Intershop builds on B2B vision

NEWS The company launched the second incarnation of its flagship middleware product, Enfinity, today. At the second Intershop Open conference in New York, Stephan Shambach, CEO of Intershop, introduced the product, saying its predecessor was "pure vision" and the new release was based more on what the company's customers demanded. Shambach told an audience of over 1,200 partners and customers that Enfinity 2 recognises the need for businesses to compete on multiple channels to market and therefore integrate with end consumers, distributor and e-marketplace back end systems. Shambach explained the product has been tested to cope with three million site visits and 300,000 orders a day. He predicted the product will be able to scale with customer, distributor and marketplace systems for the next five years and noted that Intershop currently had integration agreements with SAP and IBM MQ, and standards such as Com, Corba, and XML. The release underlines Intershop's recently announced strategy shift from being purely a B2C market player to a B2B player. Mohanbir Sawhny, professor of electronic commerce and technology at Northwestern University, delivered a keynote speech at the event, and used the platform to warn delegates against clinging to a black and white view of ecommerce. He likened business models in ecommerce to the fate of a child's sandcastle, as the businesses are buffeted and broken down by waves of change. He said: "Even the most established companies are feeling this. Now no business model is sacrosanct." Sawhny detailed the areas modern business needs to change to take advantage of ebusiness. He said: "There has been a shift in the balance of power in favour of the customer. The transaction process is less opaque to them. Making money out of someone else's ignorance is going away. Every company is now a service company." Sawhny noted that businesses cannot succeed on a single channel to market, claiming they have to take advantage of as many as possible. He said: "Direct selling is here to stay, distributors are here to stay. Customers don't come in online and offline versions."