PFSweb Launches E-Commerce App for iSeries Shops

by Alex Woodie

PFSweb, a $280 million provider of fulfillment services for Pfizer, Shell, and other companies, is now selling licenses for the software it uses to build integrated ecommerce Web sites for its clients, the company announced last week at COMMON. GlobalMerchant CommerceWare 2.0 pairs a Windows-based e-commerce engine with a set of tools and templates specifically designed to extend data from RPG and COBOL ERP applications to the Web sites.

As a business process outsourcer (BPO) with a huge distribution center in Memphis, Tennessee, and call centers at various locations, PFSweb likes to call itself "the brand behind the brand." The company, which was spun off from computer supplier Daisytek International in 1999, offers its expertise in supply chain management, logistics, and customer support to 16 divisions of 10 corporations, including pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which uses PFSweb to fulfill orders for consumer hair loss products originating from its www.rogainedirect.com Web site.

When it set out to become a BPO provider, in 1999, PFSweb equipped itself with a collection of third-party software products and developed some of its own--a common mix among midrange distributors, which, as the logistics arm for Fortune 1000 manufacturers, PFSweb basically is. The company selected a J.D. Edwards ERP package, which it modified to run on an iSeries server.

PFSweb's early specialty was running call centers for clients, and as the Internet grew and customers began demanding the ability to place orders over the Web, it augmented its call center capability with Web technologies. The company wrote its own software suite, called Entente, which includes an e-commerce engine with support for features like shopping carts, inventory look-up, and credit card processing. PFSweb also developed tools for connecting its clients' e-commerce Web sites--which they run themselves--to PFSweb's J.D. Edwards-based system, which processes orders from those Web sites and initiates fulfillment processes.

But PFSweb was smart. While the company relied on Microsoft's COM, ASP, and, eventually, .NET technology to develop and run front-end Web sites, it also used generous portions of that universal data standard (XML) in the development of Entente, which enables it work with other back-office systems besides PFSweb's own fulfillment system. This XML support was crucial in the development of GlobalMerchant CommerceWare, which borrows tools from Entente.

The main component in GlobalMerchant CommerceWare, the Commerce Engine, runs on Microsoft's Windows 2003 Server operating system and a SQL Server database, which ships with the product. This software provides order processing, inventory availability, access to back-office pricing processes, sales tax calculation, and other features necessary for running an e-commerce Web site. PFSweb provides a set of four "starter templates," which are preconfigured VB.NET and ASP.NET classes that customers can customize with their own particular look and feel, to get them up and running quickly.

The iS Connector component provides a set of tools for connecting the Commerce Engine to OS/400 ERP and warehouse management applications, using traditional RPG or COBOL skills. Andy Anders, the research and development manager for GlobalMerchant CommerceWare, says that a component called the Developer Workbench is what separates the product from the pack. Developer Workbench is a Web-based program for OS/400 programmers that allows them place calls to OS/400 applications and then generates the XML transactions, he says.

"What we've done for the AS/400, and what's unique for our product that nobody else has, is we have an engine on the AS/400 that process XML and makes the calls, and makes it much easier for the AS/400 programmer," Anders says. "They have options to see XML, going and coming, depending on their level of comfort with XML. We've tried to hide it [XML] from them so they don't have to use it, but they certainly can, if they're experienced with XML."

Once the site is up and running, non-technical employees can update and manage the site, using the Web-based Information Content Management component of GlobalMerchant CommerceWare, which lets them manage product information, catalogs, campaigns, prices, user profiles and groups. Web site usage patterns can be scrutinized with GlobalMerchant CommerceWare using an included copy of NetIQ's WebTrends analytic software. Payment processing is handled by a "plug and play" implementation of CyberSource's payment software.

GlobalMerchant CommerceWare is the first pure software offering for PFSweb, which is headquartered in Plano, Texas, and is publicly traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Richard Beasley, PFSweb's GMC sales manager, says the software represents the next step in the evolution of the company. "We felt that pain" of developing Web sites that connected to an AS/400 system. "There was no solution on the market, so we decided to develop our own tools."

GlobalMerchant CommerceWare is available now. Pricing is based on the number of Intel CPUs running the Web site and starts from about $50,000. PFSweb also has hosting solutions using GlobalMerchant CommerceWare. For more information, go to www.pfsweb.com.