IBM Corp. is looking to expand its services for business customers and their commerce needs, and the technology company’s latest announcement is a major manifestation of that goal.
The firm announced the launch of IBM Commerce, a unit that offers both Software-as-a-Service and consulting services for businesses within both the B2B and retail markets. Reports say IBM will pay particularly close attention to expanding its B2B e-commerce offerings this year, however.
Last November, IBM Smarter Commerce announced the rollout of B2B Commerce, an e-commerce portal powered through WebSphere and focused on ease-of-use for B2B sellers.
The new IBM unit, which replaces IBM Smarter Commerce, will be headed by Deepak Advani. His previous experience at IBM involved e-commerce software, marketing technology and other similar positions. In a statement, Advani said IBM Commerce aims to offer “end-to-end commerce” solutions.
IBM already has an array of products and services for the B2B market, including cloud-based software and data hosting, SPSS predictive analytics and its WebSphere digital commerce software. According to Advani, IBM Commerce will offer a broader range of commerce solutions compared with IBM Smarter Commerce, which focused more on software services apart from marketing and consulting.
The company has a long history with digital commerce, and earlier this month it was revealed that IBM took Priceline to court on claims the travel booking site infringed on multiple IBM e-commerce patents, some dating as far back as the late-1990s.
IBM’s commerce operations have seen several changes in recent months. According to reports, IBM Smarter Commerce’s former leader Craig Hayman left IBM to serve as president of eBay Enterprise’s e-commerce branch.
IBM Commerce is one of three new cross-platform units for IBM, including IBM Analytics and IBM Security.
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