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By Gregory Dalton SpaceWorks Inc. is adding purchasing functionality to its E-commerce software, which is used by companies that sell their products on the World Wide Web. The vendor says the added features will appeal to distributors and wholesalers because they buy and sell the same merchandise. OrderManager 3.0, to be released this week, will include some buying functions such as the ability to approve purchases, search catalogs, and check the status of shipments. With the release, SpaceWorks is blurring a line that has existed between software for selling and software for purchasing. Applications for selling typically focus on presenting catalogs to customers, linking with back-end databases, and processing orders. Purchasing applications usually handle functions such as electronic purchase orders. The Rockville, Md., company's approach differs from that of E-commerce software vendors such as Connect Inc. and Netscape Communications, which continue to promote their purchasing and selling products separately in the market, although the applications share a great deal of code. "There are a lot of components that can be reused" in software designed for the other side of a transaction, says Harry Tse, research director at the Yankee Group Inc. in Boston. "But most of the vendors don't want to admit that." OrderManager, which can link to databases and enterprise applications such as SAP R/3, resides on a company's server and is accessed by customers using a browser. OrderManager 3.0 is available on HP-UX, Sun Solaris, and Windows NT. Pricing begins at $100,000.
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