Microsoft and Commerce One Bring .NET to E-Business


REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 17, 2000 — Microsoft and Commerce One recently announced the formation of a broad alliance to collaborate on business-to-businesses (B2B) e-commerce solutions based on Windows 2000 and the Microsoft .NET platform. In addition to global marketing and sales initiatives, the two companies agreed to collaborate on the development and delivery of e-business infrastructure technologies using Commerce One’s expertise in the field and Microsoft’s next-generation Internet technologies. The new alliance was announced at the opening of Microsoft’s Enterprise 2000 Launch in San Francisco. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2000/Sept00/CommerceOnePR.asp .

To find out what this newly expanded relationship means for businesses, PressPass spoke with Charles Stevens, Microsoft’s vice president of Enterprise and Partners, and Mark Hoffman, chairman and CEO of Commerce One.

PressPass: What have the two companies agreed to do?

Stevens: We’re going to work with Commerce One to supplement their e-Marketplace Infrastructure with solutions that showcase the Microsoft .NET platform. Starting with NetMarketMaker and continuing with the MarketSite and SAP MarketSet solutions, we’ll support Commerce One’s development of XML standards-based solutions built on the Microsoft .NET Enterprise Framework — solutions that will maximize buyer/seller participation and deliver excellent price and performance. In addition, we’ll work with them to optimize all their solutions currently running on the Windows 2000 platform.

PressPass: What is the e-Marketplace Infrastructure and how will Microsoft support it?

Hoffman: The e-Marketplace Infrastructure is an e-commerce solution that contains three major components: a Builder that handles the front-end interface; a Platform that handles security, connectivity and management; and a Business Services Framework that encompasses business functions such as procurement, order management, financial services, catalogs and auctions. In addition, our MarketSet solution brings in SAP modules for planning, design and analysis. These solutions enable buyers and sellers around the world to trade in a barrier-free environment and create new business opportunities.

Stevens: We’ll support the effort to bring this infrastructure toward Microsoft .NET in every way, from funding and technical support to marketing initiatives and direct sales engagement. We’ll also establish a joint development lab in Redmond that will test, optimize, benchmark, architect and develop robust interoperability between .NET and Commerce One’s e-Marketplace Infrastructure.

PressPass: How will businesses benefit from this relationship?

Stevens: The Microsoft .NET platform is powerful and flexible enough to give companies of any size the agility they need to do business on the Internet, and that’s a perfect match for Commerce One’s solutions, which create worldwide marketplaces where companies can do business with anyone, anytime, anywhere. We think the combination of our technology and their industry expertise and powerful solutions will benefit businesses of any size.

Hoffman: Commerce One and Microsoft have a longstanding relationship. Together we have an existing joint customer base of 75-plus e-marketplace wins. This announcement is about our further aligning as Go-To-Market Partners for B2B e-commerce solutions centered on our joint technology development efforts in the lab. Customers benefit through our joint technology investments, which will ease integration and implementation efforts and offer very compelling price/performance alternatives. For Microsoft and Commerce One, the close collaboration in the lab, in sales, and in marketing, raises awareness and drives sales adoption. And as I’ve said before, the electronic commerce market is so big that it’s got to be a partner-driven area. I’m putting Microsoft into some very large, very demanding applications, and I know they’ll help us fulfill our mission of allowing people to do business together at anytime.

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