To make up for the shortfall, Shikli and company have started encouraging their clients to forgo dynamic systems with clear links between the database and Web site and instead look for ways to export data in a batch mode or offline approach. It's hardly an ideal solution. Shikli is not alone in his frustration. Integrators and VARs throughout the industry are grappling with this very same issue.
Relief is on the way.
A new segment of dedicated E-commerce service providers, also called CSPs, is emerging amid the chaos of this rapidly changing marketplace. But CSPs aren't a threat to network integrators and VARs, claim their proponents. In fact, ICS has a half dozen or so VARs and integrators that are selling its services through private labels, and another dozen that are acting as sales agents. ICS's products are also being offered through financial institutions such as Wells Fargo Corp. and Bank of Boston Corp., as well as First USA's credit-card processing subsidiary Payment Tech. Consider, for instance, that there are 30,000 different possibilities for calculating sales tax in the United States.