Oro Inc., a provider of open-source business applications whose founding and senior leadership team all helped launch the Magento e-commerce platform several years ago, is moving ahead with the development of its first product designed for business-to-business e-commerce.

Oro announced last month the release of its Alpha 2 version of OroCommerce, an open-source e-commerce technology platform designed specifically for use by manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers. Open-source applications allows the public to have direct access to the core software code, enabling developers to customize it to their needs, integrate it with existing systems, and add new features to the platform.

The Alpha 2 version of OroCommerce can now be downloaded from GitHub or accessed through the public demo, Oro says. This allows users to test the product, review changes, comment on lines of code, report issues, and plan projects. Oro is also working closely with eight solution integrators to further refine and test the platform, the company adds.

Oro will likely release the Alpha 3 version of OroCommerce in early January 2016 and plans to release the beta version in early 2016, making the B2B e-commerce software available for manufacturers, distributors, and other businesses, Oro says. Oro is targeting small and medium-sized businesses worldwide earning between $60 million and $750 million in annual revenue, with targeted regions including the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and France.

The Alpha release of OroCommerce includes multiple features, including the ability to organize SKUs in a grid catalog layout, create multiple price lists or shopping lists for employees, create corporate accounts that include configurable buying roles and terms, and build workflows to authorize buyers and supervisors to approve purchases. OroCommerce also includes a quick-order function and a process for manufacturers and distributors to send price quotations to customers.

The beta version of OroCommerce will include enhancements of currently available features and additional capabilities in such areas as product catalogs with built-in marketing and merchandising functions content management, payments, tax management, and shipping.

Similar to OroCRM, OroCommerce will offer a free Community Edition that manufacturers and distributors can use to further explore and evaluate OroCommerce based on their needs. Oro has not yet determined pricing for its Enterprise Edition.

Oro is headed by Yoav Kutner, co-founder and CEO, who was the co-founder and former chief technology officer of Magento. Joining Kutner on the senior management team are Jary Carter, co-founder and chief revenue officer, who was vice president of worldwide sales for Magento, and Dima Soroka, co-founder and chief technology officer, who was the lead architect for Magento and responsible for planning and developing Magento products.

Acting as an advisor to Oro’s senior management is Roy Rubin, the co-founder and former CEO of Magento, who, following Magento’s acquisition by eBay in 2012, served as a vice president at eBay until last year.

Sign up for a free subscription to B2BecNews, a twice-weekly newsletter that covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B e-commerce industry. B2BecNews is published by Vertical Web Media LLC, which also publishes the monthly business magazine Internet Retailer. Follow Nona Tepper, associate editor for B2B e-commerce, on Twitter @ntepper90.

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