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The migration of the 327 StoreCentre customers will take place during October and November of this year and the StoreCentre product name will change to eStore to correspond with the current brand from Esat. The clients will be hosted in the Esat-X hosting facility in Dublin.
The StoreCentre/eStore product allows businesses to build on-line stores using pre-designed templates. According to Liam Brennan, e-business manager, Esat Business, the product is cost-effective for companies because they can try out e-tailing without having to spend tens of thousands of pounds on the development of an e-commerce presence. The average monthly cost of the eStore service is between IEP75 and IEP100.
Brennan told ElectricNews.Net that the decision to migrate customers to Ireland was because of the skills and infrastructure that were already in place here. "By going with Esat not only did BT Ignite utilise one of the assets it had purchased, but it avoided having to train in new staff or develop new applications," he commented. Esat Business is a division of the Esat Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Ignite.
BT Ignite was forced to make the move following the decision of Intel to discontinue its iCat e-commerce platform product, which BT was using to manage StoreCentre customers in the UK.
According to Brennan, it is expected that the deal, which is worth IEP3 million to Esat over the next three years, will see Esat host over 500 stores by mid-2002 and over 1,000 a year later. These figures, added Brennan, should also include customers from Spain and Holland, the two countries that BT is initially targeting for the pan-European rollout of the eStore service. Esat currently has 50 eStore customers in Ireland and plans to double that number by mid-2002.
"In gaining the platform provision for StoreCentre, Esat Business is tangibly supporting the government's objective to become the e-commerce hub of Europe," remarked Brennan.
"The decision to replace StoreCentre with eStore allows BT Ignite to take advantage of business and knowledge driven efficiencies across all markets," said David Furniss, vice president e-business, BT Ignite. "EStore customers, whether in the UK or Ireland, will enjoy a seamless, integrated service, made possible through our close relationship with Esat Business."
This deal is the second in a month between Esat and its parent. BT Ignite said recently that it was to embark on a plan to offer managed and outsourced business solutions beyond the UK with partners such as Esat Business.
The extended e-business and communications solutions portfolio that Esat and BT Ignite are to offer is expected to increase Esat Business revenues by IEP5 million a year.
Esat Business can be found at http://www.esatbusiness.com and BT Ignite is at http://www.ignite.com/uk/.
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