We suppose Chris Stone’s new venture, Network Decisions Inc, will be doing precisely that: providing directory-based infrastructure for analyzing and interrogating information pulled from the internet or from corporate data stores. It’s strictly and business-to-business play. Sounds something like Cognos and reporting tools companies have been doing for enterprise data; pulling information from databases and putting it into spreadsheets. Apply that to corporate portals, extranets and vertical industry portals – or the companies building or managing them like Plumtree – and it begins to add up. Information is abundant, but how to retrieve and analyze it usefully?
Extracting data from CRM, SCM and other front-office applications and mining it in conjunction with net-based data will provide a competitive advantage. And some companies seem to be getting the message. Microstrategy is offering something similar to consumers as Strategy.com.
Network Decisions will leverage Novell Directory Services, XML and other building blocks. The genesis of the company has reportedly been formed on the back of a spin out from New York network design company Predictive Systems Inc which filed to go public last week. It will start with 10 employees; Stone is chairman and CEO. Funding doesn’t look like being an issue.
Business-to-business transactions are worth $17 trillion of the $20 trillion in goods and services that change hands in the US each year. BancBoston Robertson Stephens says that assuming 10% of business-to-business transactions in the US move online by 2003, the implied value of e-commerce exceeds $1.7 trillion. We believe new companies with new solutions are best positioned to address the complexities and sophistication of B2B. B2B is characterized by intricate handshaking, front-end customization, financing, cross-border logistics and regulations among fragmented buyers and suppliers. Moreover domain expertise is critical-giving rise to vertical solutions that address the unique dynamics of each industry, it says.
