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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jane4IceCream who wrote (31508)	8/8/2000 11:18:51 AM
From: Rande Is	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57584

Digital River Rolls-Out Expanded B2B E-Commerce Architecture Hires Top IT Industry Executive to Grow World-Class E-Commerce System MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 2000-- Digital River, Inc. (Nasdaq: DRIV - news), the world's largest Commerce Service Provider (CSP), today announced its plan to expand its B2B global e-commerce system architecture. To lead the company's system architecture strategy and development, Digital River appointed Gary Howorka, Ph.D., as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), formerly a director with Ernst and Young's IBM e-business framework group. Over the next few months, Digital River will offer expanded B2B e-commerce functionality to support intra-and inter-company ordering systems; customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system integration; and, new technology to support e-marketplaces. The commerce system upgrades are part of Digital River's strategy to offer a wider range of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce service offerings and to aid mid-to-large sized traditional manufacturing, retail and distribution companies in leveraging the Internet to increase sales revenue and business efficiencies. ``Our commerce system is the heart of our business and we're positioning ourselves to set new standards in B2B e-commerce. We're pleased to announce the addition of a true e-business expert like Gary to our executive team.,'' said Joel Ronning, CEO of Digital River. ``As new technologies become available and new customer demands arise, Digital River will continue to focus on broadening the capabilities of our global commerce system to provide our clients with the industry's best commerce technology infrastructure and services.'' Digital River provides complete, outsourced e-commerce technologies and services including site development and hosting, order management, integration with enterprise systems, digital product delivery and integration into physical fulfillment partners, e-marketing and customer service. With Digital River's B2B e-commerce services, large companies such as 3M, Siemens and Fujitsu have automated traditional business processes while growing their overall e-commerce operations - ultimately, reducing costs and increasing revenue. ``Today, the industry is seeing huge demand from large corporations for very sophisticated B2B e-commerce systems. These systems not only expand their e-commerce capabilities to their end-customers, but also streamline the channel sales process,'' said Gary Howorka, Digital River's Chief Technology Officer. ``By embracing emerging standards such as XML/XSL and aligning with top technology industry partners, we plan to roll-out features such as new ERP integration points, distributed component architectures and customer-facing technologies that allow our clients to use the Internet as a tool to support their entire business model.'' Previously, Howorka served as the IBM Practice Director for Ernst & Young where he was responsible for a national practice focusing on IBM e-business framework technologies. He also helped author Ernst & Young's core strategy in the area of Enterprise Application Integration. Prior to IBM, Howorka served as CTO for ZoneTrader.com and Executive Vice President and co-owner of a software company that developed performance management solutions for clients. In addition to his professional achievements in the IT industry, Howorka served on the faculty of the University of Texas-San Antonio and was a CPA at Touche Ross and Arthur Young. He has spoken extensively at national conferences and published papers focusing on distributed artificial intelligence and other technology areas. Howorka replaces Kelly Wical who will continue to work with the Company as an advisor. About Digital River Digital River (Nasdaq: DRIV - news) is the world's largest Commerce Service Provider (CSP), providing over 7,500 companies with complete, outsourced B2B and B2C e-commerce solutions. The Company's front-to-back e-commerce services include site development and hosting, order and transaction management, system integration, product fulfillment, e-marketing and customer service. Digital River's clients include Fujitsu, 3M, Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Autodesk, Adaptec, Block Financial, Staples.com, CompUSA, Fox Interactive and Egghead.com.