The New Technology Short List

E-business has quickly migrated from pure-play Web companies to the established old guard that has finally muscled its way into the e-commerce world. Those traditional companies have substantial investments in legacy systems, and they're loath to give them up.

To offer a total solution, Web integrators must be able to link Web front-end solutions with legacy systems. Many form partnerships with established vendors in exchange for training. Others form relationships with solution providers. Alternatively, Web integrators may rely on consultancies to provide that expertise for customers.

Austin, Texas-based Vignette Corp., for instance, relies on large consulting firms such as Andersen Consulting and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP a to include its V/5 E-business platform--which encompasses StoryServer, Vignette's original content management software--in an overall solution. Vignette also has relationships with IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Art Technology Group (ATG), however, prefers to partner with smaller Web integrators that recommend ATG's Dynamo product suite for Internet CRM. ATG has approximately 140 integrator relationships.

Here's a look at some of the projects solution providers have been involved in to integrate their clients' legacy systems with more current systems.

Profitable Partnering
Fort Point Partners Inc., an ATG partner, recently completed a project that involved extensive legacy integration consisting of a Web site relaunch using ATG's Dynamo Product Suite as a personalization platform. Kaplan Inc., a New York-based provider of educational and career services, wanted to redesign its internally developed kaptest.com site. It turned to the New York office of San Francisco-based Fort Point for help.

The site, one of several operated by Kaplan, offers comprehensive test preparation and admissions services. Although the site had always provided registration for both online and traditional courses, selecting the right course for each individual involved a lot of manual work, according to Duncan Kruse, Kaplan's vice president of Internet technology. Kaplan wanted a more seamless registration system combined with the ability to sell books and software. James Roche, CEO of Fort Point, says his company's experience in working with legacy systems in real time helped to cinch the deal.

Another major challenge was the company's desire to implement a high level of personalization so the new site could assess test results and recommend personalized product offerings based on those results without human intervention. The process took five months. "Scalability was an important issue," Roche says. Fort Point used its eSelling strategy to optimize the kaptest.com site.

The biggest challenge, however, was integrating kaptest.com with six legacy systems. Fort Point picked MimEcom Corp.'s E-commerce Systems Management (ESM) software for management of the site. MimEcom, founded by several former Fort Point employees, was chosen because it supports the ATG platform. In addition to the ATG application servers, the project involved an Apache Web server, Sun servers and an existing Oracle database.

Finding Technology That Works
Companies that have developed their Web sites in-house often rely on well-established vendors and solutions. When Watsonville, Calif.-based West Marine, an international reseller of boats and boating supplies, wanted to overhaul its home-grown Web site, it pointed its compass toward Web Emporium LLC, Phoenix. A premier IBM software partner, Web Emporium builds customized platforms using IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite and is a member of IBM's Web Initiatives program.

"Our site wasn't robust [or] scalable, the user interface was embarrassing and our customers hated it," admits Michelle Farabaugh, West Marine's vice president of e-commerce. West Marine is standardized on IBM, using AS/400 hardware and DB2 database software, and had no interest in changing its core technology.

IBM suggested Web Emporium when West Marine asked for a recommendation. "We gave [Web Emporium] four days to put together a proposal. They really understood the hardware and software, and they had great references," Farabaugh says. "They came through and exceeded our expectations."

West Marine needed a 90-day turnaround on the project, a daunting requirement since the project called for full back-end integration and catalog integration of 50,000 SKUs. The project was particularly complex because West Marine had mostly mainframe data and more than one database, adds Marshall Freiman, co-founder and CTO of Web Emporium. Those factors worked against any major technology overhauls.

Web Emporium acts as the ASP for the solution. There is back-end integration with West Marine's JDA system, which runs on an AS/400 platform. Web Emporium upgraded West Marine from JDA Version 1 to Version 4. IBM's WebSphere application server is also part of the package.

"There is a lot of IBM hardware involved, including Netfinity servers and an RS/6000," Freiman says. "IBM provides good support, and we like their products."

Sticking With the Known
Even start-ups with no legacy-system baggage find they rely on traditional vendors for solutions. With time-to-market a crucial element, there's less risk involved with a known solution.

Frans Johansson, co-founder of Inka.net, a Boston company that creates and extends trading platforms for services marketplaces, turned to Web integrator Primix Solutions Inc., Watertown, Mass., for assistance.

Primix offered office space as well as a quick implementation to Johansson. Serendipitously, Primix was just formulating its e-Catalyst incubator program for start-ups, and Inka.net became the test case. (For more on e-Catalyst, see "A Day In the Life of a Web Incubator," June 12, page 56.) In addition to office space and equipment, e-Catalyst provides access to business development, IT and human-resource professionals. That access was invaluable to Inka.net.

Primix provided a custom solution for Inka.net. The product, InkaStructure, launched last month, just slightly behind schedule. It's 100 percent Java-based, and runs on Windows NT and Sun Solaris platforms. Inka.net uses Sun hardware, a Sun-Netscape Web server, an IBM WebSphere application server and an Oracle database.

In Vogue Or In Place?
Web integrators willing to ally with traditional vendors are at an advantage. Traditional vendors are eager to train Web integrators on their products and provide technical support as long as integrators recommend their products.

Rare Medium Inc., for example, is a New York-based integrator that has partnership relationships with both Sun and IBM. "It's imperative that we align with best-of-breed products, technologies and companies," says Brian Francis, senior vice president of global alliances. The goal is to emerge from an alliance in a more competitive position, whether through financial investments by the vendors or investments in kind, such as training or products."

Rare Medium has dedicated alliance directors for both Sun and IBM. Francis takes the concept of alliances seriously and has a formal metrics system for measuring the success of enterprisewide alliances.

Within 30 days of starting a partnership, Francis prepares a formal business plan with objectives and milestones. "How else are we going to know at the end of the day if this relationship is successful?" he asks. "With traditional vendor relationships or new-age suppliers, it pays to know upfront who you can depend on and who you can't."