Microsoft .NET is a set of Microsoft software technologies for connecting your world of information, people, systems, and devices. It enables an unprecedented level of software integration through the use of XML Web services: small, discrete, building-block applications that connect to each other-as well as to other, larger applications-via the Internet. .NET-connected software delivers what developers need to create XML Web services and stitch them together. The benefit to individuals is seamless, compelling experiences with information sharing.

What .NET Means for Business
May 25, 2001

By using the Internet to enable software applications to more easily work together, Microsoft® .NET promises easier integration within and between businesses, while creating opportunities to more meaningfully connect with consumers. With .NET software and services, businesses can realize improvements in the time and cost associated with developing and maintaining their business applications, as well as benefitting from empowering employees with the ability to act on vital information anywhere, from any smart device.

• .NET will deliver best of breed integration for businesses.
  
• Exposing XML Web services increases potential reach and exposure, creating new business opportunities.
  
• .NET promises substantial savings in development costs, as well as creating new revenue streams, through the use of XML Web services.
  

Web Sites and Web Services
For businesses to truly harness the power of the Internet, Web sites must evolve. They must learn to interact with one another as well as with existing systems and applications. XML Web services represent the evolution of the Web site.

Integration
Taking the modular aspects of modern software applications and allowing them to communicate through standard Internet protocols (XML and SOAP), XML Web services offer a direct means by which business processes can interact. Applications hosted internally, as well as on remote systems, can be stitched together, allowing businesses to program the Web—quickly and economically creating specialized solutions that meet unique business needs.

Integrating Within
XML Web services offer incredible value to organizations. They present the opportunity to bridge applications and information written in different programming languages and residing on differing platforms. In this manner, applications from departments such as HR and Accounting can expose information as XML, sharing information in order to create a new benefits application.

Using the common language runtime, part of the .NET Framework, individual components of specific applications within a company can interact. For example, a new scheduling function written in COBOL can be used with an existing HR application that was written in a different computing language.

Integrating with Partners
Not only can companies more easily integrate internal applications, they can also access services offered by other businesses. By combining XML Web services exposed on the Internet, companies can program the Web to create a wide variety of value-added applications. For example, an automobile manufacturer could unify benefits, payroll, stock trading, and insurance services into a single, seamless financial management portal for its employees, or they could integrate inventory control, fulfillment mechanisms, and purchase order tracking into a comprehensive supply chain management system.

Integrating with Customers
By enabling different software programs to interact, .NET creates new and exciting possibilities. A user will be able to establish an identity and move seamlessly from one .NET experience to another. They will control their data and be able to act on it anywhere, anyplace, and at anytime. They will have more power and control over their information, as they enable applications to interact on their behalf.

A first-time car buyer could more easily shop for the latest model by allowing XML Web services that communicate location and identity to interact with the XML Web services from the auto manufacturer. Businesses that expose key business processes as XML Web services expand the customer and business interactions available while creating more personal, intelligent user experiences.

Reaching Out
Creating XML Web services and exposing them on the Internet also provides another key advantage: it greatly expands the number of customers and business partners that can come in contact with a business's services. A large automobile manufacturer could expose an XML Web service of its delivery schedules for new vehicles. In this manner, their supply chains, dealerships as well as others, can consume the information, building other systems around it. Besides creating valuable links with partners, it creates the potential for advertising services for other businesses or customers that may not have been aware of the company or service.

Rapid Development
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework empower developers to quickly and easily create cutting-edge XML Web services and applications, building on their existing skills sets. Through multilanguage support, developers are freed to use the appropriate language in building XML Web services. Seamless deployment, as well as the ability to use existing XML Web services, presents substantial savings opportunities for the corporate IT department.

In addition to their technical capabilities, these developer technologies help alleviate the greatest scarcity in the world: skilled programmers. Applying rapid application development techniques to Web applications and services increases developer productivity, saving both time and money. Finally, by supporting any programming language, these tools tap the broadest developer talent pool (only about 10 percent of the world's developers know Java), take advantage of existing skills, and let people use the tool most appropriate for a specific task.

New Opportunities
With .NET software and services, corporate IT departments will share in the ability to create new and novel revenue streams. By exposing key business processes that were typically locked in internal systems, the enterprise can create a number of new and exciting opportunities to make money. For example, a tax engine created for internal use could be exposed as an XML Web service, enabling other companies to quickly and easily use the functionality, thus, providing a new revenue stream.

Empowering Employees
.NET offers the promise of allowing employees to act on the appropriate information where and when they need it. It facilitates better decisions by giving people in the field, at the office, and in between the information they need in a suitable and useful form. Important client information, once locked away in isolation on a mainframe, can more easily be accessed and acted on by a salesperson on a handheld computer across the country. A contact or appointment added to a Pocket PC by a project manager while at a job site can instantly be accessible to members of the same team scattered around the world.

Bill Gates on Microsoft .NET Today
January 14, 2002

"As a result of the changes in how businesses and consumers use the Web, the industry is converging on a new computing model that enables a standard way of building applications and processes to connect and exchange information over the Web." - Bill Gates

Read an open letter and download the white paper to understand Bill Gates' view of the reasons the industry is moving towards the XML Web services computing model. Learn how your organization can take advantage of the third generation of the Internet through Microsoft .NET.

To Download the White Paper on Microsoft.NET Click Here

net_today.pdf (197 KB / 1 min. @ 28.8 kbps)

Note: To view this white paper, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader

© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.