Ariba Tuesday rolled out several new deals and products for business-to-business e-commerce, including agreements with J.D. Edwards, Microsoft Corp. and US Bancorp.
Ariba said the series of moves is part of its strategy to open new on-ramps to its network platform, extend its presence in the small- and middle-sized business market and expand its supplier base.
Ariba Inc.
(ARBA) and Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT) Tuesday extended the two companies’ current partnership to bring to market more e-commerce solutions which rely on a combined Microsoft framework and Ariba network service.
Ariba will now use the BizTalk Framework, a cross-platform e-commerce framework introduced in March, to integrate a Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition-based sell-side solution to be used in conjuction with the Ariba network.
Microsoft and Ariba also signed an agreement to deliver the Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 database in the Ariba’s ORMS application. Ariba will act as a reseller and will offer Ariba customers currently using Oracle an upgrade package, in the aim of wooing more users to the SQL Server.
Ariba and Microsoft will also continue cooperative efforts to integrate cXML into the BizTalk Extensible Markup Language (XML) framework, furthering the relationship between the Ariba network and BizTalk.
The two companies previously teamed up to offer Ariba’s ORMS e-commerce solution on the Microsoft BackOffice platform, including the Windows NT Server operating system and SQL Server.
Ariba also inked a deal with J.D. Edwards & Co.
(JDEC). Ariba already powers J.D. Edwards’ E-Procurement solution, but a new agreement will allow WorldSoftware users to access the Ariba ORMS e-commerce application as well. The newly combined solution provides J.D. Edwards’ WorldSoftware customers with the ability to integrate suppliers through the Ariba network service.
The integrated product is expected to become in October.
Several new products were announced, including the Ariba Internet Business Exchange service, which specifically targets smaller businesses. The service offers a hosted Internet solution that allows users to build e-commerce communities without requiring the company to maintain the infrastructure in-house.
The company also rolled out the sixth release of its Ariba ORMS application. A separate version of the Ariba ORMX application, tailored for use in an application service provider (ASP) environment, also debuted Tuesday.
Ariba also forged an alliance with U.S. Bancorp to develop and market an integrated electronic transaction system for business-to-business e-commerce. The solution will offer electronic orders and invoices and will automatically reconciles purchase orders and charges, among other features. The service has already been implemented at several major corporations.