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Microsoft Corp. last week detailed its plans to integrate its line of e-business software in an effort to make the applications more easily customizable while still feature-rich.
Project Jupiter, which was introduced at the Microsoft Exchange Conference in Anaheim, Calif., calls for the development of tools that integrate Microsofts Content Management Server, BizTalk Server and Commerce Server.
Jupiter will focus on four core design features. The first is providing the ability for users to create and extend business processes both inside and outside their organizations. The second addresses interoperability, or enabling companies to integrate with third-party applications. It will do this with support for Web services, so new applications built using XML will be easy to integrate.
The third feature involves integration by providing a single set of workflow tools; the fourth is componentization for flexibility in designing e-business platforms.
The integrated tools resulting from Jupiter will be released in two phases. The first will focus on business processes and integration and will be available in the second half of next year. The second phase, due in the first quarter of 2004, will add commerce and content management functionality.
As a preliminary step, Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., last week introduced Content Management Server 2002, which provides the ability for business users to publish information directly from a Word document to a Web site. The upgrade includes built-in integration with the development tools in Microsofts Visual Studio .Net.