WebSphere Commerce-Express, V6.0 FAQs
General Questions
Q: What is WebSphere Commerce-Express?
A: WebSphere Commerce-Express is an integrated package of software components designed to help growing midmarket firms quickly and affordably build and maintain e-commerce web sites. Commerce-Express is ready to go out-of-the-box, making it easy to get up and running fast at minimum investment. It is easy to administer, with tools that let midmarket customers manage their site effectively without special technical skills. As business needs grow there is an upgrade path to WebSphere Commerce Professional to allow for additional scalability. Midmarket customers purchasing WebSphere Commerce-Express get the best of both worlds with an affordable starting point as well as the assurance that they are building their site on a rock solid, proven foundation that will be available to their customers around the clock.
Q: When will the product be generally available?
A: The GA for WebSphere Commerce-Express V6.0 is targeted for May 1, 2006.
Q: Who are the customers you are targeting with WebSphere Commerce-Express?
A: Small to midmarket sized firms of roughly 100-1000 employees who are interested in deploying basic B2C or B2B e-commerce environment to jump-start or expand their online presence.
Q: How does this product fit into the overall WebSphere Commerce portfolio?
A: WebSphere Commerce-Express is the entry product in the overall WebSphere Commerce family and is designed specifically to meet the needs of midmarket customers and the business partners who serve them.
Q: Is there an upgrade path from WebSphere Commerce-Express to the rest of the WebSphere Commerce portfolio?
A: Yes. Customers who choose to upgrade will be given full credit for their Commerce-Express investment should they want to upgrade to WebSphere Commerce Professional. Because the entire WebSphere Commerce family shares the same code platform, any customized code developed for Commerce-Express can be easily migrated.
Q: What is the price of WebSphere Commerce-Express and what does the customer get?
A: WebSphere Commerce-Express is planned to be sold as a packaged offering at US$20,000. The offering includes the Commerce-Express server code, which can be installed on one processor for production and on another processor in support of pre-production staging activities only. There is a limit of one license of WebSphere Commerce-Express. WebSphere Commerce-Express Developer for site development is also available for US$3,500.
Q: What are the main reasons a midmarket customer should purchase WebSphere Commerce-Express?
A: The top reasons why Commerce-Express is the best value for midmarket customers are:
1) Affordable, but Complete - at only US$20,000 per license, it is priced 34% less than the comparable offering from Microsoft, plus special licensing delivers everything required for production and staging for an outstanding overall value.
2) Quickly and Easily Installed – can be installed in as little as one hour - faster than Microsoft Commerce Server 2002 and in fewer steps - resulting in lower service costs that have to be passed on from the business partner to the customer
3) Easy to Implement - after installation, a customer “store” is created - this process is made easier and less costly in terms of services through the “Express” store model and fast-path documentation
4) Ready Now, but Built for the Future with the capabilities the customer needs to get started now out-of-the-box and numerous advanced features built-in to grow into as required
5) Easy to Administer and Manage - with wizard-based tools letting the customer manage the site effectively without special technical skills - non-technical employees can easily maintain an online catalog and LOB professionals can create and manage marketing campaigns and promotions
6) Reliable and Robust - built on WebSphere, a rock-solid e-business infrastructure that can level the playing field with larger companies
7) Built on Open Standards - unlike Microsoft, which locks customers into one option only, WebSphere Commerce-Express frees you from proprietary platform restrictions
Q: Why should my customers choose the IBM WebSphere platform rather than Microsoft.NET?
A: In the midmarket space, Java is clearly gaining momentum over Microsoft.NET. Over 78% of midmarket customers are building e-business applications, and more then half are using Java to develop them. In fact, when Yankee Group looked at developers within these organizations, they found that they actually have more Java skills as a percentage of their IT staffs than enterprises with greater then 5,000 employees. The actual numbers were 48% for the mid-market business versus 36% for the large enterprise. IT support is crucial to any enterprise's success, regardless the size of the business. The pool of Java trained developers is large and growing. By comparison, because of the infancy of Microsoft.NET fewer developers are trained or ready to support it. This lack of a technical support pool is a concern for not only midmarket but all e-businesses.
Technical Questions
Q: What are the differences between WebSphere Commerce – Express and WebSphere Commerce Professional?
A: There are several key functional differences between these two offerings. Compared to Professional, the following features are not included: WAS ND, WAS Edge, Workspaces, Marketing Experimentation, and support for Sales Center and Gift Center. In addition, the Oracle database is not supported for WebSphere Commerce – Express. Another key difference is in scalability – customers purchasing WebSphere Commerce – Express are limited to a maximum of one license (plus staging), whereas Professional has no license purchase limit. However, you are limited to one store per license with both Express and Professional.
Q: What platforms does WebSphere Commerce-Express support?
A: WebSphere Commerce-Express will support the Windows 2000, i Series and Linux-Intel platforms.
Q: What database offering is included and which are supported?
A: WebSphere Commerce-Express comes bundled with and only supports DB2 Express.
Q: How many store are allowed with WebSphere Commerce-Express?
A: One store per processor (identical to Professional Edition). A “store” is defined in WebSphere Commerce as a store back office. Store back offices are identified and may be counted in the “store table”. Several storefronts may access the same store back office to allow handling of commerce transactions consistently for all stores. Each unique store back office counts toward the one store limit per processor.