Heather Harreld

In a move to temper its sagging consulting revenues, Oracle Corp. soon will begin offering hosted implementations of its software applications, beginning with a 90-day hosted version of its CRM (customer relationship management) software, the company announced Tuesday.

Armed with US$5 billion worth of commitments for trading over the next two years from some of the world's largest steel producers, the Global Steel Exchange (GSX) is scheduled to begin trading this week.

The market for online business-to-business integration is in the middle of a consolidation as vendors join forces to offer solutions that expand traditional EDI (electronic data interchange) trading by implementing emerging XML technologies.

J.D. Edwards & Co. has exited the direct hosting business, opting instead to transfer clients from its fledgling ASP (application service provider) division to other outsourcing companies.

The balance has clearly swung to the sell-side of the business-to-business arena as vendors target once-ignored suppliers with solutions designed to ease their entry and performance in on-line marketplaces. Industry heavyweights are readying products and services that will help suppliers who have so far been slighted in the business-to-business (B2B) game. These solutions are designed to foster long-term relationships between buyers and sellers, rather than supporting e-marketplaces where sellers' profit margins are squeezed.

Although seasoned network administrators may have grown accustomed to the nuisance of unsolicited e-mail, or spam, these messages may soon pose severe security threats to company networks, thanks to emerging software geared to give e-marketers more access to personal data.