MARKETING, THE PLOT THICKENS
##### BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2001--eXcelon ,Corp (NASDAQ:EXLN - news), a leading provider of XML-based business-to-business (B2B) infrastructure solutions, today announced that its e-business products have won the Gartner Group's prestigious ``Best of EnterpriseVision'' eSolution award. eXcelon was presented with the award at EnterpriseVision Spring 2001 produced by Vision Events, a Gartner company. eXcelon's B2B products were selected based on a rigorous evaluation process by a panel of 110 industry consultants and systems integrators, who selected the winners from 35 nominees across 8 categories.#####
BOB,
Unquestionably the Gartner Group is well respected.
Read the following from Bloomberg and it makes you wonder if in anticipation of EXLN's award by Gartner, a competitor of EXLN paid to have this article published by Bloomberg. Sorry I don't have the Bloomberg link because I copied it from another thread.
BEA, IBM, Other Software Makers Expand in Web Services Market
Boston, March 10 (Bloomberg) -- BEA Systems Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and a handful of rivals are racing to expand the capabilities of electronic-commerce software in a fast-growing, $1.6 billion market.
The competitors, which also include Microsoft Corp., Hewlett- Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc., already are jockeying in the ``application server'' market to sell Internet software that lets companies easily share information and transact business both internally and over the Web.
Many corporations want to bring more automation to Web-based transactions with outside clients and suppliers. They will soon have the option of adding ``Web services,'' programming tools that enhance electronic commerce by enabling one company's computer to conduct transactions with another via the Internet, without commands from a person.
``Companies are not slowing their use of Internet technologies because of the economy,'' Merrill Lynch & Co. strategist Steve Milunovich said this week in a note to clients. ``Webification is a strategic priority and a cost saver.''
The market for application server software will reach $9 billion by 2003, according to Giga Information Group, a market researcher and consultancy.
Cooperation, Rivalry
What makes the arena so intriguing, say analysts, is that providers are trying to gain competitive advantage by promoting new services even as they seek to cooperate on shaping open standards for how their systems will talk to one another. Like the HTTP and HTML standards familiar to Internet users, Web services standards go by acronyms, including WSDL, UDDI, and SOAP.
``IBM will be the first out of the door'' with a full-fledged services product, Giga analyst Mike Gilpin said in an interview. ``By the third quarter, everyone will have a product.''
Microsoft is probably the farthest behind, said Judith Hurwitz, chairman of the technology consultancy Hurwitz Group.
The brand banners under which the enhanced software will appear include BEA's WebLogic, IBM's WebSphere, Sun's iPlanet and Sun ONE, Hewlett-Packard's Netaction, Microsoft's dot-Net products and Oracle Corp.'s 9iAS.
``All of them are going to grow their business because the market is growing so fast,'' Gilpin said.
IBM, for example, says it spent $1 billion last year on WebSphere and that revenue from the program's 35,000 global customers tripled last year from 1999.
Steady IBM Sales
WebSphere sales will be ``as strong this year as last,'' Steve Mills, head of IBM's software unit, said in an interview.
BEA's fiscal fourth-quarter sales rose 72 percent to $256 million from $149 million a year ago, the company said Feb. 22.
Application server software is crucial to Web-based business. It helps integrate disparate processes and systems within a company and lets people use them via Web browsers. This permits ``e-business'' and ``e-commerce.''
The latest enhancement, Web services, promises even more automation by allowing systems to, in effect, browse on their own, find needed products or services, compare prices and make a purchase decision, said Scott Hebner, IBM's marketing director for WebSphere.
If a company regularly buys office supplies, for example, it can deploy services software to go to the Web every week, seek out a directory of offerings, contact companies in the directory, check specifications and prices, buy products and arrange billing -- all automatically, Hebner said.
`Battle for Control'
``You are going to see a big battle for control of Web services; it's going to be a marketing war,'' said Hurwitz.
BEA's WebLogic has about 27 percent of application server sales, with IBM's WebSphere capturing about 21 percent, Gilpin said.
The remainder of the market is fractured. On Feb. 5, Sun trumpeted its Web services brand called Open Net Environment, or Sun ONE. Eight days later, Hewlett-Packard announced its new Netaction brand, based on software from its $350 million acquisition of Bluestone Software Inc., completed in January. BEA followed on Feb. 26 with its strategy announcement.
Because Web services link companies to one another, open communications standards are vital. No. 1 software maker Microsoft and No. 2 IBM, for example, are collaborating on standards even as dot-Net and WebSphere prepare to compete.
Some companies, particularly those like Microsoft and Sun, which have sold proprietary computer operating systems for years, may be hoping to shade the standards to their advantage, Hurwitz said.
``Each one of these companies is creating an infrastructure -- their own way to connect to third-party applications,'' she said.
Gilpin said ``it's reasonable to be skeptical'' about whether the companies will make ``truly interoperable'' products. IBM, a vocal proponent of open standards, says WebSphere works on virtually any computer operating system.
``If a vendor doesn't play by the (standards) rules, they're cutting themselves off from the action,'' Gilpin said. >>
Next earnings season the section in bold above will become more obvious. We will start to be able to see who and what areas are able to move through the IT slowdown, without too much damage, we should be able to see in the charts by then. |
