Endeca, a provider of Guided Navigation with advanced search solutions, has announced that it is working with IBM, as a preferred provider, to bring Endeca's technology to ebusinesses. Endeca and IBM hope to deliver a comprehensive solution to ecommerce company Ritz Interactive that combines Endeca's search, Guided Navigation, and dynamic merchandising with IBM WebSphere Commerce's personalization, security, and business intelligence capabilities. Implementing Endeca InFront and integrating it with WebSphere Commerce 5.4 was accomplished in two weeks, so that the Ritz Interactive network would have new site functionality up in time for the holiday shopping season. WebSphere Commerce is IBM's ecommerce software for deploying and managing both consumer and business commerce sites. With WebSphere Commerce's platform, ebusinesses of all types will be able to deploy Endeca technology.  Also, with this announcement, IBM officially joins the Endeca Alliance Program as a technology partner.

Ritz Interactive will be the first joint customer to deploy Endeca InFront, Endeca's product for advanced search and Guided Navigation of commerce and catalog sites, on the IBM WebSphere Commerce 5.4 platform. Ritz Interactive has rolled out Endeca InFront's Guided Navigation and search capabilities to enable its customers to find the products they are looking for, compare them for pricing and functionality, and make informed purchases. The Endeca and IBM WebSphere Commerce implementation at Ritz Interactive was deployed as a common infrastructure to support Ritz Interactive's ecommerce network of fourteen sites, which includes photo specialty sites RitzCamera.com and WolfCamera.com, marine specialty site BoatersWorld.com, electronics product RitzElectronics.com, and other popular online shopping destinations.

(http://www.endeca.com), (http://www.ibm.com/software/commerce), (http://www.RitzInteractive.com)