History
We began focusing on Web development in 1994, when web sites were relatively simple, and their hosting was a matter of storing files on a suitable web server with minimal security issues and little or no database deployment. From those humble days, everyone at bx.com has always focused on the sheer potential of our clients' web sites and what they can or could do to further enhance and capitalize our clients' businesses.
From those initial, simplistic web sites, our designs became more innovative and sophisticated. Our clients soon realized the power of professional user interface design and navigation. They began valuing the importance of mouse and keyboard ergonomics and understood why we focused on the users' experience. Designs became increasingly exciting with the new found awareness of the Web's creative and marketing potential. To support our development, in 1995 bx.com built one of the strongest design groups in the country rivaling even the largest advertising agencies.
In 1996, it became clear that hosting web sites and continuing support of our clients and their businesses was becoming much more diverse and generally varied with the emergence of newer and more improved application and hardware technologies. Due to the differences in the major host server environments (Unix and Windows) security and compatibility became an increased focus for our growth plans as data security and the need for firewalls and encryption became important factors to the continued success and competitiveness of web sites. Thus, in 1997, we established our very own secure-centric Network Operations Center, which was built in conjunction with Cisco, Dell, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. From the beginning, we ensured that our equipment was the best available and our personnel the most adept with this new and evolving technology.
Later that year, we revolutionized the hosting world with our full service hosting named bxSite Management. Our program not only provided fully redundant hosting, but also web site maintenance, search engine optimization, visitor behavior analysis and preparation our clients for the next curve of technology as it related to their businesses. With the great feedback and enrollment in our newly established bxSite Management program we opened field offices on the west coast, mid-Atlantic, and New England areas to provide local project management support for our client.
We were happy to see in 1999, that a great deal of our clients, were beginning to integrate their web sites into their everyday business. bx.com eCommerce, database management, and other applications were becoming an integral part of web sites. To meet these needs, we expanded our application development group, adding database programmers, application testing labs, quality assurance experts, as well as new hardware and testing software to support the myriad of platforms and browsers. It became clear that business requirements were expanding to employ multiple technologies and concepts at a feverous rate. Over the next two years our primary eCommerce application began to evolve from a basic shopping cart to an integrated back office environment in which a company could completely manage its on line store.
In 2001, bx.com was featured in the Wall Street Journal. "The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation successfully convinced bx.com, the largest eCommerce software company to move its headquarters from the Boston to Providence RI." This national news helped propel the reconstruction of Providence's economic growth. Our new headquarters facilitated the creation of many core teams that develop and manage client sites creating a synergy between the numerous disciplines involved in effective web site development.
The Web industry imploded in 2002 and many companies that had gone public experienced major investor fallout and were shut down. Fortunately, we had built a strong clientele whose sites we frequently maintained and continually improved. The devastation in Web industry provided us an opportunity to expand, increase our capabilities and client base. Later that year, bx.com became the vendor of choice for State and Federal Governments and won our first contract with the Massachusetts Attorney General. 2003 began with our implementation of our one thousandth customer and introduction of bxCommerce version 7.0. The new software incorporated many advanced features and functionality which propelled it far ahead of any competitors. The software's success helped us establish an extremely successful reseller channel.
As we enter our eleventh year in business we are excited to be the established leader for eCommerce in the United States and prepare for the challenges of bringing our superior technology to the international marketplace.
Timeline
| Year | Industry Highlights | bx.com's Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | First on-line stores emerge, commercial use expands | Business Exchange, Inc. (bx.com) founded as one of the first Web Site Development Companies |
| 1995 | Netscape goes public with the 3rd largest ever IPO share value | Business Exchange, Inc. name changed to bx.com, Inc. and becomes one of the first to incorporate ".com" in its name |
| 1996 | MCI upgrades Internet backbone to 622 MBps | bx.com, Inc. launch Expressite to enable businesses to effectively launch their first generation eCommerce sites |
| 1997 | 101,803 Name servers in use | Network Operations Center opened to support client hosting |
| 1998 | Approx 300 million web pages online | bxSite Management services launched to support and maintain client sites and expands regionally in MA, RI, CA, and Wash DC |
| 1999 | The "Business.com" domain is sold for $7.5 million | bx.com established applications development group to focus on eCommerce. |
| 2000 | Web size estimates surpass 1 billion pages | bxCommerce feature set establishes it as a leader in eCommerce |
| 2001 | First live distributed Musical over Internet2 network | bx.com establishes corporate headquarters in Providence RI |
| 2002 | IPO market collapses, leaving fewer surviving developers | bx.com becomes the State & Federal Government vendor of choice. |
| 2003 | Web growth tracking at 32% despite slow economic growth | bx.com launches its one thousandth customer with the release of version 7 |
| 2004 | Online Purchases exceed 68 Billion Dollars | bx.com integrates its eCommerce software with the branding "pureCommerce" |