BizTalk: Bringing It All Together

A key component of the Microsoft e-commerce offering that deserves some detailed mentioned is BizTalk, a platform-neutral e-commerce framework that makes it easy for businesses to integrate applications and conduct business over the Internet with trading partners and customers.The BizTalk Framework uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) to work around the obstacles of integrating different operating systems, different languages, and different software applications both within an organization and between trading partners. The benefits of BizTalk include:
Easier integration of software applications. BizTalk, with XML as the underlying technology base, simplifies the process of integrating applications by providing a common language for the exchange of business information.
Greater process integration with trading partners. With BizTalk-enabled e-commerce software, supply chains can be automated and extended to all trading partners, allowing better integration of business-planning processes and improved response. Businesses can extend their existing infrastructures with BizTalk and begin to share design information, respond to sales leads, and build deeper trading relationships with partners.
Linkage to online marketplaces. In online marketplaces, consumers want richer information to help them make purchasing decisions. By incorporating standards for describing business, product, and promotions information, BizTalk can make it easier for organizations to publish their products and offers to online marketplaces and reach consumers with the appropriate information when they're ready to buy.
The FutureWith all the current focus on the Internet, it is sometimes easy to forget that e-commerce is still in its infancy. Even so, the Digital Age is already producing profound effects in numerous businesses. Witness what is occurring in book and music retailing, computer sales, and office-supply purchasing: New companies or new category leaders have emerged and existing sellers have had to adjust their business models dramatically.
These changes will continue to accelerate in the coming years as more and more people connect online and become comfortable with digital transactions, and companies figure out new and better ways to conduct business online, such as customizing Web sites to fit customer preferences. The companies that make the adjustment and employ a digital solution effectively and imaginatively stand to emerge at the forefront in a networked economy.