerce Plans (3/8/00)

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ringing the digital marketplace down from the rarified heights of multinational conglomerates, Xuma Inc. last week introduced CommerceX, ExchangeX, and ManageX, a suite of E-business service products aimed at dot-com startups.

CommerceX, which runs on Windows NT/2000 and Unix platforms, is a hardware and software package that Xuma hosts on its facilities to let small businesses engage in E-commerce. ExchangeX is aimed at small and midsize online marketplaces and includes static page support, a caching engine, security, session failover, and load balancing.

ManageX provides outsourced Internet operation services, including application hosting, network management and maintenance, co-location, and Web-hosting services. ManageX, which can be used with CommerceX or ExchangeX, includes technical support for troubleshooting and upgrading the applications Xuma hosts.

CornerHardware.com Inc., a San Francisco online hardware retailer, has migrated to ManageX from Xuma's existing hosting services and is considering the other products. "We could use CommerceX for selling products to smaller hardware companies online, becoming a supplier to these companies," says VP of engineering Steve Finer. He says ExchangeX could help his company set up an online auction for contractors, builders, and retailers. Xuma acts as CornerHardware.com's outsourced IT staff, developing applications for the company's E-business site that allow product searches, payment, and shipping, Finer says. Working with Xuma has saved CornerHardware.com hundreds of thousands of dollars, he adds.

The cost of using CommerceX and ExchangeX, individually or in tandem, and adding ManageX ranges from $2 million to $5 million, says Mikael Rudolfsen, a product manager for Xuma.

Kristen Engelhardt, a senior analyst of E-business services at Dataquest, calls Xuma's offering a hybrid of conventional professional services delivery and the application service provider model. "Xuma is adding on functionality that addresses issues such as order fulfillment, supply-chain management, shipping logistics, and back-end integration," Engelhardt says. "These are all key pain points that enterprises in the dot-com space are experiencing."

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