Short Takes: Remains of the Day

Marketing and order management services provider OrderTrust announced early in June that it had ceased business operations. The Lowell, MA-based company, founded in 1995, provided order management services through its processing network, acting as a de facto application services provider (ASP) years before that term came into common use.

Many of OrderTrust’s initial clients were direct marketing companies, and the firm parlayed the Internet feeding frenzy of the late ’90s into a high-profile position as an “integrated order management services provider” for e-commerce firms.

At the heart of the decision to shut up shop were losses associated with the company’s Product Market Place service, according to chairman and CEO Tom Litle. A skeleton staff will remain at the company’s headquarters to wind down the business.