Sunnyvale, Calif. (October 28, 1997) -- Actra, GE Information Services and Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) today announced the availability of three new products in the CommerceXpert family of solutions for Internet commerce. BuyerXpert is now available for early customer shipment and SellerXpert and ECXpert for Windows NT are now available for purchase from GE Information Services and Netscape. The new Internet commerce applications are the first to support the creation of interoperable Internet trading communities enabled by the Open Buying on the Internet (OBI) standard and the EDI over the Internet (EDIINT) standard. The products have been designed to improve the efficiency with which companies sell and purchase items electronically, making CommerceXpert the only integrated suite of Internet commerce applications to address both the supply side and demand side of the value chain.
More than 30 Fortune 1000 companies have already chosen solutions from the CommerceXpert family for Internet commerce on their extranets. In addition, the companies announced today that many new customers - including Shell Oil, Bell Canada, Hitachi, Kinko's, TNT Logistics, Boise Cascade Office Products and Telefonica - are using CommerceXpert to create Internet trading communities for sharing and managing critical business information and linking business processes between enterprises more efficiently. Using EDIINT or OBI-enabled software, CommerceXpert expands the commerce trading community to second- and third-tier suppliers, who need only have browser-enabled access to the Internet to participate in the benefits.
"The cost savings and efficiency benefits of creating an Internet trading community are well-known among Fortune 1000 executives," said Jim Sha, chief executive officer, Actra. "It is now feasible to connect hundreds of suppliers, customers and partners in a trading community in a standard, non-proprietary way. Actra has designed a solution that drives down the costs of doing business by harnessing the Internet to buy and sell goods and services electronically."
"The CommerceXpert products play a key role in Netscape's corporate strategy of wiring every enterprise and linking people and businesses together on extranets," said Marc Andreessen, executive vice president of products at Netscape. "These new products are the first to leverage open Internet standards such as OBI and EDIINT to enable companies to link their business networks together for online commerce. As a result, CommerceXpert is gaining significant momentum with more than 30 Fortune 1000 customers currently using or testing the products."
Dan Tuten, vice president, global product engineering, GE Information Services said, "Actra's CommerceXpert product suite is an integral element of GE Information Services' strategy to dramatically expand the e-commerce user base. CommerceXpert's open Internet architecture is key to allowing companies to use the Internet to expand their global trading community. Combining the CommerceXpert products with GE's systems integration and global trading community management expertise, GE Information Services offers total Internet commerce solutions to strategic vertical industries including retail, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and healthcare."
"In the last six months, Actra has been very successful in promoting the bottom-line value of Internet technology to automate improved inter-company business processes and signing on new customers," said David Alschuler, senior analyst, client-server solutions, Aberdeen Group. "Actra's integrated CommerceXpert product family fulfills a broad range of Internet transaction needs. From purchasing to publishing, CommerceXpert is the most comprehensive integrated Internet commerce product suite which we have seen to date."
COMMERCEXPERT FAMILY
CommerceXpert by Actra is an integrated family of Internet commerce applications for conducting business-to-business and business-to-consumer commerce on the Internet. The family consists of five products focused on buying, selling and merchandising over the Internet that leverage existing EDI and enterprise applications investments. CommerceXpert includes ECXpert, SellerXpert, BuyerXpert, MerchantXpert and PublishingXpert.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
BuyerXpert is now available for early customer shipment. SellerXpert and ECXpert are now available for purchase on the Sun Solaris with ECXpert available on Windows NT operating systems from Netscape and GE Information Services. Pricing for ECXpert begins at US$50,000. Pricing for SellerXpert begins at US$195,000. Pricing for BuyerXpert begins at US$250,000.
Founded in April 1996, Actra is a joint venture between GE Information Services and Netscape Communications Corporation. Benefiting from GE Information Services' market expertise as the world's leading provider of business-to-business Internet commerce services and Netscape's leading position in developing and marketing software for the Internet, Actra provides next-generation Internet commerce solutions for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business commerce markets. Additionally, Actra is taking an active role in promoting open standards for Internet commerce.
GE Information Services is a global leader in business-to-business electronic commerce solutions, managing the world's largest electronic trading community of more than 40,000 trading partners. GE's global networked solutions include EDI and messaging services, Internet, intranet and extranet services, and a full suite of applications that help streamline supply chain management processes. GE Information Services combines the power of electronic commerce applications with business process consulting, systems integration, community management and customer support. GE Information Services is one of the twelve key businesses of the General Electric Company and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, USA.
Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open software for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers, development tools and commercial applications to create a complete platform for next-generation, live online applications. Traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "NSCP," Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View, California.
Additional information on Netscape Communications Corporation is available on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to moreinfo@netscape.com or by calling 415/937-2555 (corporate customers) or 415/937-3777 (individuals).
Netscape, Netscape Navigator, and the Netscape N logo are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States 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. CommerceXpert, PublishingXpert, MerchantXpert, other Netscape logos, product names, and service names are also trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation, which may be registered in other countries. BuyerXpert, SellerXpert, and ECXpert are trademarks of Actra Corporation.