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To: esterina who wrote (3097)	3/5/1999 5:58:00 AM
From: Ibexx	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3424

Friday March 5 12:49 AM ET Microsoft Rolls Out E-Commerce Services By Dick Satran SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Chairman Bill Gates, aiming to shed his company's also-ran status in the burgeoning electronic commerce field, Thursday unveiled an ambitious strategy to link businesses and consumers over the Internet. At a high-profile briefing for reporters and analysts, Gates detailed plans to produce new server software and link Microsoft's patchwork of online properties into a seamless system for commerce. And he said Microsoft was working closely with other software companies and industry associations to create open standards for business transactions. ''We believe that millions of businesses will be signing on to this approach in the next few years,'' Gates said. ''The big bulk of the opportunity is in businesses that are not large enough to build their own sites,'' he said. ''We're making it simple to get involved and not have to build complex systems.'' Gates said the new initiative would be based on a framework dubbed BizTalk, a planned set of standards and technology to allow consumers and businesses to talk to each other online in the same language based on open Internet standards. Industry analysts said the Microsoft effort could help unify the existing Extensible Markup Language, or XML technology, increasingly used to conduct business over the Internet. Microsoft also said it has acquired CompareNet Inc., an Internet comparison shopping service, as part of its plan to expand commerce opportunities through its MSN portal site. Building on last year's acquisition of the Link Exchange network of small businesses, the software giant plans to offer a new set of services allowing companies to set up Web sites, manage them and handle online transactions, plunging into competition with Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news), Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq:LCOS - news) and others. ''It's just an incredible horse race right now between the portals,'' said Vernon Keenan of Keenan Vision. ''Microsoft is pretty much in the middle of the pack.'' While Microsoft has not yet demonstrated its ability to sell services successfully and profitably, analyst David Card of Jupiter Communications noted that the software industry giant could offer businesses a tempting package of software and services currently unmatched by other portal site operators. ''Where Microsoft is going to try to win is in linking those two pieces,'' Card said. Taking aim at the small business community in particular, Gates talked about the growing demand that will be created for ''very specialized products'' that entrepreneurs can create, citing a Wisconsin business that refurbished antique telephones with new equipment. A key element to the small business strategy is a secure purchasing system called Microsoft Passport that lets consumers shop from many sites using the same Microsoft software. A demonstration showed how huge enterprises, like Procter and Gamble and Sainsbury Plc, already have been linked into the system. Microsoft said its key partners in setting up large e-commerce enterprises will be PeopleSoft Inc. and SAP AG (NYSE:SAP - news), and it will work with MasterCard International and Clarus Corp. to set up an ambitious corporate purchasing system. ''The Internet has forever changed the way that business is conducted,'' Gates said. ''With these tools, our hope is that the e-commerce opportunity is opened up for everyone.'' ''The system they've laid out really has everything,'' said Michael Kwatinetz, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston. ''If they can execute it will be formidable.'' Gates laid out a timetable that put his company on a schedule to produce its system by the end of this year. The various commerce and small business services will become commercial products, he said, after the new Windows 2000 operating system goes on sale later this year. ____ Ibexx