InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

July 31, 2000

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Commerce One Integrates Electronic Data Interchange

Alliance with GE global exchange services handles billing and tracking of purchases

By Cheryl Rosen

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-commerce platform provider Commerce One last week sealed an alliance with GE Global Exchange Services that analysts say will offer a new challenge to Ariba Inc., Commerce One's biggest competitor. The deal gives Commerce One access to GE's mammoth network of large global customers and its expertise in transaction processing. GE Global Exchange gains a partner in integrating its electronic data interchange system with Internet technologies, reaching small and midsize companies.

"We can accept XML inputs from Commerce One and convert them into protocols like X.12 and Edifact, which have represented the lingua franca of business-to-business E-commerce for over a decade," says Harvey Seegers, GE Global Exchange's president and CEO. GE Global Exchange, which has an EDI network that handles $1 trillion in volume a year, will support billing, reporting, and tracking of purchases; pre- and post-transaction collaboration; and the download of data into corporate accounting systems. The vendors will sell each other's products and partner on customer support and implementation.

Wall Street sees the combination as a smart move in the early heat for E-marketplace dominance. "It's a foot- race between them," says Jon Ekoniak, senior research analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. But unlike Ariba's alliances with IBM and supply-chain management vendor i2 Technologies, Commerce One's deal "is a relationship with a company actually doing electronic transactions, and it will give Commerce One a leg up," he says.

Some customers say the difference between Commerce One and Ariba is one of philosophy as much as technology. "Ariba focuses on being an unbiased broker between the seller and the buyer," says Michael Sites, VP of E-commerce at Sabre Inc., which is partnering with Ariba on two travel-industry marketplaces, "whereas Commerce One works with suppliers."

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