To Drive B2B E-Commerce Adoption
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 26, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. and Commerce One, a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions for businesses, today announced they are expanding and elevating their longstanding strategic relationship to collaborate on delivery of the industry’s next generation of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions worldwide. Commerce One and Microsoft will align on a global go-to-market strategy to drive the growth of e-marketplace adoption, including the integration of key technologies, collaboration on XML standards, global marketing and sales initiatives, and joint development programs.
Specifically, the two companies will collaborate on the development and delivery of Commerce One e-marketplace infrastructure technologies optimized for the Microsoft® .NET Platform.
Commerce One’s industry expertise in delivering e-commerce solutions will be combined with Microsoft’s industry-leading technologies and products. The alliance aims to set a new standard for delivering advanced B2B e-commerce solutions. These solutions will maximize usage and drive e-marketplace liquidity by accelerating adoption and development of new services. Microsoft and Commerce One already have demonstrated effective teamwork, working with Fortune 500 clients and new e-businesses alike: The majority of Commerce One’s customers are deploying their B2B solutions on the Windows® 2000 platform.
The alliance is expected to propel the global reach of e-marketplace solutions by lowering the technical barriers to adoption and in turn enabling more buyers and sellers to participate in marketplaces. Joint technology collaboration will further increase this solution performance. The long-term nature of the agreement, and the significant resource commitments, reinforce the companies’ mutual strategy to offer customers enhanced performance through a highly optimized .NET solution.
“Microsoft’s alliance with Commerce One will deliver B2B solutions to marketplace customers of all sizes and needs, enhancing the business value of their technology investments,”
said Steve Ballmer, president and CEO of Microsoft.
“The combination of Commerce One’s global industry expertise and marketplace solutions with the business agility of the Microsoft .NET Platform will provide customers with increased speed to market, seamless product integration and new business opportunities.”
Core to the alliance is the companies’ collaboration on development of a highly optimized Commerce One e-marketplace infrastructure based on Microsoft .NET enterprise servers. The two companies will deliver an advanced e-marketplace infrastructure that addresses three critical aspects of transforming B2B e-commerce:
Enabling Global Reach
Both companies’ best-of-breed technologies and tight collaboration on XML standards, combined with Microsoft’s global channel, will lay the foundation for significantly easier integration with e-marketplaces. This foundation will endeavor to increase the number of
e-marketplace buyer and supplier on-ramps and propel utilization of e-marketplace services driving industry adoption and liquidity.
.NET-Based E-Marketplace Infrastructure
The two companies will collaborate on developing a next-generation e-marketplace infrastructure optimized for transaction scalability and ease of administration. Built on Microsoft .NET enterprise servers and Framework, Commerce One’s leading e-marketplace infrastructure will deliver XML standards-based solutions that maximize buyer/supplier participation and deliver excellent price and performance. The highly optimized e-marketplace infrastructure, which will have the scalability to power the largest of global e-marketplaces, will initially be deployed with Commerce One’s Net Market Maker e-marketplace solution. Subsequent versions of the infrastructure will be included in the MarketSet™
solution jointly offered by Commerce One and SAPMarkets, Inc.
“Microsoft and Commerce One will work to deliver an e-marketplace infrastructure that lays the foundation for trading partners to participate in e-marketplaces,”
said Mark Hoffman, chairman and CEO of Commerce One.
“We believe we will provide unprecedented value to our mutual customers, by enabling them to quickly build or connect to global e-marketplaces and conduct all their business commerce on the Web.”
E-Marketplace Optimization and Scalability
The two companies also will optimize all current Commerce One e-marketplace and
e-procurement solutions for the Windows 2000 operating system and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000, which will include support for BizTalk™
Server 2000 and SOAP, as well as support for Commerce One’s XML business libraries, xCBL.
Joint Development Efforts
As part of the alliance, Microsoft and Commerce One will establish a joint development lab in Redmond, Wash., for testing, optimization, benchmarking, architecture and development of robust interoperability between BizTalk Server 2000-based on-ramps and Commerce One
e-marketplaces. In addition, Microsoft Consulting Services will provide knowledge transfer and participate in the design, architecture and development of the joint solutions. Both companies will offer comprehensive and responsive product-support processes. This new level of technical intimacy will greatly benefit customers by lowering overall integration and implementation costs.
Leading Companies Support Alliance
“The SAP, Commerce One and Microsoft alliance will be a very strong engineering collaboration,”
said Hasso Plattner, co-chairman and CEO of SAP AG and CEO of SAPMarkets, Inc.
“More than just jointly selling solutions, we are cooperating on all levels of development to offer the next generation of e-business software. Given our success to date and the high level of industry acceptance, we are happy to broaden this relationship to include Microsoft and to add their expertise to a winning team.”
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Commerce One’s expertise in delivering e-commerce solutions, combined with Microsoft’s deep software technology expertise, will be a powerful force in making
e-marketplaces more scalable and easier to use for buyers and suppliers,”
said Michael Capellas, president and CEO of Compaq Computer Corp.
“This alliance promises to dramatically increase worldwide adoption of e-marketplaces and help drive the world’s business commerce onto the Web.”
“Commerce One has emerged as a leader in building B2B e-marketplace solutions,”
said Joe Forehand, CEO of Andersen Consulting.
“Now, by teaming up with Microsoft, Commerce One will be able to bring to its customers the benefits of the .NET enterprise platform. We look forward to working with Commerce One and Microsoft in building e-commerce solutions.”
About Commerce One
Commerce One (Nasdaq
“CMRC” ) is the leader in global e-commerce solutions for business. Through its products, portals and services, Commerce One creates access to worldwide markets, allowing anyone to buy from anyone, any time, anywhere. The Commerce One Global Trading Web™
is the world’s largest business-to-business trading community. Comprised of many open e-marketplaces, the Global Trading Web provides unprecedented economies of scale for buying organizations, suppliers and service providers worldwide. Through its
“Dream Team”
alliance with SAPMarkets, Commerce One enables enterprises and communities of all sizes and industries to efficiently conduct collaborative business on the Internet. Commerce One is located in Pleasanton, Calif., and can be reached by phone at (800) 308-3838 or (925) 520-6000 or via the Internet at http://www.commerceone.com/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Windows and BizTalk are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Commerce One and Global Trading Web are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Commerce One Inc.
MarketSet is a trademark of Commerce One Inc. and SAPMarkets.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statements
The foregoing paragraphs include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding the establishment of an alliance between Commerce One and Microsoft to provide a combined e-commerce solution. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those described in such statements as a result of a number of factors. These factors include but are not limited to the risk that the parties do not execute definitive agreements with respect to the alliance, the ability of the parties to execute on their plans for the alliance and to continue to support the alliance and the continued participation of buyers and suppliers in the Global Trading Web. For a discussion of these and other risk factors that could affect Commerce One’s business, see
“Risk Factors”
in Commerce One’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 1999, and its quarterly report on Form 10Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2000.
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