IBM boosts e-business offerings

Big Blue on Monday announced new partnerships with enterprise software developer J.D. Edwards, business-to-business software maker Ariba, and collaborative applications provider Logility. The deals were announced at this year's IBM Link 2001 Conference in Las Vegas.

Big Blue and J.D. Edwards will jointly sell and market collaborative commerce applications to selected markets in the public sector and wholesale distribution industry. This is an expansion of an existing alliance between the two companies.

Under terms of the agreement, J.D. Edwards will sell its software through IBM's software, server and services channels, through its business partners in the midsized wholesale distribution market, and through selected accounts in state and local public sector.

In addition, J.D. Edwards World and OneWorld Xe applications will be ported to IBM's eServer products and other key software and middleware products.

IBM Global Services and IBM Business Partners will provide consulting, customization and integration services for joint IBM and J.D. Edwards products.

In related news, IBM will start hosting Ariba's Buyer e-procurement software beginning in the second quarter. The IBM-managed Ariba Buyer service will provide the Ariba software, IBM help-desk support, and application hosting services, Big Blue said in a statement.

Ariba Buyer allows companies to automate and manage corporate sourcing, buying, and internal business processes between employee desktops, suppliers and electronic marketplaces.

IBM and Ariba are touting the new hosted service as a way to allow more midsized companies to take part in business-to-business e-commerce.

"Ariba and IBM are bringing midsized companies all the benefits of e-commerce in a hosted model to help them compete in global e-commerce," said Dan Fishback, vice president of global channels at Ariba.

The deal is part of an existing alliance between IBM and Ariba that was formed amid much fanfare last March. E-commerce software maker i2 Technologies also joined the alliance, which was created to sell software and services to help build online marketplaces that serve companies in aerospace, construction, retail, chemical and other industries. But i2 and Ariba have since made many moves that <="" a="" rel="follow" target="_self">jeopardize the alliance.

IBM also announced it is teaming with business-to-business collaboration software maker Logility to sell Logility's Voyager software on the IBM eServer iSeries server, allowing customers to use the collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment applications provided by Logility.

Logility applications can be used with an enterprise client-server model or an application service provider (ASP) model, both using the IBM eServer iSeries server.