Sun-Netscape Alliance Releases E-Commerce Solution

The Sun-Netscape alliance Monday released two new products and a server upgrade as part of a suite of solutions that allow companies to create an online trading network.

The portfolio of solutions can be integrated with existing systems to build trading communities that tie together customers, partners, employees and suppliers.

Dubbed the iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite, the e-commerce software product acts as the first building block to create and deploy the online network. The e-commerce application and server software are designed to integrate and automate cross-company business processes. The solution also allows the company to collaborate and combine services with low-tech partners.

Sun (SUNW) and Netscape also announced the process automation edition of the Netscape Application Server, which automates cross-company business applications. The product also ties together the business applications of customers, partners, and employees for cross-company use, and is built on top of Netscape Application Server.

The upgrade of the alliance’s commerce exchange application, Netscape ECXpert 3.0, was also released. ECXpert 3.0 allows companies to automate and manage cross-company processes over the Internet and corporate intranets. It offers secure, automated transactions using existing systems.

The alliance claims wide adoption of the portfolio in the Fortune 100 industries, including companies such as AOL, AXA Sun Life, FranceTelecom, GTE, and MCI.

“Companies today are looking to the Sun-Netscape Alliance to build trading communities that leverage their internal assets, as well as move their processes online and connect to their partners, suppliers and customers,” said Steve Savignano, senior vice president and general manager for the Sun-Netscape Alliance e-commerce division.

The Sun-Netscape products include broad support for extensible mark-up language (XML) for cross-company business exchange, and the Java 2 Enterprise Edition development environment.