Two key technical issues for companies with e-commerce operations are Web site performance and digital image management.
The first is obvious: Users frustrated by balky pages abandon shopping carts. While less dramatic, the second is a mounting concern. Handling hundreds or thousands of product shots and graphics is labor-intensive and a stealthy budget-buster.
Now, content delivery network operator Speedera and image management software developer TrueSpectra are collaborating on a new service to address both concerns.
The joint offering, Speedera Dynamic Imaging service, will be formally announced Monday and starts at $2,700 per month (the price includes 1GB of storage). It is HTTP and XML-compliant.
"It's expensive to maintain a Web site with many images," Gordon Smith, a Speedera vice president told internetnews.com. "We enable customers to do it very fast and cut maintenance costs as much as two-thirds."
In recent months, the service has been tested by home improvement giant Lowes, specialty retailer Shari's Berries, and supply store Office Depot. Developers at these companies have been able to crop and resize images as well as add effects like zooming using a simple URL query string.
Speedera, privately held and based in Santa Clara, Calif., believes the offering will help differentiate itself from rivals such as Akamai Technologies and Cable & Wireless.
David Watkins, TrueSpectra's CEO, said many customers have been asking for an outsourced image service, but don't necessarily want to install software on its servers and add additional storage on site. Such a setup is often referred to as a "zero footprint."
For the privately held San Mateo, Calif., company, partnering with Speedera was the best way to respond. It has already resulted in new business from customers who were intent on outsourcing.
"There has been interest in retail, manufacturing, consumer goods, education, travel and real estate," Watkins said in an interview. "It's a very broad based capability and is all implementable very quickly."
Even large online retailers can be set up in as little as three days, Watkins said.
"Retailing via the Web is still evolving, but one thing we know is that customers want an online experience that closely resembles in-store shopping," said Kevin Beresford, CEO of Shari's Berries.
Jill Aldort, an analyst at InfoTrends Research Group in Boston, said the partnership will allow TrueSpectra to access a whole new customer base. For Speedera, it can offer aan imaging service that is "relatively easy to get up and running -- without the need for infrastructure investment, hardware investment, or software licenses," Aldort said.
