IBM Targets Customers with New E-Commerce Software
Jim Martin
During its fourth-quarter earnings teleconference last week, IBM focused a lot of attention on its growing e-business portfolio of products and services.
Big Blue added to that portfolio with a series of announcements made at PartnerWorld (San Diego, Calif.). Among them was the unveiling of e-commerce software designed to assist e-businesses in building customer loyalty and site activity to increase revenue.
The new software suite includes WebSphere Commerce Suite version 4.1 and WebSphere Commerce Studio.
WebSphere Commerce Suite 4.1 includes features that allow e-commerce businesses to increase revenue through targeted customer loyalty and relationship marketing programs such as merchandising and order management. These new capabilities take advantage of the Web development and design tools from IBM’s WebSphere Web application server software as well as WebSphere’s core technology, according to the company.
A set of tools that provide a flexible and powerful Web application development and management workbench, the WebSphere Commerce Studio can be used for Web application development, integration, deployment, usage and management.
“Today, we see many companies in varying stages of e-commerce site development,” says Ed Kilroy, general manager, electronic commerce solutions, IBM. “Whether a company is just beginning to build an e-commerce site or exploring or implementing more complex functionality such as integrating their supply chain with partners and leveraging customer information, WebSphere Commerce Suite is the only product in the marketplace today that offers an end-to-end solution for all stages of e-commerce development, deployment, and management.”