GXS (company)

Infobox Company
name = GXS Incorporated
company_
company_slogan = No Trading Partner Left Behind
company_type = Private
foundation = 1967
location = Gaithersburg, MD
area_served = Worldwide
key_people = David Stanton, Chairman Bob Segert, Chief Executive Officer Bobby Patrick, Chief Marketing Officer Rowland Archer, Chief Technology Officer
customers = 35,000+
investors = Francisco Partners Norwest Venture Partners General Electric Company
employees = 1,800
industry = B2B e-Commerce B2B Integration
products = GXS Trading Grid(R) GXS B2B Managed Services
GXS Application Integrator GXS Order Lifecycle Visibility GXS Logistics Visibility GXS Intelligent Web Forms GXS Document Tracking and Control Service GXS Product Data Quality
homepage = [http://www.gxs.com/ www.gxs.com] [http://www.gxs.co.uk/ www.gxs.co.uk]

GXS [ [http://www.acronymfinder.com/Business/GXS.html GXS - Business & Finance] ] is a Business-to-Business e-Commerce services company headquartered outside of Washington DC. GXS provides services and expertise for a variety of vertical markets including retail/consumer packaged goods, high tech/manufacturing, automotive, and finance/banking.

History

GXS was founded in 1967 as GE Information Services (GEIS), a computer time-sharing service based in Rockville, MD. With Dartmouth College, GEIS created the BASIC language for use their Mark I mainframe. As they expanded, they developed their Mark III global network and a variety of languages, applications, and database systems for use by businesses around the world. In their heyday as a timesharing service (the early 1980's), GE ISC billed only for CPU time. Users could run GEIS-developed applications or write their own in FORTRAN-77. GEIS operated three large computer clusters called "supercenters" utilizing dozens of state-of-the-art Honeywell-6000 mainframes and hundreds of large, removable-pack disk drives.

In the mid 1980's, GEIS rapidly lost large customers due to the rise of cheap, small computers which served the same function as the Mark III service, but at a fraction of the total cost, zero incremental cost for CPU time on any specific machine, and without going through a modem. They tried to recover by focusing on selling their international network communications service instead of mainframe CPU time, but rapid advances in computer communications technology obsoleted the 110/300/1200 baud network which GE ISC had invested millions in developing. in 1985 they created GEnie, one of the first online services for consumers, similar to Compuserve and AOL. However lack of support by management as well as the rise of the Internet led to the demise of GEnie... and GEIS, which was sold by General Electric and renamed GXS. GXS is now privately owned by technology investment firms Francisco Partners of Menlo Park, California and Norwest Venture Partners based in Palo Alto, California.

GXS today has more than 2,000 employees and operates in every industrialized country and many emerging economies like China and the Philippines. It has regional headquarters in Hong Kong, London, San Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney, and Tokyo. The company operates secure data centers in the US, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong. GXS' primary research and development centers are located at Gaithersburg, MD; Raleigh, NC; London; Bangalore and Manila. The Hong Kong data center was closed in 2007 and the Sydney location was closed that same year.

Business model

GXS provides business-to-business EDI and on-demand supply chain integration, synchronization and collaboration solutions. The company operates the world's largest global integration services platform, the GXS Trading Grid, which enables the real-time flow of information between businesses regardless of standards preferences, spoken language or geographic location. In 2005, GXS processed more than 4 billion business documents.

Acquisitions and partnerships

In 2004, GXS acquired HAHT Commerce, launching its global data synchronization capability.

In November 2004, webMethods and GXS formed a partnership, combining webMethods integration software with GXS Trading Grid.

In 2005, GXS acquired the EDI and Business Exchange Services assets of IBM Corporation, increasing its presence in the U.S., Japan, Europe, and Latin America.

In May 2006, Microsoft and GXS formed a partnership to integrate Microsoft technologies with the GXS Trading Grid. [ [http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/solutions/supplychain/gxs-overview.mspx Microsoft and GXS Alliance] ] Microsoft endorsed the GXS Trading Grid as its recommended network for Microsoft BizTalk Server. GXS and Microsoft were awarded the first Power of Partnership Award in June 2006 by START-IT magazine.

In November 2006, GXS acquired UDEX, a provider of on-demand product data cleansing, validation and certification marketed as "UDEX - A GXS Service".

On June 4, 2007, Verizon announced that it will sell GXS Trading Grid services as Custom Supply Chain Managed Services and Invoice Automation Service.

In China, GXS partnered with ChinaECnet and CEDEX to serve the Chinese high-technology and automotive industries, respectively. Other partners include eBRIDGE Software, epcSolutions, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, IVANs, JDA Software, Liaison Technologies, Symbol, Verizon Communications and Zebra.Fact|date=February 2007

Patents

GXS patents include a system for converting a plurality of data structures within an industry, an abstract initiator, a system for access management control, a full-service e-marketplace, and an intermediary system for business document management between companies.

Products/Tools

;On-Demand Solutions and Tools
*GXS Trading Grid Messaging Service
*GXS Trading Grid Messaging Service - IE Experience
*GXS Intelligent Web Forms
*GXS B2B Managed Services
*GXS Order Lifecycle Visibility
*GXS Logistics Visibility
*GXS Accounting Packaged Accelerators

;B2B Integration Software
*GXS Enterprise Gateway
*GXS Application Integrator
*Microsoft BizTalk Server - Grid Ready

External links

* [http://www.edibasics.co.uk A Step-by-Step Guide to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)]
* [http://www.gxs.fr GXS France]
* [http://www.gxs.com/de GXS Germany]
* [http://www.gxs.co.uk GXS UK]
* [http://www.gxs.com/gxs/worldwide.htm GXS Worldwide]

References