In the summer of 1998, Compaq Computer Corporation sought pcOrder's help in overcoming the challenges it was facing in a dynamic, fast-paced market. The direct selling model employed by Dell and Gateway was exerting powerful competitive pressure on Compaq and the company was seeking new strategies that would streamline the order-taking process and reduce costs. The market was demanding smarter, faster online selling solutions and Compaq needed a technology partner capable of speeding its entry into this world.

According to Marius Haas, director of SMB.com at Compaq, "we needed to get to a common platform within Compaq so that we could deploy an e-commerce solution. The start of the pcOrder relationship coincided with the development of compaq.com and the main engine inside Compaq that will drive our e-commerce strategy."

Setting Priorities

Like many companies facing the e-commerce "make versus buy" decision, Compaq had to choose the most expedient avenue. "Our priorities were to deliver robust configuration capabilities using industry 'best-of-breed' solutions so that we would not be doing development in-house. We decided to use off-the-shelf products, providing the value-add by integrating it back into our system and our environment," Haas explained.

Going Direct

At the start of the business relationship, pcOrder's mission was to devise a configuration solution for Compaq that would enable them to compete in the "Configure to Order" (CTO) arena. pcOrder was directed to build the configuration application and deploy it throughout the channel so that corporate resellers, distributors and end customers could order directly from Compaq.

The primary challenge for Compaq was consolidating its configuration engines. More than 20 different configurators were in use by groups throughout the company and within its back-end systems. Configuration redundancies were bogging down the ordering process.

For pcOrder, the objective at this stage was to build configuration capabilities and automate Compaq's Web sites in a way that would be in synch with the company's back-office SAP system. Working closely with Compaq, pcOrder consolidated the SAP configurator with that provided by our eStation platform to overcome ordering conflicts between systems and streamline order processing.

Deploying Applications Worldwide

Early in 1999, with the CTO application successfully moving forward, Compaq sought a robust solution for its enterprise customers. According to Phil Gilbert, Technology Evangelist for pcOrder, "They wanted full-blown order-taking Extranets so that customers could purchase more than just CTO systems, but anything out of Compaq's catalog and from any of Compaq's channel partners." While Compaq had been developing an internal solution for direct orders, they had no vehicle in place for customers to buy through traditional channels. As a global company, Compaq also faced the challenge of deploying applications on a worldwide scale.

Compaq decided to focus its attention on four primary markets initially: public stores, extranets for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market, extranets for major accounts, and sales configuration tools. "Ideally we wanted one platform that these four focus areas would leverage so that we could increase efficiencies and decrease our time to market," said Haas.

Based on these expectations, Compaq signed an agreement with pcOrder that calls for deployment of Web sites around the world and in multiple languages. When completed, the effort will span more than 50 countries and more than 20 languages. These sites will cater to broad audiences - people surfing the Web for computer products to very customer-centric, personalized sites for corporate customers.

"Compaq chose pcOrder based on our ability to deploy quickly on a platform that could scale rapidly," said Gilbert. Within the first 90 days, pcOrder deployed Compaq Extranets to 10 countries and in five local languages. The deployment continues on schedule and is due to be completed in an 18-month time frame.

By delivering comprehensive, scalable Web applications in record time, pcOrder is enabling Compaq to develop a powerful online presence, reduce ordering complexities and lower costs.

Evaluating Compaq's decision to use the pcOrder platform, Haas explained, "pcOrder had a rich history and knowledge about integrating into our channel partner community. That was a key component to this partnership. Also, they brought cutting-edge technology that we could deploy in an industry-leading fashion from a time-to-market perspective."