HP enters e-commerce alliance

Hewlett-Packard and AT&T announced last week that they would cooperate to create and market e-commerce products and services, effectively rolling out a red carpet into the fledgling industry for HP.

The alliance's most immediate effect will be an integration of AT&T's SecureBuy on-line transaction processing capabilities with HP's NT and Unix servers, enabling merchants and businesses to maintain Web sites on HP servers at their own premises while outsourcing credit card transactions to AT&T.

"This is an easy and cost-effective way for companies to add transaction capabilities to their Web sites," said Kathleen Earley, vice president of AT&T Networked Commerce Services.

The two will also work to develop technologies that will improve the scalability, manageability and reliability of Internet-based services, she said.

The large Internet service providers such as AT&T are looking for ways to provide business customers one-stop shopping solutions, said Dan Amder, an analyst in the Internet markets strategy division at The Yankee Group.

But Amder sees last week's announcement as particularly significant for HP, which he characterizes as itching to get into the e-commerce market.

The alliance calls for HP's nearly 15,000 resellers to sell AT&T's Web site services, which include Web hosting and the SecureBuy service, giving the company a way to sell a complete Web hosting package to its customers.

July July 29-30, Profiting From Internet Service Provision San Francisco, Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf, (312) 540-5685

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