FRAMINGHAM (10-06-95) - For businesses looking to conduct commerce on the Internet, the range of tools grows larger by the day.
Next week, Open Market Inc. will unveil Merchant Solution, a software tool kit for creating a Web storefront, with shopping carts, where orders can be processed directly on-line. It includes StoreBuilder for generating and managing HyperText Mark-up Language content as well as linking Web sites to existing relational databases. A report-generation tool, called WebReporter, lets users track on-line sales results.
To handle back-office functions such as payment authorization and order processing, Open Market will introduce Integrated Commerce Service, software that lets merchants immediately distribute soft goods on-line or ship out hard goods after a customer's credit or payment is processed in encrypted form.
Security is a big concern for any Internet commerce site. IBM, which months ago had promised secured versions of its Web servers for OS/2 and AIX, now plans to ship these Dec. 8. The OS/2 secured version will be priced at $2,999, and the AIX version will cost $4,999. "This is the first secured Web server for these platforms," said John Robb, an analyst with consultancy Forrester Research Inc.
Digital Equipment Corp. is also jumping into the Web game with a line of Alpha-based Windows NT Web servers that are priced starting at $5,398. In addition, Digital is offering Workgroup Web Forum, a Internet server add-on application that includes on-line conferencing and polling features that anyone with a Windows, Macintosh or Unix browser can use.
One Web vendor, Process Software Inc., is hoping to hitch a ride on the popularity of Novell Inc.'s NetWare LAN. Process Software has introduced the Purveyor WebServer for NetWare, a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) that lets managers set up a corporate Web site directly on the company's Novell LAN.
WebServer for NetWare is fully controllable in terms of whom gets access to certain pages, said Lee Levitt, Process Software's manager of market development.
"Its proxy server lets you go surfing outbound on the Internet, too, but we expect com-panies will mainly use this internally as a corporate Web site," Levitt said.
For managers interested in adding interactivity and animation to their Web sites, Sun Microsystems Inc. offers the WorkShop developers' tool kit that contains an interactive browsing editor to edit HTML pages and Java applets.
The tool kit also has what Sun calls an applet container, called a Portfolio Manager, for applet reuse and a dynamic Web page that lets developers look at applet source code.
Open Market: (617) 621-9500; IBM: (919) 254-6966; Digital: (508) 264- 6740; Process Software: (508) 879-6994.
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