From: Rohit Khare (Rohit@KnowNow.com)
Date: Sun Jun 25 2000 - 03:04:26 PDT
Net heavyweights say YES to Yahoo
By Bambi Francisco, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:32 PM ET Jun 24, 2000 NewsWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- In a bid to launch its corporate portal
services with a big bang, Yahoo is expected to unveil its new
enterprise-packaged offering with three Internet heavyweights as
partners on Monday.
Inktomi (INKT: news, msgs), Critical Path (CPTH: news, msgs) and
Tibco Software (TIBX: news, msgs) are contributing to the overall
package development, according to sources close to the deal. The
companies could not be reached for comment.
The Corporate Yahoo portal, called Yahoo Enterprise Services or YES,
enables companies to integrate proprietary corporate content and
applications with Yahoo's personalized Internet content and services.
The first trial is set for the state of North Carolina, according to
sources.
For Yahoo (YHOO: news, msgs), the arrangement helps to jumpstart its
efforts to enter the corporate market and diversify its
advertising-dominated revenue stream. For the other partners, the
deal is a major distribution channel. The economics will likely be a
revenue-sharing arrangement.
Inktomi is already the search platform for Yahoo. Analysts believe
that since Inktomi recently purchased Ultra Seek to enter the
corporate small business market, this will be the same service resold
through Yahoo's portal package. Critical Path, the dominant
outsourcer of messaging solutions, will provide the e-mail and
calendaring applications.
Tibco Software will let Yahoo use its Tibco ActiveEnterprise, for
business process integration and automation, and TibcoActivePortal,
for aggregating information and personalized interactivity via the
Web and wireless devices. Yahoo will resell Tibco's PortalBuilder
product as Yahoo Portal builder.
The corporate market is a major initiative for all companies
involved. Merrill Lynch predicts that the enterprise information
portal market will climb from $4.4 billion in 1998 to more than $14.8
billion in 2002.
=========================================================================
Oracle to launch new portal software
By Mike Tarsala, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 6:01 PM ET Jun 23, 2000 NewsWatch
Latest headlines
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. (CBS.MW) - In a move that smacks of
Microsoft's $2 billion-plus .Net software push, Oracle plans to
release software Monday that lets businesses more easily link
information from different databases, applications and Internet sites.
Called IPortal, the new software works with Sun Microsystems' (SUNW:
news, msgs) Java programming language to group a company's important
data in easy-to-find places for business computer users.
"It tells you all the critical information about your business," said
Larry Ellison, Oracle's (ORCL: news, msgs) chief executive, in an
interview with CBS.MarketWatch.com. "This new portal software is
designed to move Š information from your e-business suite and on to
your screen so you can take action."
Like Microsoft's technology, the Oracle portal software can be made
to work with programs that run on desktop computers, as well as a
range of hand-held devices and mobile phones.
Instead of tying a company's key information and applications to
rival Microsoft.Net, a concept the Redmond, Wash.-based computer
giant unveiled on Thursday and called one of its most important
announcements ever. See full story.
Oracle is selling customers on its portal software to accomplish a
similar task.
The company is offering an early version of its software on Monday.
The full version is expected by later this year. Microsoft's earliest
family of .Net programs, on the other hand, isn't expected until 2001.
Microsoft's software for better marrying data and applications in its
.Net software at first will be geared toward consumers. Oracle's
software, on the other hand, focuses mainly on business computing
needs. Still, the companies will compete for software developers and,
ultimately, consumer customers.
Oracle may be planning a related announcement to the portal software
at Oracle's headquarters Wednesday that adds more software to the
portal mix. The company may be looking at additional ways to let
companies create and run business programs over the Internet in a
portal-like manner.
"IPortal essentially becomes the interface to applications and data,"
said Jeremy Burton, vice president of Oracle's Internet software
marketing, in an interview with CBS.MarketWatch.com. "It's creating
Yahoo for business; I don't think anyone has seen anything like it."
Pricing of the software has yet-to-be determined. Oracle will roll
out an early version of the software Monday, and make it available
for free via the company's Internet site.
The portal software introduces a concept Oracle executives call
"portlets." The so-called portlets can serve as a way to rein in
different Internet portal sites into one location. Those sites may
exist on a company's internal network, or on the Internet at-large.
One use for a portlet is with a company's Internet-based
expense-reporting system. Instead of clicking through five screens to
pull up a specific report, customers could enter in a purchase-order
number in a portlet window at the corner of their computer screens.
Typing the number could connect directly to the desired page. It also
can fish through a company's computer network to find anything
related to that purchase order number.
It's simple, but something Oracle executives say could save companies
time and money.
The framework software might be a sales boon to Oracle in the future.
A 1999 recent report by Merrill Lynch said the portal software market
will grow to $14.8 billion by 2002, up from today's $4.4 billion.
"Portals are one of the hottest markets out there," Burton said. "The
reason there's interest is that more and more customers are starting
to access information and applications through their Web browsers."
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