Investment

Calling it a"whole new business model," Charles Gaiennie has become an e-business convert and he's warningVARs to keep up orbe pushed aside by the competition.

Gaiennie is the chief communications officer for Houma, Louisiana based-Advanced Software Development Corp. Until now the company's primary product has been back-end accounting software,but it is making the jump to e-commerce by addinga front end. And the company wants to make sure resellersunderstand that e-commerce means more than a static Web site with a price list and a phone number.

"Unless they're in a real specialty niche, it'salmost as if VARs don't have a choice," Gaiennie said."If they're going to go out there and solicit e-business, they had better have a Web solution or they're simply going to be left in the dust, becauseI can promise you their competition will have one."

Overthe past five years, Advanced Software has installed 3,000 units of its opensource UA Corporate Accounting software. With a staff of 22and a reseller network of 300 VARs worldwide, including 12in Canada, the company is riding the e-commerce wave with it's soon tobe released Total e-Biz software. The company claims the software will help company'sgetting online for the first time, offering a choice ofmore than 520 Web site designs.

"What Total e-Biz doesis it takes the Microsoft back end and brings it forward with Web enabling software thatprovides the inventory management," he said. "It allowsyou to create the Web store and publish it to a site. There's alsoa hosting default so that companies that aren't on the Web can get there."

Orders are generated on the Web and automatically posted to an inventory system that allows the inventory personto do the fulfillment. It generates an invoice and posts to the accounts receivable and the general ledger.It's all open source and customizable,he said, so regardless of the industry you're in it can be modified to hityour demands.

"It's not just a Website, it's a complete virtual business," Gaiennie said. "It's possible with this software to never have a storefront- just a warehouse with your inventory. Itliterally is a whole new business model.

"Most businesseswill tell you that e-commerce is important to them and they intend todo something about it in the future," Gaiennie continued. "But I tendto believe that most of them, in saying that, would be talking about theirWeb sites. They're not considering the back-end ramifications." Not enoughVARs are seeing the possibilities for e-commerce as an option unless the company is an Amazon.com orChapters.ca, he says.

One of Gaiennie's Canadian resellers, Dallas Kostna, ownerand president of B + D Information Services in Winnepeg, Man., agrees. Kostnasaid he is looking forward to the fullrelease version of Total e-Biz after having seen bits and piecesof its beta release.

His company is installing the UA softwarefor clients in local heavy industries. Customers are betting that there is amarket for selling things such as diesel engine parts globally through theInternet.

"E-commerce is just starting to grow," he said. "There's morethan just the potential for business to business applications, and it's not just booksand shoes that have an Internet market."

According to both Gaiennie andKostna, cost is the primary worry for small and medium-sized companies looking intoe-commerce. Gaiennie says his company'srelatively low-cost software should fit well into this market segment.

"Just a simple search on the Internetfor 'e-business software' and you'll get a bunch of hits, but when youdrill down you start to realizeit's likely going to be a six figure investment for you, he said. "That'sa sobering thought and it's keeping e-commerce in the closet for a lot ofcompanies."

In five years Advanced Software has installed 3,000 unitsof its open source UA Corporate Accounting Software.

Total e-Biz offers over 520 Web site designs.

Initial cost is US,000.