INDUSTRY

SAN FRANCISCO, and JENA, Germany -- Intershop Communications, a leading provider of e-commerce solutions for global enterprises, today announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with HP Services (HPS), taking their consulting partnership to the next level. With this announcement, Intershop becomes a Premium Partner of HP. Both companies will increase their level of effort in the joint marketing of Intershop's Enfinity(TM) e-commerce solutions. Activities include selling, scoping, developing and deploying Intershop's e-commerce software worldwide. In order to offer fast time-to-market and minimize project risk for their joint customers, HP Services and Intershop are designing targeted solution "bundles" for all major business models, including B2B, B2C, Procurement and Content Management. This agreement between Intershop and HP Services also defines project responsibilities, depending on the particular areas of expertise of the two partners. HP Services - Consulting & Integration will be responsible for project management, business consulting, system architecture and integration with back-end and legacy systems. Intershop will manage software development, technical consulting and web design. "With this new agreement, two experienced specialists are intensifying their presence in a currently underestimated ecommerce market," said Gerhard Sundt, Director of HP Services - Consulting & Integration, Germany. "Two of the largest joint Intershop-HP projects to date include Otto.de and Quelle.de. The new agreement defines the framework for the exchange of processes and the creation of a set of partnership guidelines as well as best practices to ensure the successful realization of major projects. Customers will benefit from this approach that leverages the core competencies of the two partners. By accelerating projects across all phases, from sales and scoping to development and deployment, customers will realize a faster time-to-market and a more efficient operation of their e-commerce solution.