Data Warehousing Leader Acta Inc. Extends Award-Winning Technology To E-Commerce
Acta Inc., a leader in packaged data warehousing solutions for decision support, has announced the first e-commerce architecture to intelligently combine data staging with direct access to ERP (enterprise resource planning) and other back-office data. The architecture, dubbed e2e ("enterprise data to e-commerce"), extends Acta's industry-leading data movement technology beyond the decision-support market to a unique position in the e-commerce market.
By extending its core technology to the e-commerce space, Acta will bring the competitive advantages of back-office databases to a broader audience.
"Acta is providing a solution to a problem that most companies are currently addressing with bailing wire and scotch tape," said Wayne Eckerson, Senior Analyst with the Patricia Seybold Group. "Companies need to find a way to bridge e-business, operational systems and data warehouses in an elegant, scalable way."
"As we know from our pioneering work in ERP data warehousing, effectively accessing the information contained in back-office databases is paramount for decision makers today," said Carol Mills Baldwin, Acta CEO and President. "e2e will allow managers to externalize this data on the web for better relationships with their customers, vendors and partners."
To make back-office data "commerce ready," Acta has designed components to meet the special demands of the Web-for example, rapid response time, 24x7 availability, scalability, and minimal impact on the underlying ERP system.
Central to the e2e architecture is the Acta ecache, a packaged data cache similar to Acta's RapidMarts. As with RapidMarts, ecaches are built with ActaWorks, the company's award-winning data extraction, translation and loading tool (DBMS Magazine: Editor's Choice). The ecache provides an out-of-the-box solution that includes a target schema, source-to-target mappings, and transformations that handle change-data capture, hierarchy extraction, error recovery, and security. Each ecache contains pre-defined ActaWorks data extraction jobs that automatically populate the cache with a company's SAP R/3 and other back-office data.
Using this architecture, Acta will develop a series of packaged e-commerce solutions. In the fourth quarter of this year, the company will release a customer account access application for SAP R/3, an easily deployed web site that will enable a company's customers to track invoices and related-purchase order information. A packaged customer account ecache will drive the solution. Acta will release other e2e products throughout the year 2000.
Among other key differentiators, the e2e architecture was designed with an "outside-in" approach-i.e., by asking what the customer needs at the front end, so as to better understand how and what to deliver from the back-end.
"Once companies begin to think from the 'outside-in' rather than from their ERP systems out, they will realize that customers demand a wealth of online self-service information," said Mills Baldwin. "The e2e architecture is designed to deliver this information to the customer from the forgotten but critically important back office."
Unlike other e-commerce solutions that rely solely on direct ERP access, the e2e architecture liberates back-office data to provide a full spectrum of e-commerce customer and vendor interactions.
Founded in 1996, Acta Inc. is the leading provider of packaged data warehousing solutions for decision support. Acta's award-winning technology is helping forward-looking companies to jumpstart their business intelligence programs with pre-configured data solutions that can be implemented within days.
Acta is an active member of the SAP Complementary Software Program (CSP) and PeopleSoft Global Alliance Program. ActaWorks has been certified by PeopleSoft and SAP BW interface certified by SAP. Acta has established strategic partnerships with leading business intelligence, database, hardware, OS, and systems integration companies. Acta customers include Chevron, FX Meiller, Guinness, Maxtor, Monsanto, S-B Power Tools (a division of Bosch GmbH), Shell Chemical Company, and other Global 1000 companies. Acta is headquartered at 1001 Elwell Court, Palo Alto, CA 94304. Sales and partnership inquiries should be directed to Acta's toll-free phone number 1-888-613-3282.
For more information, visit Acta's Web site at http://www.acta.com/e2e.