PLEASANTON, CALIF. (06/08/2000) - Ironside Technologies Inc. next month will ship an updated version of its Java-based IronWorks e-commerce application for granting restricted access to trading partners via the Internet.
IronWorks 5.0, which acts as the gateway between a Web front end and an enterprise resource planning system for trading partners, will add support for templates that let online buyers resubmit lists of frequently reordered items.
Other improvements to IronWorks, now used by 145 companies, include a way to link authentication of electronic catalogs with the IronWorks gateway authentication feature so customers don't have to enter passwords twice in the course of a purchase.
With IronWorks 5.0, corporations will be able to delegate the administration of user access to trading partners. The gateway application, which costs about $300,000, will also have an option for workflow-based order approval. That way, online buyers can designate an order-approval process, routing orders to procurement managers for sign-off, if need be.
"We're excited about the routing system for approvals and the catalog capabilities," says IronWorks user Rick Holden, CEO of educational goods supplier J.L. Hammett, which now generates 15% of its annual $175 million business online. Holden says the software templates for reordering will save his customers a lot of retyping.
Another IronWorks customer, the Minneapolis-based medial supplies distributor McKesson, plans to upgrade to IronWorks 5.0 to take advantage of another new feature: banner advertising.
"We're interested in that to advertise products to the 1,700 customers we now have ordering online," says Jim Reinstatler, McKesson's vice president of IT.
Ironside: www.ironside.com