A Sell-Side Product Information Management Vendor Landscape
March 2005
“GXS offers three products relating to PIM: Product Information Manager Supplier Edition, Product Information Manager Retailer Edition, and Product Information Manager Express Supplier Edition. The company’s PIM functionality is derived from tools acquired from HAHT Commerce in 2004, and serves both buy-side and sell-side PIM. GXS provides all three phases of product information: creation, aggregation, and syndication. Item and trading partner analytics are provided, and may be augmented with an additional Business Intelligence (BI) software package. GXS supports integration to its own GXS Data Pool, Transora, WWRE, and UCCnet. GXS sells PIM as a license behind-the-firewall product, as well as in a hosted application service model.”

SAP, IBM, GXS, and Business Process Suites
February 2005
“GXS has built a customer base of 40,000 companies with an ecosystem supporting more than 100,000 trading partners. It is working closely with webMethods and other enterprise software vendors to build out the needed functionality in its own business process platform. As the executives described, the future looks less like the old Value-Added Network (VAN) and more like a service-oriented network.”



Global eXchange Services Company Assessment
September 2005
“We are taking a slightly positive stance on GXS, an established global provider of EDI and hosted trading network services. The company has a large global sales and professional service force, a 100,000 participant-strong trading network, and 40,000 SMB and Global 2,000 customers. The addition of IBM’s EDI customer base gives it more direct customers in key verticals, such as financial services and the automotive industry, via IBM’s partnerships. The company’s main strength is an extremely wide range of hosted trading network services, including EDI network, global messaging and translation services, community development services, training, hosted security, hosted catalog, on-ramp and connection services, VPN services, and even hosted back office connectivity solutions. GXS has a particular expertise in supply chain issues and the retail industry, and it has products such as Advanced Ship Notice (ASN). GXS has revamped its hosted network, now dubbed Trading Grid, and it plans an ambitious set of new hosted applications and a portal-like, role-based interface into all the possible applications of the Trading Grid. The Trading Grid applications will be further enhanced using webMethods’ BAM and BPM technologies.”

GXS Revamps Its Integration Product with Help from Friends
September 2005
“GXS, a provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions, announced the launch of its new B2B Gateway software solutions specifically designed to provide large and medium-sized enterprises with a unified platform to streamline global trading partner integration… We are taking a positive stance on GXS’ release of its new B2B Integration/EAI products. The products, Enterprise Gateway and Partner Gateway, are derived from webMethods technology and link into the webMethods Fabric SOA integration environment. This is first rate B2B technology and could attract GXS customers who are transitioning to Internet B2B technology for various reasons.”

GXS Transforms Itself with New Version of AI
July 2005
“Current Perspective: Positive on GXS’ new version of its Application Integrator, as the move to XML and Eclipse will help retain current customers and possibly attract new OEMs and end users to the technology... GXS AI 5.0 is the only translator on the market that features both native electronic data interchange (EDI) and native XML in one solution through a single user interface and management console, differentiating itself from competing offerings by eliminating the need for multiple translation engines… Users and ISVs should consider the new version of Application Integrator due to the improved XML support and Eclipse interface, as well as good EDI support.”



The Forrester Wave: Integration Suites, Q3 2005
July 2005
“GXS is a longtime powerhouse in the B2B integration world.”

“GXS has a strong global presence that will become increasingly important as multinational firms attempt to increase the effectiveness of their application- and process-based interactions.”

“[GXS’] strategic partnership with webMethods… is stronger than a normal partnership, in that it significantly enhances both vendors’ integration offerings.”

“[GXS] is an especially good fit for buyers that have complex B2B integration requirements. GXS’ capabilities in this area are at the top of the scale. The vendor has more than 25 years of experience and an excellent support track record.”

“GXS provides its full range of services in a hosted environment, thereby shielding its customers from the complexities of external integration requirements.”



Vendor Rating: GXS
October 2005
“GXS has embarked on an ambitious modernization plan and is likely to re-establish a healthy core business around supply chain integration services.”

“GXS is the world's largest integration service provider, offering a wide range of supply chain integration services.”

