Stories by: Jessica Davis

Four and a half years ago Miller Electric Construction, a manufacturer of welding equipment, made its first foray onto the Web with a site that many might call a "cyberbrochure." Millerwelds.com was primarily used to provide information to customers and distributors; customers could not place orders or find distributors back in those days.

IBM Corp. next Monday will announce that its WebSphere Commerce Suite Version 5.1 is now available for the iSeries AS/400 platform.

Sun Microsystems Inc. and customer management and e-commerce vendor Art Technology Group Inc. (ATG) Wednesday announced a deepening of their partnership from a "co-selling tactical relationship to really a strategic alliance."

In the shadow of a crashing stock market and vast uncertainty about the economy, a smaller Spring Internet World -- lacking the frenzied hype of previous years -- served as the backdrop for those serious about business on the Web.

During the past few months, the retail industry has come to realize that those businesses that offer multiple channels -- physical stores, Web sites, and catalogs -- have significant advantages over single-channel businesses.

Dramatic changes for industry, most recently demonstrated in the huge stock market slide Friday and Monday, has consumer goods giant Procter and Gamble Co. looking to reinvent its supply chain together with its partners. Procter and Gamble CIO Steve David offered an inside look at some of his company's goals for supply-chain management at AMR Research's Retail and Consumer Goods Executive Conference here Tuesday.

Looking for a good airfare these days is almost as hard as finding venture capital for a dot-com startup. OK, nothing is that hard. But to find the right fare and the right itinerary, travelers have to shop around. And there are plenty of sites offering travel services, from Priceline.com Inc. to Expedia Inc. to Travelocity.com Inc. -- even Egghead.com Inc.

IBM Corp. last week announced the release of Version 5.1 of its WebSphere Commerce Suite with added multicultural functions and support for mobile devices, as well as a move for the platform to 100 percent Java.

XML co-inventor Tim Bray launched a public showcase Web site last week for his new company, Antarcti.ca, offering a service called Visual Net that visually plots content on the Web and in private networks.

Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina urged e-business leaders to get used to partnering, to get good at managing risk, and to run fast during her keynote presentation at i2's Planet 2000 conference in San Diego.

At its Planet 2000 conference in San Diego, i2 Technologies announced the availability of TradeMatrix 5.0 and its Customer Order Management.