Bellevue, Washington-based IT consultancy and training company ARIS Corp claims its new new e-business methodology, dubbed 4D, will future-proof its customers investment in e-business sites. The four stage – discover, design, develop and deploy – method is founded on what ARIS calls integrated enterprise relationship management (iERM) principles. iERM combines enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and interactive internet technologies, which ARIS claims will enable clients to make the most of their relationships with customers, suppliers, shareholders and staff.
ARIS’ VP of marketing, Dan Fine, says the breadth of the relationships fostered by 4D differentiates it from similar offerings from established e-business service vendors such as fixed price/fixed time pioneer Cambridge Technology Partners.
The 4D methodology places great importance on developing a coherent e-business strategy rather than simply implementing the technology. This should help clients respond more rapidly to changing technologies. Contracts will be fulfilled on a fixed price/fixed time basis with projects guaranteed to go live within three months. According to Fine, 4D will initially be rolled out in Britain rather than the US due to what he perceives as greater maturity of CRM acceptance in the UK.
In launching 4D ARIS is taking advantage of the skills of Fine’s e-commerce consulting and services firm fine.com International Corp, which it acquired in May for $12.3m (CI No 3,664).
