A Virtual Business Park

Valerie Thompson

When secretaries at Siemens Nixdorf, Germany's largest computer manufacturer, need letterhead for the office, they point their Web browser at http://www.Entropolis.de , enter a password, log on to an office supply contractor's on-line store, and order the items they need. The completed order links directly to the contractor's transaction-processing system. The shipment and bill follow within 24 hours.

This is just a simple example of how closed user grou ps and extranets can improve customer service and link business partners closer together. Users of the Entropolis virtual business park, set up by Advanced Services & Media, a subsidiary of Siemens Nixdorf, can form virtual common interest gr oups in financially separated malls. These malls may be public, or they may be accessible only to a closed group of users such as a trade association.

Entropolis interfaces directly with ordering and logistics systems from standard business process systems such as SAP's R/3 or Baan's Triton. Services include:

• Extranet presence with closed economic transactions between companies and their suppliers.
• Business-to-business transactions in vertical markets within a branch or a group of companies that share the same business interest.
• Business-to-consumer relation management where companies can directly offer their products in a personalized way.

The first two types of services may sound familiar to users of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems. However, services such as Entropolis or General Electric's Trading Process Network (TPN) in the U.S. are available to big and small vendors across markets. While the vendors of products typically pay a fee to the service provider, the buyers don't. (The cost of putting a company's product catalogs on Entropolis is between DM 40,000 and DM 80,000. In addition, suppliers pay about DM 7600 a month to rent space on the site.)