To all: This looks important to me. Comments anyone? JDN
iPlanet(TM) Announces Industry's First E-Commerce Portal Platform
iPlanet Portal Server Delivers Highly Scalable Personalization, Membership, Aggregation and Security Services for Rapid Deployment of E-Commerce Portals
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- iPlanet(TM) E-Commerce Solutions, a Sun-Netscape Alliance, today announced iPlanet Portal Server, the industry's first full-service platform for deploying robust e-commerce portals. iPlanet Portal Server provides all of the membership management, personalization, aggregation, security and integration services needed to quickly deploy today's most demanding e-commerce portals. By building on the iPlanet Portal Server platform, companies can now roll out highly scalable customer, supplier, partner and employee portals more quickly, even plugging in products from other portal software vendors in the process.
While many portal products today offer specialized functionality such as knowledge or content management, iPlanet Portal Server is the first platform to enable the dynamic creation of a portal that aggregates those functions and presents them in a consolidated format based upon the user's preference. iPlanet's open and flexible framework makes it easy for companies to both unify their internal portal projects and plug in value-added applications and services from other leading portal and e-commerce vendors such as Actuate, E.piphany, grapeVINE, Hyperion Solutions, Macromedia, Net.Genesis, and Net Perceptions. Additional services offered by iPlanet partners could include business intelligence, e.Reporting, marketing analytics, and customer relationship management.
"The iPlanet Portal Server is positioned to redefine the portal marketplace by providing a universal platform that enables e-commerce and business-to-business companies to integrate technology and business processes across their value chains," said Thomas Koulopoulos, president of Delphi Group. "Portal platforms will be the foundation of what Delphi projects to be a five trillion-dollar global transaction space by 2002."
"With a billion dollar portal market expected by 2002, portals are the fastest growing segment of e-commerce today," said Mark Tolliver, president and general manager of iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions. "By offering the industry's first portal platform, the iPlanet Portal Server puts iPlanet in a key position to extend its leadership role in e-commerce software and the exploding portal market."
The iPlanet Portal Server will be available in two formats: iPlanet Portal Server, designed for local hosting and administration by the enterprise; and iPlanet Portal Server: Service Provider Edition, offering enhanced service provider hosting capabilities. Additionally, iPlanet is offering Netscape Custom Netcenter, a customizable portal hosted by AOL/Netscape, allowing quick time-to-market with extensive pre-formatted news, stock quotes, weather and other content.
Redefining Portals: The Portal Platform
While early portals served merely as a common entry point to the Web, companies today are rushing to deploy a wide variety of highly interactive portals unifying customers, suppliers, partners and employees around common applications and services. By providing a flexible and highly scalable portal platform, iPlanet Portal Server enables enterprises and service providers to create integrated portals driven by business process and needs, rather than by proprietary vendor products and disparate internal initiatives.
iPlanet Portal Server features include:
-- Membership Services -- Establish a portal community that enables
provisioning via user registration and policy-based access to services.
Includes iPlanet(TM) Directory Server, the world's leading e-commerce
directory with 70 percent of the LDAP market and more than 150 million
licenses sold.
-- Presentation and Aggregation -- Provide portal page layout and creation
using customizable channels. Includes iPlanet(TM) Web Server, the
world's most widely deployed enterprise Web server with more than
60 percent of the Fortune 100 as customers.
-- Personalization Services -- Deliver multi-tiered personalization of
content (such as stock quotes, weather, news), applications and other
services as predefined by the portal user or administrator, or through
dynamic interactions with the portal itself based on previous usage.
-- Security Services -- Extranet and remote access security via user
authentication (LDAP, X509v3 certificates, and many other types),
on-demand virtual private network and single sign-on. Enables extended
communication and collaboration beyond e-mail and calendaring. For
example, a channel partner could work with suppliers to address a
product order using shared information over the portal.
-- Integration Services -- Integrated with html/xml applications (i.e.
mail client and file access), AOL/Netscape content, and non-html
applications (including NT, Unix and Mainframe).
iPlanet Portal Server, like iPlanet's entire line of market-leading e-commerce infrastructure products, was designed from the beginning to support the extreme requirements of today's most demanding e-commerce sites. The portal server leverages and includes iPlanet Directory Server and iPlanet Web Server, both market leaders in their respective categories (see above). Additionally, the iPlanet(TM) Application Server can be combined with the iPlanet Portal Server to provide the necessary development and deployment capabilities for portals requiring custom services.
Pricing and Availability
Netscape Custom Netcenter is available immediately from iPlanet, with pricing starting at $9.75 per user with volume discounts. iPlanet Portal Server and iPlanet Portal Server: Service Provider Edition will be available in the second quarter, with both per user and per CPU pricing available. Professional services are also available from iPlanet, Sun Microsystems and selected global system integrators.
About iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions
iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions, a Sun-Netscape Alliance, was established in March 1999 by America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL) and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to provide easy-to-deploy, comprehensive e-commerce solutions for the Net Economy. iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions provides the industry's broadest portfolio of e-commerce infrastructure and applications software and services. Its iPlanet Messaging, Directory, Web and Application Server software all enjoy #1 market share positions. For more information, consult the iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions Web site at www.iplanet.com or call 888-786-8111.
NOTE: Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo and iPlanet are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Netscape and the Netscape N logo are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other Netscape logos, product names, and service names are also trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation, which may be registered in other countries.
Press Release Addendum - Customer and Partner Quotes
"The iPlanet Portal Server provides customers with an end-to-end portal solution that has the necessary flexibility and scalability for developing highly personalized business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce solutions," said Paul Rodwick, vice president of product marketing and strategy at E.piphany. "We anticipate significant interest from our customers in a combined solution of the portal server with E.piphany's real-time analytical applications that create a single enterprise-wide view of the customer enabling insight and personalized action across all touchpoints."
"We selected the iPlanet Portal Server because it addressed our needs for secure access of data and applications, and allowed us to implement our enterprise portal within a tight deadline," said Chuck Christ, manager of IT Infrastructure at Hitachi America, Ltd.
"The integration of both applications and services to deliver comprehensive supplier, partner, employee, and customer portals is the true promise of iPlanet Portal Server," said Steve Fioretti, vice president of marketing at Hyperion. "iPlanet Portal Server's ability to access Hyperion's e-business CRM and financial analytic applications from both inside and outside the firewall is the next step in the development of a robust portal platform and satisfies the next-generation demands of our customers."
"The Macromedia eBusiness Infrastructure shares a common theme with the iPlanet Portal Server -- providing customers with integrated e-business solutions that significantly speed the delivery of Web applications," said Stephen Elop, senior vice president and general manager of Macromedia eBusiness Solutions. "The iPlanet Portal Server perfectly complements Macromedia's solution for Web content creation, content management, analysis, and personalization."
"We're delivering on Sun's dot-com promise," stated Mark Bauhaus, vice president of Sun .Com Consulting. "The iPlanet Portal Server is an important catalyst for new service provider business opportunities that are supported by .Com Consulting technology platform design and integration."
SOURCE iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions
CO: iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions; Netscape Communications Corporation; America Online, Inc.; Sun Microsystem |
