LAS VEGAS (11-13-95) - AT&T today announced a set of managed electronic commerce and Internet services in an attempt to move some Internet traffic onto its global telecommunications network.
While the services, including World Wide Web hosting services, will initially be available only in North America, international availability is also planned, company officials said at a press conference held here at the opening of the Comdex Fall exhibition.
However, most services will not be accessible until late 1996, company officials said.
Also here today AT&T announced the establishment of the new EasyCommerce Services unit and a technology agreement with Vermeer Technologies Inc., a maker of Web publishing tools.
Under its Easy World Wide Web Services offer, AT&T will take over the management and implementation of customers' World Wide Web servers and Web sites.
Services offered include providing connectivity, bandwidth, server capacity, routing, security and installation and management of the necessary hardware and software, company officials said.
"With our Web hosting platform we want to make it quick and easy for any customer to establish a strong presence on the Internet," said Kathleen Earley, AT&T vice president in charge of EasyCommerce Services unit.
The Easy Web services will allow users to establish a presence on the Web without having to run the services on their premises or handle management of the Web servers, Earley said
The Easy Web services are initially targeted at AT&T's 800 toll free number customers and will include hotlinks from the AT&T 800 directory.
The Web hosting services will be rolled out in three phases, company officials said.
In phase one, which will become generally available in the third quarter of 1996, AT&T will provide turnkey Web site hosting services.
In phase two AT&T will offer electronic commerce transaction services in conjunction with its Phase one services.
Customers will be able to choose from electronic catalogs, conduct credit card authorization, offer order fulfillment via E-mail as well as transaction completion using existing non-Internet based infrastructures, such as AT&T's global network.
In the final phase all services offered will be integrated into one network environment allowing for secure end-to-end transactions using a variety of payment methods, and also allowing for online purchases across a number of companies, Earley said.
Availability of phase two and three services will be announced at a later date, Earley said.
In Asia and Europe AT&T's Easy World Web services will be rolled out about two months after they are launched in the US, said John Petrillo, president of AT&T's Business Communications Services.
Under its Electronic Commerce Solutions-Transaction Platform offer, AT&T will provide private business network services intended to automate the entire commerce cycle.
That includes handling requests placed via phone, fax, or online for information; ordering products; payments; and order-processing through shipment via various methods, company officials said.
Availability of the Electronic Commerce Platform is planned for the end of 1996.
Pricing of all services announced here today has not been determined yet, Petrillo said.
"We are exploring a number of possibilities," Petrillo said. "If users want a transaction based pricing model, we will offer it among other options," he said.
While AT&T will take over the management of Web sites, users will be in charge of providing and authoring Web content.
"We are giving customers complete control over the content they will be offering," Earley said.
To that end AT&T has penned a technology and joint reseller agreement with Web publishing tools maker Vermeer Technologies.
Under the agreement AT&T will distribute a co-branded version of Vermeer's Web authoring tool FrontPage as an integrated part of the Easy World Wide Web Services.
The PC-based authoring tool is intended for non-programmers and allows for the construction of Web sites and Web pages, said Jay Wright, director of North American sales at Vermeer, based in Cambridge, Mass.
FrontPage, which supports Windows, Windows NT and Macintosh clients, offers smart templates called Web Wizards, which guide designers through the development process and drops in objects called WebBots, which add interactive functions to the Web site without programming, the company said.
In the second half of 1996, FrontPage will offer support for European languages, Wright said. Support for double-byte Arabic languages will be added in 1997, Wright said.
AT&T is negotiating with a number of Web authoring tools makers about including their tools into its Easy World Wide Web Services program, said Petrillo, who declined to specify the tools and companies.
However, Petrillo said AT&T is very interested in Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java object-oriented programming language for the Internet.
In Europe AT&T is currently testing Internet services based on Netscape Communications Corp.'s Netscape Navigator Web browser which may be integrated into the Easy World Web services offer in the US at a later date, Petrillo said.
Also announced here today was the formation of the EasyCommerce Services unit, lead by Kathleen Earley, which bundles a number of existing and new AT&T messaging and electronic commerce services.
The unit is charged with developing electronic commerce solutions targeted at business markets using both the Internet and AT&T networks, the company said.
In related developments AT&T announced that starting in December Notes users in 32 countries will have at least one entry point per country that allows for access to AT&T's US-based Network Notes services without paying international long distance charges for the calls.
AT&T in Cambridge, Mass. can be reached at (212) 252-5100. On the Internet AT&T is at http://www.att.easycommerce.
Vermeer's Web site address is http://www.vermeer.com.
[Copyright 1995 IDG News Service, International Data Group Inc. All rights reserved.]