InformationWeek

Most software that powers online stock-trading systems, business-to-consumer E-commerce sites, and other Internet transaction systems is custom-developed. Java-based Transactor serves as a hub for completing online transactions and as a platform for building E-commerce applications.

For example, Transactor provides a link between a traveler using a mobile phone to check an airline's flight schedule and the airline's back-end system that holds the data. A mail-order company could use Transactor to route a special-offer E-mail message to a customer.

"There's a need for a hub product like Transactor," says Meta Group analyst Gene Alvarez. The system's workflow-management capabilities are particularly applicable to situations in which communications must be routed through multiple Web sites, such as when a consumer is searching for the lowest airfare, he says.

GE Capital Fleet Services, which manages fleets of corporate vehicles, will likely implement Transactor during the next year. The Eden Prairie, Minn., company already uses MicroStrategy software to give customers access to vehicle-maintenance and expense records. Later this summer, the company will begin using MicroStrategy's Broadcaster to send alerts to drivers reminding them, for example, when they need to bring their cars in for an oil change.

"Transactor closes the loop," says Ken Schneider, E-commerce business manager at GE Capital. The software will let drivers respond to those oil-change warnings by scheduling appointments via E-mail.

Transactor processes transactions between any mobile phone, personal digital assistant, or PC browser that supports the Extensible Markup Language standard, and any back-end database that supports Internet access or the Open Database Connectivity or Java Database Connectivity standards. Transactor, available immediately, starts at $200,000.