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November
13, 2000 By Neil Irwin SpaceWorks Inc., a Rockville company that sells e-commerce systems for hawking large industrial equipment, plans to announce today a partnership through which its software will be better able to connect with major business-to-business online marketplaces. The deal is with Commerce One Inc., which provides the software engine for such Web sites as TradeXchange, a site owned by General Motors Corp. on which auto parts suppliers compete to provide their wares to the automaker. SpaceWorks software is used by big companies such as GE Aircraft Engines and Maytag Corp. to sell products to corporate customers, much like Amazon.com sells books to consumers. Until now, users of the SpaceWorks software who wished to participate in business-to-business exchanges powered by Commerce One had to have the software customized specially. SpaceWorks software now will be ready straight "out of the box" to interact with the Commerce One software that forms the infrastructure of many such exchanges. The deal will help SpaceWorks add utility to its product offering, and help Commerce One make its product more attractive to exchanges with customers that use SpaceWorks software. No money will change hands in the deal, which has been in the works for month, as engineers from the two companies have collaborated on making the integration work. Moreover, the deal is not exclusive, so SpaceWorks could add similar functionality with other providers of industrial exchange infrastructure, such as Ariba Inc., or much smaller competitor TechTrader Inc., based in Washington. "What we're hearing is customer demand for this. The jury may be out for them on whether they want to participate now or in the future with a B-to-B exchange, but they want the option now," said David MacSwain, chief executive of SpaceWorks.
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