NET MARKETING ANALYTICS

As reported by Dennis Callaghan, when 20tons.com launched four months ago, it had two goals: to match buyers and sellers of secondary plastics and to provide better information about the secondary plastics market. Mission (almost) accomplished.

The company has begun to deploy Broadbase E-Marketplace, a product from Menlo Park, Calif., analytical customer relationship management vendor Broadbase Software Inc. With modules for analyzing transaction history, market liquidity, and buyer and seller behavior; monitoring business performance; and spotting industry trends, Broadbase E-Marketplace looked to be just the tool that 20Tons.com needed.

"A lack of accurate information defines our market," said Jonathan Cohen, president and CEO of 20Tons.com, in Boulder, Colo. "We want to be able to create high-value information and deliver it to the buyers and sellers in our marketplace. It's not only a major value-add, but because our market is defined by the lack of accurate market information, it will solve that problem."

Broadbase is moving into the e-marketplace analytics space with its acquisition, announced last month, of e-marketplace analytics software vendor Decisionism Inc, also of Boulder.

Rival E.piphany Inc also announced an offering last week, which the San Mateo, Calif., company will deliver through business-to-business software vendors RightWorks Corp, Emptoris Inc, Commerce One Inc, iMediation Inc and Yantra Corp. E.piphany E.5 for B2B includes Enterprise Insight for E-commerce, Campaign Management, Real-time Personalization, Service Center and Service Portal. The B2B software vendor partners are co-marketing E.piphany's solution and integrating it with their own products. Off-the-shelf integrated packages will likely be available by year's end.

"We're partnering with them to enable our customers to have a more complete view of their Net market activity," said Mike Perozek, business development manager for Emptoris, of Burlington, Mass. "Net market-makers will use E.piphany's solution to better manage their customer relationships, drive business and provide better customer service."

Online barter site BigVine.com, of Redwood Shores, Calif., is one site that's adopted E.piphany E.5. The site lets companies trade goods and services. "We have a large body of transactions," said Karla Walsh, BigVine.com chief marketing officer. "It's important for us to have a database marketing infrastructure to capture customer transactions for mining, analysis and profiling."

E.piphany E.5 for B2B starts at $250,000 per module. Broadbase E-Marketplace is $195,000 per module.

Analytics on tap

Broadbase E-Marketplace

Function: Modules for analyzing transaction history, market liquidity, and buyer and seller behavior; monitoring business performance; and spotting industry trends

Cost: Starts at $195,000 per module

E.piphany E.5 for B2B

Function: Modules for analyzing transactions, campaign management, personalization and customer service

Cost: Starts at $250,000 per module