“GXS' new Trading Grid is an ambitious but viable strategy that will guide its product and service road map for years to come and help it to evolve from an integration service provider into a business process network.”

“GXS customers tell us that they are more confident doing business now with GXS than two years ago, in part because of lower fees, and because they consider the new Trading Grid to be a viable long-term vision for future B2B projects.”

GXS and webMethods' Partnership Acknowledges Hybrid Business-to-Business Projects
March 2005
“The functionality of the combined product lines of GXS and webMethods is clearly superior to the functionality of each vendor separately. GXS is a leader in integration services, webMethods is a leader in integration software, and the strongest parts of each vendor's portfolio will be retained.”

The New Breed of Inter-Enterprise Integrators
January 2005
“VAN services providers that offer EDI transport and translation services are currently engaged in the most radical re-engineering of their businesses since the onset of Internet EDI during the late 1990s… GXS introduced its Trading Grid, acquired the EDI services business from IBM, and announced a partnership with webMethods.”



webMethods-GXS Partnership Positions the Two Companies For the Next Major Growth Spurt in the BPA Deployment Software Market… And More
November 2004
“This webMethods-GXS partnership (and the very act of accomplishing it via a partnership) is very consistent with the feedback we are seeing in IDC demand-side surveys relative to how the IT community wants to see its integration functionality delivered…”



GXS Brings Value-Add to Trading Partner Business Processes
November 2005
“GXS is Making Great Strides to add B2B Solutions via the GXS Trading Grid
B2B integration is a crucial, core component of an enterprise network. The success or failure of the network increasingly depends on the business processes and services like B2B integration, which support it. It is essential for enterprises to coordinate business processes that extend beyond their four walls. They must achieve efficiencies in their supply chain, react more quickly to consumer trends and do a better job of collaborating with their partners around the world.

However, it is no trivial task to integrate an enterprise across an entire value chain. Companies must contend with melding disparate standards and protocols to enable the seamless exchange of information between trading partners. This extremely complex undertaking is made even more daunting by the volatility in the trading community, which further increases organizations’ need for real-time information.

GXS’ recent partnership with webMethods to deploy webMethods Fabric in GXS Trading Grid addresses these business issues. It allows companies to integrate existing applications inside and outside the enterprise. It also incorporates the resources across enterprises into an end-to-end integration solution. The partnership between GXS and webMethods is an apt strategy to add new technology to existing products faster. This pact is far more than a mere reseller agreement. In addition to the use of webMethods Fabric within the GXS Trading Grid, the GXS and webMethods development teams worked together to integrate their respective technologies into a singular B2B Gateway solution called the GXS Enterprise Gateway…

Bottom Line
GXS has positioned itself to become a leading B2B solutions provider. GXS has strategically acquired and collaborated to provide significant value propositions to its Trading Grid platform quickly. Since the Fortune 500 hubs are already using one or more offerings from B2B solutions providers, the switch will be to make it easier and more efficient for the spokes to interact with the Trading Community. Making it easier for spokes means hubs will get more value from purchasing additional value-added B2B solution offerings. Yankee Group research indicates that growth in China is a significant factor for growth in global markets over the next few years. GXS has recognized these shifts and is wisely acting on them.”

Emerging Demand for B2B Managed Services, Hosted Integration and Outsourcing
November 2005
“Managed services providers can help organizations lower the cost to serve customers and suppliers, and ensure they can meet the changing requirements of their trading partner community. They are a faster and more cost effective option for deploying B2B e-commerce to a wide trading partner base due to their expertise, experience, existing network and shared infrastructure.”

“GXS recognizes the opportunity. It is the first to actively market and promote adding functionality to their trading grid based on SMB requirements. GXS has begun to considered additional ways to market to SMBs. No other vendors mentioned actively marketed to SMBs on their corporate website or trading partner portals.”

The Cost of Waiting: Building the ROI Case to Implement Product Information Management Now

March 2005
“The cost of waiting to invest in PIM is too great. Retailers and suppliers alike will continue to experience wasted dollars from invoice deductions, slowed time to market for new product introductions, time spent relaying basic product information to customers and partners, and lost sales from out of stocks, just to name a few.”