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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ACTRA ROUNDS OUT COMMERCE PORTFOLIO
- InternetWeek Online
September 15, 1997
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- Actra, the joint venture between Netscape
Communications and GE Information Services,
tomorrow plans to confirm beta and commercial
ship dates for all five of its commerce
applications, designed to give companies the
tools necessary for intranet, extranet and
public Web commerce.
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- The company will also announce plans to
release Netscape PublishingXpert 2.0 on Sept.
26. Actra will position the product as a
publishing tool for companies intent on
reaching business customers and suppliers
with industrial-strength catalogs, extensive
search capabilities and personalized content.
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- Also, Netscape and Actra will announce that
ECXpert, used to send electronic data
interchange (EDI) information over the
Internet, will be extended to the Windows NT
platform by Oct. 16, while Netscape
SellerXpert, for maintenance of complex
business-to-business commerce sites, will
also be delivered by Oct. 16 to the Sun
Solaris platform. Netscape BuyerXpert, a
product used by companies to streamline
corporate procurement processes, is scheduled
for release by the end of the year.
MerchantXpert--a business-to-consumer
merchandising platform--completes the slew of
Actra offerings with beta scheduled for the
first quarter of 1998.
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- The announcements jibe with previously
disclosed shipping dates for Actra products,
and serve as confirmation that the company's
development of products is on track. For
Netscape, the Actra platforms are critical
because they provide high-end point solutions
to the Internet software developer's product
portfolio. Dubbed Netscape CommerceXpert, the
Actra product line will receive significant
marketing support from Netscape and GEIS.
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- "We're relying on the Actra product to
link business together for extranets,'' said
Wayne Dyer, director of application product
marketing for Netscape. "This
[CommerceXpert] is a core piece of our
extranet strategy.''
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- Netscape PublishingXpert, ECXpert and
SellerXpert will add more fuel to an already
sizzling market. Last week, the Intel/SAP
joint venture Pandesic announced general
availability and pricing for its initial
offering Release 1.1, an electronic commerce
platform initially aimed at retail Web
commerce. Meanwhile, Microsoft disclosed a
marketing alliance with Web procurement
system vendor Commerce One, which will
principally develop on Microsoft technology
in exchange for advertising and marketing
support Pandesic has disclosed long-term
plans to move into the same
business-to-business market that Actra's
ECXpert, SellerXpert and BuyerXpert products
are positioned, while Commerce One is a
direct competitor with Actra's
business-to-business procurement systems.
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- "We've tested the scalability of the
product [with Netscape's existing customer
base of more than 70 corporate accounts],''
said Mark Biestman, vice president of
commercial applications and business
development at Actra. "We see that as a
key [differentiating factor].''
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- All of Actra's products leverage the common
commerce application infrastructure included
in the Netscape ONE development environment.
That means such functions as payment,
membership access, personal profiling and
order management are common to all five of
Actra's high-end commerce applications. So,
companies can build a commerce application
infrastructure once, and use the same systems
for payment, membership access, profiling and
order management on subsequent extranet,
intranet and public Web commerce sites. All
Actra server platforms include Netscape
Enterprise server and LiveWirePro for
creation of native database access and Java
scripting.
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- By far the biggest revelation from Actra on
Tuesday will be the pending availability of
Netscape PublishingXpert 2.0, which is priced
at $75,000 and initially available on the Sun
Solaris platform. Netscape Publishing Xpert
2.0 is billed as a big upgrade to Netscape
Publishing System 1.6 -- the six-month-old
product it replaces. Key to the platform is
the introduction of AgentXpert, a Corba-based
agent framework for personalization and
one-to-one marketing on Web publishing sites.
A Java-based administration tool added to
PublishingXpert 2.0 allows companies to
manage access controls, billing and
subscription services.
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- "We're moving the product from a
traditional business-to-consumer market into
business-to-business publishing, corporate
extranet publishing and multihosting through
ISPs and [European telecommunication
companies],'' said Biestman. "This is a
complete re-architecture of the system.
Ultimately, we see customers focusing on
customer service and marketing in
business-to-business and business-to-consumer
scenarios.''
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