REDMOND, Wash. -- April 11, 2000 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced public availability of the Microsoft^® BizTalk™ Server 2000 technology preview. Building on the BizTalk initiative announced last year, this preview release provides the next step in Microsoft's comprehensive solution for Internet application integration via industry-standard XML. Internet application integration embraces a single integration methodology for both traditional enterprise application integration scenarios inside the organization and business-to-business e-commerce scenarios between trading partners over the Internet. BizTalk Server 2000 will unite in a single product secure and reliable delivery, routing and transformation of business documents, as well as development tools and application adapters to XML-enable existing applications.

"Internet application integration natively rides the Internet as the world's lowest-cost, most ubiquitous communications fabric, expresses interactions between systems and companies as business processes, and describes those processes in industry-standard XML," said Tod Nielsen, vice president of marketing for the Platform Group at Microsoft. "BizTalk Server 2000 technology preview shows a comprehensive and accessible solution for doing Internet application integration inside the organization and with trading partners anywhere in the world across the Internet."

Comprehensive and Unified Solution

BizTalk Server 2000 will offer a broad set of infrastructure capabilities and tools to simplify and speed Internet application integration:

• Reliable document interchange supports delivery and content-driven rules-based routing of multiple document types, including XML, EDI (EDIFACT and X12), flat files and other custom formats.
• Multiple network transport support permits delivery across a variety of transports including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SMTP, SMB (file transfer), Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) and Microsoft Exchange.
• Robust security is provided by encryption, digital signatures and public key infrastructure (PKI) that ensures the secure transmission of sensitive business information over the Internet.
• Graphical modeling and development tools provided by the BizTalk Editor enable easy creation and editing of XML documents as well as conversion of other formats into XML. The BizTalk Mapper provides a rich graphical design surface for XML transformations, including automatic generation of XSLT.
• Application adapters in the adapter architecture enable direct XML integration with existing business systems. This release includes out-of-the-box support for SAP R/3 systems and EDI, and an extensible architecture to provide XML integration for other line-of-business applications.
• Tracking and analysis tools perform analytics and generate custom reports on business processes, including support for Microsoft Office data analysis tools.
• Management and administration tools configure trading partner agreements and content-driven rules-based routing through the graphical BizDesk interface.
• Programmability in the extensible architecture allows developers to add custom translators, parsers and security components as well as programmatically manage trading partner relationships.

The BizTalk Server 2000 technology preview is available immediately for download at no cost (connect-time charges may apply) from http://www.microsoft.com/biztalkserver/. The final release of the product is expected later this year.

Dell Automates Supply Chain With BizTalk Server 2000

Dell Computer Corp., a BizTalk development partner and the leading provider of computer systems in the United States, plans to implement the BizTalk Server 2000 technology preview this month. Deploying the BizTalk Server technology preview will automate Dell's partner market site, DellWare, which processes thousands of orders per day.

"We found that BizTalk Server provides us with a robust set of tools for building our supply chain by quickly enabling integration with partners," said Jeff Guillot, director of information technology for the Home and Small-Business Division at Dell. "We and our partners become more efficient from real-time ordering information, standardization of workflow procedures and frictionless interaction."

The BizTalk Initiative

Announced in March 1999 with the goal of letting software speak the language of business, BizTalk makes it easy to integrate applications and conduct business over the Internet across industries and between business systems. Developed with broad industry participation, the BizTalk Framework provides a technical road map for describing business processes in industry-standard XML. BizTalk Server 2000 technology preview represents Microsoft's second-generation software solution supporting the BizTalk Framework and supplants the earlier BizTalk JumpStart Kit with a significantly expanded set of capabilities and an industrial-strength infrastructure.

BizTalk Server 2000 customers can also take advantage of BizTalk.Org (http://www.biztalk.org/), a community resource to accelerate the expression of business processes in XML. As the world's largest open XML business process schema repository with over 400 industry schema, BizTalk.Org provides immediate access to XML schema from industry standards bodies like ACORD, BASDA, the HR-XML Consortium and OAG as well as popular applications vendors like Autodesk Inc., Clarus Corp., Commerce One Inc., Great Plains

Software Inc., Intelisys Electronic Commerce LLC, Navision Software U.S. Inc., SAP AG and Scala Business Solutions NV.

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.