Gartner's New eMetrix for Measuring B2B E-Business

Gartner Group Inc announces a new standard for measuring business-tobusiness (B2B) e-business. Gartner eMetrix powered by InfoRay is a real-time monitor that enables e-businesses to react to critical changes across all business and technology areas. Gartner eMetrix powered by InfoRay provides decision-makers with real-time views into vital data housed in traditionally disparate sources such as data warehouses, enterprise resource planning systems and corporate databases. The immediate metrics on e-business processes helps to prevent critical delays and keeps businesses running at Internet speed.

Gartner unveiled Gartner eMetrix powered by InfoRay at its Collaborative Commerce Conference at the Chicago Hilton Hotel and Towers.

eMetrix is a strategic monitoring and measurement service and software tool that is customizable for each individual enterprise's B2B operations. eMetrix monitors and reports on every leg of an e-business operation in real time, sending alerts to CEOs, business unit managers and CFOs when a major business opportunity is in jeopardy due to timing across the entire value chain - from supplier to customer. eMetrix monitors the efficiency of the supply chain, customer loyalty, collaboration among suppliers, business partners and customers, e-procurement and B2B e-commerce. The customizable solution is applicable to any enterprise using any legacy system as well as any type of application and middleware. eMetrix addresses the most strategic to the most tactical aspects of e-business and, because it readily follows the integration of legacy systems, it provides the knowledge that executives need today.

Gartner projects B2B e-business to grow into a $7.29 trillion industry by 2004. The complexities of transforming a global business into a thriving B2B are derived from the two challenges. For one, enterprises are combining multiple legacy systems on different platforms to enable c-commerce, automated supply chain management and real-time inventory control. Moreover, large communities combine business partners, suppliers, internal personnel and even customers that may all interact with data warehouse information to add knowledge to accelerate or slow the speed of the B2B e-business.

According to Gartner research, the opportunity to improve metrics for ebusiness management is extensive. Of 206 companies recently surveyed by Gartner, less than 25 percent had implemented new metrics for e-business and more than 30 percent were not measuring e-business initiatives at all. The remaining respondents still rely on traditional business and technology metrics.

Recent missed opportunities that eMetrix is designed to address include the case of the manufacturer that missed a major Halloween retail opportunity because the supply chain did not meet the needs of the manufacturing plant in time. A major automotive retailer missed the target sales for a specific car model because the size of the consumer demand was not properly fed into the automotive manufacturing schedule. Most notably, holiday e-tailers that missed December deadlines for toy shipments due to inventory and logistics problems could have salvaged seasonal profits had they received immediate status alerts when problems first began. Without the real-time B2B metrics, all of these businesses were unaware of supply chain issues until it was too late, causing lost revenue and, more importantly, lost customers.

"We're providing our clients with a forward-looking view of their businesses rather than an analysis of what has already happened," said Al Lill, Gartner's vice president of E-business Intelligence Services. "This capability is unmatched by any other market research firm and enables managers to identify their e-business challenges in real time and immediately put Gartner's strategic analysis into practice."

"InfoRay's alliance with Gartner significantly expands our reach into key markets and presents numerous opportunities for additional applications of our technology," said InfoRay CEO Ronald Tetteroo. "We make a great team together because both InfoRay and Gartner are dedicated to helping businesses use information to improve performance."

Gartner eMetrix powered by InfoRay is customized and programmed into an enterprise's e-business systems and activities for a year. Gartner's analysis and services teams work with client executives to plan proactive e-business strategies to optimize performance throughout the year. For more information about Gartner eMetrix powered by InfoRay, contact Sally Edwards at 203-316- 6195 or visit www.gartner.com.

Later in 2000, eMetrix will offer the B2B e-business measurement benchmarks derived from the global, B2B e-business monitoring results. As with all Gartner benchmarks, the client work will remain entirely confidential and the benchmarks will be customizable to reach across vertical industries as well as across disciplines within an e-business enterprise.

About InfoRay Inc.

InfoRay is a leading provider of real-time business monitors and infostructure that allow companies to maximize opportunities while managing the risk of high-speed business. InfoRay's patented solutions allow easy tracking of key business indicators in order to easily impact a company's performance at any level. Founded in the Netherlands, InfoRay moved its headquarters to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1999 and now has offices in the United States and Europe. InfoRay is a privately held company with funding from the Mayfield Fund and Advent International. Its customer base includes global Fortune 1000 companies.

About Gartner

Gartner provides unrivaled thought leadership for more than 10,000 organizations, helping clients to achieve their business objectives through the intelligent and efficient use of technology. Additionally, Gartner helps technology companies identify and maximize technology market opportunities. Gartner's technology content and strong brand reach IT professionals globally through Gartner Research, its research and advisory unit, Gartner Services, its custom consulting unit; Gartner Events, including Gartner's renowned Symposia; and gartner.com. Gartner subsidiary TechRepublic Inc www.techrepublic.com is a leading online destination developed exclusively for IT professionals by IT professionals. Gartner, founded in 1979 and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, achieved fiscal 1999 revenues of $734 million. Gartner's 3,600 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants, are in more than 80 locations worldwide. For more information about Gartner's industry-leading products and services, please visit us on the Web at www.gartner.com.

Contact Gartner, Carol Wallace 203-316-3575 carol.wallace@gartner.com or InfoRay, Mira E. Genser 617-250-1406 m.genser@inforay.com.