SAP, Intel join forces to create new I-commerce company
By Dana Gardner
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 10:56 AM PT, Aug 5, 1997
SAN FRANCISCO -- SAP and Intel have joined forces to create a new company
called Pandesic to promote a flurry of new I-commerce sites using Intel
platforms and SAP software.
Executives from both companies announced the 50/50 joint venture here
Tuesday. The new company will be based in Sunnyvale, Calif., and currently
has 50 employees. The company's chairman is Harold Hughes, from Intel, and
Bryan Plug from SAP's Canada subsidiary is president and CEO.
The joint venture is meant to give merchants the ability to quickly and at
low cost create a Web site that allows them to take orders from consumers
anywhere in the world and link the transaction seamlessly with suppliers
and warehouses. The goal is to quickly turn around goods using credit card
transactions over the Web.
The Pandesic (the "P" stands for Pentium) plan is going to be based
exclusively on Intel servers running Windows NT and with Microsoft's Back
Office and SQL Server forming the bedrock for SAP's transaction and
processing software, company officials said.
"At last, real-time business. We believe no one else can do that," said
Hughes, who complained that "current fulfillment systems based on batch
processing won't do well on the Internet."
The executives here Tuesday demonstrated a scenario in which a camping
supply merchant in California accepted an order from someone using a Web
browser in another part of California. The consumer filled out a form that
calculated the true price, including tax and shipping, and then closed the
deal by entering his credit card number in a field on the Web site. At the
merchant site, where the server is located, the order is nearly instantly
received. The request to package the goods goes to an adjacent warehouse,
and the bar-coded label and shipping materials and receipts are printed
out. The package is then sent to the shipping docks to be delivered by
overnight carrier.
It was unclear whether every player in such a scenario, including banks,
would be easily brought into the Pandesic fold. It was also unclear whether
merchants are required, or if suppliers could sell directly to consumers
using Pandesic. "I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole," Hughes said.
Pricing was not disclosed, but executives said there would be a low-risk,
low cost of entry. However, Pandesic intends to extract a percentage fee
for each transaction.
Pandesic Llc., in Sunnyvale, Calif., can be reached at
http://www.pandesic.com.
--- Rohit Khare /// MCI Internet Architecture (BOS) /// khare@mci.net Voice+Pager: (617) 960-5131 VNet: 370-5131 Fax: (617) 960-1009