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First Initiative of New Service to Connect Corporate Buyers to
More Than 5,000 Suppliers
Alliance Also Announces that Beyond.com Is Using Netscape ECXpert to Conduct Business with Customers Over the Internet
PALO ALTO, Calif. and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (April 26, 1999) - The Sun-Netscape Alliance today unveiled the Catalog Management Service, an innovative initiative that will provide buyers using Netscape BuyerXpert e-commerce application with access to high quality catalog content from their suppliers. This new offering is the first initiative of the Sun-Netscape Alliance Supplier Network, a new set of services that enables buyers to purchase products and services from more than 5,000 suppliers that offer more than three million products.
The Catalog Management Service provides buyers with four service options for obtaining high-quality catalog content data from suppliers. First, buyers can access catalog content directly from the suppliersí Web sites using the Open Buying on the Internet (OBI) standard. Second, buyers can receive catalog feeds directly from suppliers in a standard way based on Extensible Mark-up Language (XML). Third, the Alliance is offering simple, useful supplier content to Netscape BuyerXpert customers in conjunction with Aspect Development. Finally, a custom catalog management service will be available to Netscape BuyerXpert customers through Aspect Development and Harbinger.
The Alliance Supplier Network will provide products in categories such as maintenance, repair and operating items, office supplies, laboratory supplies and computer software and hardware. Companies including Aspect Development, Beyond.com, Boise Cascade Office Products, BT Office Products, CompuCom, Harbinger, Office Depot, RoweCom, SciQuest.com and Staples have agreed to be charter members.
"With the Catalog Management Service and the Supplier Network, Sun-Netscape Alliance customers who uses Netscape BuyerXpert will find any product they need quicker and easier than ever," said Steve Savignano, senior vice president of the application products division for the Sun-Netscape Alliance. "Together these offerings for procurement, selling and commerce exchange give Alliance customers a competitive advantage and reinforce the Alliance as a leading provider of e-commerce products."
Beyond.com Using Netscape ECXpert
The Alliance also announced that Internet software superstore Beyond.com, a charter member of the new program, is also using Netscape ECXpert to streamline its Internet business. Using Netscape ECXpert, Beyond.com is building a network to streamline commerce transactions with key corporate customers. By implementing ECXpert on the Beyond.com superstore, Netscape BuyerXpert customers will be able to seamlessly integrate their procurement solutions with Beyond.comís more than 44,000 software and digital products across 100 categories. More than 5,600 of these products are available for immediate, digital delivery.
"Beyond.comís relationship with the Sun-Netscape Alliance will enable our corporate customers to save time and money through the online ordering and digital delivery of software," said Alan DeClerck, vice president of worldwide sales at Beyond.com.
Access to the Catalog Management Service
Access to the Catalog Management Service is available today through the Alliance and its partners. The XML catalog feeds and packaged offering of supplier content is expected to be available by midsummer. The Alliance Supplier Network is open to any supplier and does not require purchasing Sun-Netscape Alliance software to participate.
About the Sun-Netscape Alliance
America Online, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. formed the Sun-Netscape Alliance to provide easy to deploy, comprehensive enterprise and e-commerce solutions to business partners and other companies competing in today's Net Economy. The Alliance product portfolio provides customers with the industry's most scalable, integrated infrastructure software and a family of production ready e-commerce applications. The products are offered on the industry's most widely available product platforms, including DEC, HP, IBM, Linux, SGI, Microsoft Windows, and Sun. The Alliance software product portfolio includes: messaging and calendar, collaboration, web, application, directory, and certificate servers. The Alliance also offers a family of production-ready applications for e-commerce, including commerce exchange, procurement, selling, and billing.
About America Online, Inc
Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 17 million members, and CompuServe, with approximately 2 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; and the Netscape Navigator and Netscape Communicator browsers. Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the Company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network is The Computer," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. [NASDQ: SUNW] to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com.
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