Hi DownSouth,
All of these marketplace applications are nothing more than database applications. In a typical design, the database is at the foundation, and the application server sits on top of it. What Ariba does is making database applications on top of the application server. In my opinion, database is real technology, and application server is real technology. What Ariba has is good business analyst who develops great business rules for marketpalce. Once the rules are defined, The database programmers map them out and write out the business rules on WebLogic. So from a technical standpoint, there is not much barrier to Ariba's or CommerceOne's Marketplace applications.
As for the actual marketplace offerings from Ariba and CommerceOne, they simply do not work. Is there any Ariba marketplace implementation that's generating revenue?
Maybe a bigger question is what is E-business. E-Business should not be any new way of doing business. Rather, it should assist and streamline the current way of doing business. The biggest gain in E-business is fulfillment, not procurement. Ariba and CommerceOne are getting in E-business from the buying side. Sieble is getting in from the selling side. I2 is getting in from the supply chain side. And Oracle is getting in from every where. If fullfillment is really the key to E-business, as I have suggested, then Oracle, i2, and maybe Siebel should be the guys that's going to deliver E-Business, not Ariba.
Regards,
lkj |
