Commerce One joins Web services crowd

E-business software company Commerce One said Monday that it is rewriting its line of Web-based purchasing and e-marketplace applications to support Web services. The company plans to release the new version, Commerce One 6.0, early next year.

Web Services are evolving technical specifications and protocols that let otherwise incompatible computing systems exchange data and combine information over the Internet. The move to Web services will simplify the electronic exchange of business forms and documents, such as shipping notices and purchase orders, among Commerce One customers and their business partners, said Commerce One Chief Executive Mark Hoffman. The company's competitors, including PeopleSoft and SAP, are also redesigning their business applications to work as Web services.