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EC Cubed has new shape for E-commerce apps

EC Cubed Inc. is taking a component-based approach to electronic commerce that will allow customers to build on top of their existing applications.

With its new Java-based ecWorks suite of components, the Wilton, Conn., startup wants to help large IT shops build on top of the technology they already have, rather than having to create a second environment strictly for conducting business online.

"To set up an infrastructure to enable [extended supply chains] requires that companies break out of the electronic data interchange model, enabled by system integration initiatives," said Carl Lehmann, an analyst at Meta Group Inc., in Boston. "That concept is something we call the dynamic trading network."

ecWorks starts four "transactive components": ecProfiler, ecTradeMaker, ecAdvisor and ecWorkRouter. By year's end, EC Cubed will follow up with "integration components" designed to tie back-end applications into the rest of the e-commerce architecture. All of the components are written in Java.

ecProfiler maintains user profile information that can be accessed by other e-commerce applications and can be used for authentication and access controls. Through a standard API, e-commerce applications can tie into ecProfiler business objects, allowing an administrator to add, delete or modify the attributes of a user or group of users. It can also accommodate a user's changing roles within a company, changing access rights as those roles change.

ecProfiler provides HTTP Request Filters that work with Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Information Server, Netscape Communications Corp.'s Enterprise Server, and any Internet Server API- or Netscape Server API-compliant Web server. It costs $16,995.

ecAdvisor allows a user to subscribe to a particular business function within an application. For example, whenever an inventory item falls below a threshold of some sort, a message can be automatically sent out to notify the right personnel of the problem by e-mail, fax, pager or a message queue. Different "business events" are cataloged on a series of templates. An administrator subscribes users to those particular events, indicating how each user should receive information. It costs $11,995.

ecWorkRouter adds Internet-based workflow capabilities. Business process can be graphically displayed in the ecWorkRouter Administration Application Process Definition View. Using this, an administrator can define each step in a workflow and who should be involved. It can work with the ecAdvisor or ecProfiler and costs $34,995.

The fourth component now available is the ecTradeMaker, which allows a company to extend its business processes to customers or trading partners. It provides a "collaboration board" where buyers and sellers can conduct business. The boards can also be split into public and private areas. EcTradeMaker costs $39,995.

EC Cubed can be reached at www.eccubed.com.

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