Barnes & Noble College Booksellers makes the grade by transforming its Web-based bookstores using IBM WebSphere Commerce software.

"We are very pleasedwith the functionality and performance of our Websphere Commerce platform. It provides us with a single, consistent, integrated architecture that has allowed us to develop a highly personalized user experience." - Barnes & Noble College Booksellers

Customer:
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers

Industry:
Retail

Deployment country:
United States

Solution:
Smarter Commerce

IBM Business Partner:
Sapient

Based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers manages bookstores at nearly 700 public and private universities, community colleges, and law and medical schools across North America. It serves more than 4,000,000 students and over 400,000 faculty members.

Business need:
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers (Barnes & Noble) continuously seeks new ways to improve the bookstore experience for its students and the broader aca­demic community. Committed to keeping pace with marketplace trends, optimizing store operations and streamlining the student experience, Barnes & Noble looked to upgrade its existing e-commerce platform.

Solution:
Barnes & Noble teamed with IBM Business Partner Sapient to implemen tWebSphere® Commerce Enterprise software as its new e-commerce platform. WebSphere Commerce software features the extended sites capability, which lets Barnes & Noble create and manage hundreds of online bookstores for its entire client base, all from a single instance of software. The solution also allows nontechnical users at each school to customize their bookstore’s Web site.

Benefits:
• Significantly decreases the time required to launch new bookstore Web sites • Allows multiple sites to share resources while managing the workload and scale appropriately for cross-channel performance and availability • Grows revenues by attracting and servicing online customers and by leveraging the software’s extended sites and targeted marketing capabilities • Gives clients a consistent, highly personalized experience that exceeds their demands for choice

IBM products and services that were used in this case study.

Software:
WebSphere Commerce Enterprise

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2009 IBM Systems and Technology Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America August 2009 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trade­marked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or com­mon law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. The information contained in this documentation is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this docu­mentation, it is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this infor­mation is based on IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any dam­ages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this documentation or any other documentation. Nothing contained in this documentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warran­ties or representations from IBM (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software. This document illustrates how one organization uses IBM products and services. Many factorshave contributed to the results and benefits described; IBM does not guarantee comparable results elsewhere. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. WSC14097-USEN-01