E-commerce takes center stage: Lucent, Netscape team up; AT&T extends extranets

Despite not living up to all its expectations, e-commerce is showing more promise as telecom players take up position for the long term. At last week's Internet Commerce Expo, Lucent Technologies and AT&T, announced solutions that will push both companies further into the market.

Lucent signed an agreement with Netscape Communications to develop a set of consulting services, software and network security. Lucent will license Netscape's CommerceXpert suite of Internet commerce applications and its applicat ion server software. In addition, the two companies will market the service to Lucent's traditional telco customer base under the Lucent ECommerce Solutions portfolio.

Among the solutions are Lucent's professional services, which offers service providers business process consulting, integration and operations services. Lucent will combine those with Netscape's CommerceXpert and application server to develop business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce solutions as Internet services.

"We'll be spending most of our efforts on customizing as opposed to building the core," said Susan Lynell, director of e-commerce solutions for Lucent. The package will include Lucent's managed firewall, which can be upgraded to deliver virtual private networking capabilities.

Initially the two companies will target three applications:

* Internet procurement, which lets carriers and enterprises convert paper-intensive processes into on-line transactions.

* Self-service solutions that give customers the ability to personalize services on a business' Web site.

* Business trading solutions, which provide the basics to allow service providers and enterprises to host on-line trading communities.

"The trading is done via communities of interest and we think there's a lot of opportunity for that," said Lynell.

Lucent also plans to integrate other products into the e-commerce set, with the first being the company's Internet Call Center, which lets businesses put a talk button on their Web sites.

In a related development, AT&T launched a series of services that extend its extranet portfolio. Under the Extranet Extras product group, AT&T will offer electronic data interchange (EDI) using Internet protocol (IP), an enhanced fax service and a Web-to-fax service.

Using IP EDI, companies will be able to transmit EDI-formatted files via the AT&T IP backbone to any e-mail box. Message destinations also can include fax machines, with conversion to fax format performed by the network.

"We believe that will fundamentally change the economics of this business," said Robert Jones, vice president of electronic commerce for AT&T.

In addition, the company is re-launching WorldNet Enhanced Fax Service, an extranet-based service that allows users to communicate with vendors, suppliers and other trading partners. The service lets customers send messages to fax destinations from their native e-mail systems without installing any special end user software or hardware.

A third service, Web-to-fax, delivers text and a wide range of graphic files to any fax machine via the company's backbone. The service can also broadcast fax messages to up to 20,000 locations and lets users manage up to 50 lists and track and trace delivery from a Web site.

All three AT&T services are currently in beta trial with two financial companies and one insurance group, said Jones.