Sterling Commerce aims suite at e-commerce veterans

Sterling Commerce has rounded up tools gained through acquisitions to bolster a new e-commerce line that targets firms planning multichannel projects.

The Selling and Fulfilment Suite is intended to cover stages in the sales cycles from initial inquiry to payment and builds on purchases Sterling has made in the last two years, most notably order-management and supply-chain firm Yantra and Comergent Technologies, a developer of software for complex order handling.

David Hogg, Sterling retail solutions manager, said buyers are seeking to answer more complex demands where multiple channels, special deals and a variety of fulfilment options are available.

“Companies want to leverage their funky investments that take them outside the comfort zone of ERP but there’s a real problem in that areas such as the warehousing system often struggle to meet demand,” Hogg said.

Oracle and SAP have ramped up retail capabilities recently as part of broader enterprise resource planning (ERP) offerings but Hogg said that “even now it is still not their sweet spot” because focus is distracted to other areas of the business. Also, Sterling is seeking to appeal to a wide range of customers in both business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer sectors, he said.

“Sterling is building up in the grey areas at the edge of enterprises where traditional ERP has not been strong,” he added.

Experts said Sterling is well positioned for companies looking to revamp e-commerce offerings, even where firms have one of the enterprise applications giants at the back-ends of their businesses.

“Sterling’s acquisitions of Comergent, Yantra, and [on-demand transportation management firm] Nistevo provide it with the broadest coverage around key order hub processes,” said Ray Wang, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

“These include opportunity to order capture, order capture to order fulfillment, and order fulfilment to order completion. Customers we’ve talked to turn to Sterling because they can provide extensive multichannel visibility, and, more importantly, serve as the source of truth for an order.”

Wang said that demand for multichannel services is transforming e-commerce.

“This is huge, he said. “Being able to take an order by phone, return in store, and receive credit status via the web is the holy grail. While no product provides all of this today, Sterling provides many of the essential pieces to make a ‘perfect order’ more a reality. The ability to take an HDTV order by web, have it delivered, and schedule installation is also key for this convergent world.”