INTEL HAS DECIDED that it’s not doing quite enough to corner the small business market, so in light of this fact, it’s decided to open an e-shop and web portal dedicated to flogging software, hardware, business applications and services to SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses).

The site, Intel Business Exchange, or Intel BX for short, purportedly lets SMB surfers look up various products and services, whilst getting connected to service providers who’ll be able to dole out price quotes and help choose technology to match company needs (we’re assuming those would be Intel products to match Intel’s needs of lots more cash). These include products ranging from storage, security and telecommunications to on-premise business applications and on-demand business applications

To help SMBs spend even more money on Intel products, the site also helpfully includes product descriptions, interactive demonstrations, whitepapers, case studies, blog entries and product ratings and reviews.

Vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Solutions Group, Renee James, reckons that "Intel BX brings together leading resources” and gushed that it was in fact a “one-stop shopping experience for SMB customers”.

Hopping on the Intel bandwagon, an online media and e-commerce company, AllBusiness.com, took the opportunity of an Intel press release to announce that it would launch its AllBusiness Exchange powered by (surprise, surprise) Intel Business Exchange, selling (surprise, surprise again) Intel-based technology.

Other independent software vendors (ISVs) putting their products up on Intel’s Business Exchange include the Vole, Symantec, AMI, Doculex, Tripwire, Everest, Open-E, Fonality and salesforce.com. The exchange will apparently only feature software that lives up to what Intel claims is its “rigorous security, interoperability and maintainability standards”. µ