The two also announced plans for developing off-the-shelf Web services products for the industry, based on IBM’s WebSphere application server platform. The products are expected later this year.

Web services and supply-chain marketplaces intersect in intriguing ways. The major headache for supply chains — including hosted e-marketplaces — is trading partner integration, especially smaller companies unable to afford large-scale integration platforms.

Web services promise to democratize integration with open interfaces and possibly lower-cost, commoditized implementations.

Vendors like IBM have also been focusing their integration products much more on vertical markets, recognizing that different industries have different business process requirements and even standards that need supporting.

E2open recognizes the opportunity, citing a dire need for industry integration to improve inventory turns and reduce cycle times. But the costs for such systems has been “prohibitive,” said Greg Clark, E2open COO and CTO.

E2open delivers network-based services for integrating trading partners, improving product sourcing, enabling product development collaboration, and more.

E2open and IBM have worked together in the past. The two built a UDDI-based business process directory for the high-tech industry. E2open has also worked with IBM’s Tivoli division to deliver security and management solutions for its members.

E2open members include Acer, Hitachi, IBM, LG Electronics, Lucent Technologies, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), Nortel Networks, Seagate Technology, Solectron, and Toshiba.