[This local archive copy is from the official and canonical URL, http://www.veosystems.com/news/pressreleases/pressrelease7.html; please refer to the canonical source document if possible.]

 

Press Releases

January 19, 1999
Commerce One Acquires Veo Systems, Inc.

Leading Electronic Commerce Solutions Provider Acquires XML Technology Leader to Rapidly Expand Open Internet Trading Communities

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – Jan. 19, 1999 – Commerce One, Inc., the global leader in enterprise procurement solutions, today announced that it has acquired privately held Veo Systems, Inc., the leading solutions provider of Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based open commerce networks. With this acquisition, Commerce One will rapidly accelerate the pace of development of industry-leading XML-based business-to-business electronic commerce solutions to enable open Internet trading communities.

Major platform and electronic commerce vendors are rapidly embracing XML; an industry standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. The integration of Veo System's XML technology with the Commerce Chain' Solution by Commerce One represents a major step forward in solving the core issues surrounding the creation of online trading partner communities by providing more robust business-to-business interoperability. Commerce One will deliver an open XML-based solution that will:

  • Provide an open platform for real-time exchange of business documents – such as purchase orders, price/availability checks, and invoices – providing a more cost effective way to automate the inter-business processes between buyers and suppliers.

  • Streamline and dramatically reduce the costs associated with catalog content management by providing a means to aggregate, publish and exchange catalog content utilizing a "publish once" model. This model allows suppliers to publish their content once to the trading community, which once published makes it readily available to all members of the trading community.

  • Enable buyers and suppliers to more easily integrate their existing systems into the trading community – reducing costs and time associated with complex systems integration between disparate systems.

As a result, adoption and participation in online trading will be expedited, providing suppliers with a new open sales channel, and providing buyers with online access to a large community of manufacturers, distributors and suppliers.

"We joined forces with the industry's pioneer in XML development because we share the same vision of building an online trading community where buyers and suppliers can interact in real-time to streamline and expedite commerce," said Mark Hoffman, president and CEO of Commerce One. "XML technology is the next great leap forward in unlocking the potential of business-to-business Internet commerce, since it will simplify the exchange of information between trading communities and dramatically reduce costs."

Commerce Chain Solution and XML Speeds Trading Partner Participation

By linking buying organizations and suppliers together in a shared trading environment, Commerce One provides both business communities with an optimal commerce environment that delivers significant benefits.

Benefits to Buying Organizations:

  • Provides online access to more suppliers
  • Reduces time and effort involved to bring new suppliers online
  • Eases integration with existing systems

    Benefits to Supplying Organizations:

  • "Publish Once" Model - Once content is published to trading community it is available to all members
  • Easily publish catalogs from existing format into the trading community
  • Provides access to more buyers through an open, online sales channel

    Benefits to Both Buying and Supplying Organizations:

  • Provides access to shared business services such as shipping and payment
  • Reduces costs of catalog content management - i.e. publishing, aggregating, normalizing and updating
  • Reduces costs of interacting, processing and trading with trading partners

"The future of Internet commerce will be in open, XML-based trading partner networks. XML will provide the foundation for companies to integrate into the trading community," commented Dr. Jay M. Tenenbaum, Commerce One Chief Scientist and Board Member and former Chairman of Veo Systems. "By combining Commerce One's applications with Veo System's XML technology, Commerce One is uniquely positioned to deliver dynamic open trading partner communities that significantly increase operational efficiencies and reduce costs for both communities participating in online commerce."

XML Technology is Critical XML provides a fundamental shift in the way corporations automate supplier and customer integration. Past integration solutions have focused on API-based technologies, where corporate integration must be configured for each new trading partner. A document approach based on XML document exchange overcomes the expense and inflexibility of EDI and custom business integration solutions, and paves the way toward open online trading communities.

However, XML by itself is not enough. To understand each other's business documents, trading partners must first agree on a standard naming convention for the documents in their industry. To facilitate this process, Veo pioneered the development of The Common Business Library (CBL). CBL is a public collection of XML "building blocks" for creating common business documents such as catalogs, purchase orders, and invoices. Veo has turned over CBL to CommerceNet, an industry consortium that is promoting interoperable commerce on the Internet. Over 25 Internet commerce leaders including HP, IBM, Microsoft, Netscape, and Sun are actively involved in this activity, as well as the chief architects of leading key electronic commerce standards initiatives such as OBI, RosettaNet, XML-EDI, OTP and ICE. "Enabling business-to-business relationships is the next electronic commerce challenge. Companies that succeed in building these relationships will see tremendous new opportunities. The key to doing this right is to make it easier to enter into new relationships and to reduce the ongoing costs of doing business," commented Lee Fife, Partner with Fastwater, an analysis and consulting firm that helps companies define and measure the success of their web businesses. "This is where XML, and in particular, Veo's CBL matter as Commerce One takes advantage of the business relationship building blocks provided by CBL."

Commerce One and Veo to Merge Operations

With this acquisition, Commerce One will maintain and grow Veo's Mountain View, Calif. site as a major Development Center for the Commerce Chain Solution. The addition of more than 30 highly skilled XML developers with Veo Systems to Commerce One's development team is expected to greatly accelerate the pace of innovation. Additionally, Veo Systems' President and CEO, Asim Abdullah, and Chairman and Chief Scientist, Dr. Jay M. Tenenbaum, will join Commerce One's executive management team and Commerce One's Board of Directors. Dr. Tenenbaum is considered a pioneer and leading visionary of Internet commerce, and is the founder and Chairman of CommerceNet, the premier industry association for Internet commerce with nearly 600 corporate members worldwide. Mr. Abdullah previously served as the Executive Director of CommerceNet. Commerce One's XML-enabled products are expected to reach the marketplace in mid-1999.

Additional information on Commerce One, XML, CBL and Veo Systems can be found on Commerce One's home page at http://www.commerceone.com.

About Commerce One

Commerce One is the global leader in providing web-based, enterprise procurement solutions that dynamically link buying and supplying organizations into real-time trading communities. The Commerce Chain Solution by Commerce One enables companies to significantly reduce operational costs and increase efficiency by automating the entire indirect goods and services supply chain. As a result, enterprise organizations are able to realize a strategic competitive advantage as well as a rapid return on investment. The Commerce Chain Solution includes Commerce One BuySiteª, which automates the internal procurement process from requisition to order, and Commerce One MarketSiteª, which automates supplier interactions from order to payment.

Commerce One is located in Walnut Creek, Calif. and can be reached by phone at (800) 308-3838 or (925) 941-6000 or via the Internet at http://www.commerceone.com

# # #

Company Contact:

Susan Dwyer
Commerce One
925.941.4386
susan.dwyer@commerceone.com 

Press Contact:

Carolyn Wilkins
The Horn Group
415.905.4000
cwilkins@horngroup.com

back to top

"Early in its history, Veo Systems made a strategic decision to build its open commerce solutions on XML, which was then an emerging standard. The company was a pioneer in the development of XML-based commerce applications. As XML gained momentum in the market, and as we realized the power that XML brings to Web commerce, Veo has made the transition from pioneer to industry leader."

Mary Laplante, Partner, Fastwater LLP

"XML will power drive the future of e-commerce by allowing degrees of interoperability and flexibility we can only now dream about. The combination of Veo Systems' expertise in XML for e-commerce and Commerce One's knowledge of procurement systems together with open e-commerce standards such as the Internet Open Trading Protocols being developed by the IETF will considerably help to make this real."

David Burdett, Development Director, Mondex International