Microsoft Corp. is developing a new version of its e-commerce server software, Commerce Server, which it expects to release in early 2006. The new version of Commerce Server will have an improved interface, new reporting features and better integration with Microsoft’s BizTalk Server and Visual Studio .Net. In addition, the new Commerce Server will allow online businesses to make order checking and account information available to their customers.
According to Stacey Ellingson, the product manager with the Business Process and Integration division at Microsoft, a beta version of the new Commerce server will be available in the first half of 2005.
Microsoft has given up its plans to integrate Commerce Server with BizTalk Server and Content Management Server software, but the company will integrate the new version of Commerce Server with Content Management Server in an impending release of Microsoft Solution for Internet Business planned for release in 2006.
Ellingson said that the new version of Commerce server is planned to offer better integration with Microsoft SQL Server and Visual Studio. In the new version of Commerce Server, for instance, users could use SQL Server’s Reporting Services for report generation, she noted.
The Commerce Server, which was previously called Site Server and Merchant server, has been available on the market for 10 years, but according to Microsoft, the server itself has only about 3,700 customers around the world.
Steven Martin, the group product manager with Microsoft’s Business Process and Integration division said that the announcement of new version should answer the questions about the product’s roadmap. He added that Microsoft was trying to make it very clear that based on the feedback from customers, this was a product that had a very clear road map.
Before the release of the new version of Commerce Server, however, the users of the product will be able to have a look at the new interface as part of a software upgrade that Microsoft will release. Commerce Server’s Business Desk feature has been rewritten with the new interface to make it more similar to Window that the previous web interface according to Ellingson. She said that Microsoft took advantage of the latest and greatest .Net technologies to make the user interface much faster. The upgrade will be called Feature Pack 1, and would be available as a free upgrade for Commerce Server users, Ellingson added.
The Feature Pack 1 will allow users to create codes for sales promotions on their websites and together with Microsoft’s Application Center software, will have enhanced site-staging capabilities, which make it simpler for users to test e-commerce sites locally before they are made available online. The Standard Edition of Commerce Server 2002 is priced at $6,999 and the developer version costs $499. An Enterprise Edition of the server is also available for $19,999 per processor. Microsoft did not reveal the pricing information for the new version that will be available in 2006.
