IBM has expanded its ecommerce offerings by tapping into the potential of the cloud. The company has launched two new products: Commerce-as-a-Service and Social Media Marketing that have been designed to help customers automate their trading relationships.
The two new products, part of IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, combine IBM’s own technology with that from acquisitions such as Unica, Coremetrics and Sterling Commerce.
Commerce-as-a-Service includes a cloud-based Configure, Price, Quote feature which allows customers to bundle offers to their customers automatically.
Other features are:
- Cross-Channel Selling connecting web store fronts to mobile devices, social networks and other channels, connecting products offered online to in-store purchasing and delivery.
- Payments & Settlement delivering PCI compliant payment capability at customer checkout.
- Supplier Integration & Management, which connects and automates supplier interactions providing a single, real-time view of trading activity
- Cloud-based File Transfer capability for movement of large customer and partner data within and across businesses to support critical commerce needs faster and more efficiently.
IBM has also announced the launch of a new Global Centre of Competence for Smarter Commerce which will also offer a range of new services.
These include Customer Analytics Diagnostic, which analyses a company's approach to sales and marketing; Marketing Management Assessment and Supply Chain Visibility Assessment, which looks for ways to shorten the time between order and fulfillment.
