E-commerce Platform from LaGarde

[img_assist|nid=8028|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=79] E-commerce solutions provider LaGarde is launching a Phoenix Platform. It is a Net-based software-as-a-service e-commerce platform.

On June 3 LaGarde announced Phoenix to be a Web-based transaction system that can do order management, catalog management, checkout and back-office tasks. Moreover, according to the words of LaGarde, Phoenix is designed to handle the unique business methodologies and characteristics of midmarket enterprises while remaining easy to maintain. He noted that maintainability issues with such platforms rise “as custom solutions tend to become one-off solutions that take a longer time to deploy." On the other hand, Phoenix is an end-to-end, modular solution that can be expanded without developing "islands of one-off solutions."

LaGarde added that, the primary driver for Phoenix was the systems architecture that includes a retail-specific feature set. As an example he brought the existence of a catalog engine that allows one to support scheduled catalogs: "You can go live with a seasonal catalog on a certain date and then expire it on a certain date and launch the next season's catalog without having to redevelop the entire site."

LaGarde highlighted that, the platform includes a rich shipping engine and is fully compliant with PCI (Payment Card Industry) data security standards. Lance Hemingway, chief marketing officer of LaGarde, highlighted the additional services and knowledge that comes with Phoenix, such as the possibility to perform SEO (search engine optimization) marketing.

A report released by research company Aberdeen Group in December 2006 indicates that online retailers expect e-commerce solutions to fulfill their complex demands and quickly provide a return on investment (ROI)."Retailers want instant gratification and ROI in typically less than six months, twenty-one percent of retailers within weeks."