Microsoft portal for e-commerce in India

Microsoft India has formulated a strategy to enhance its presence in the e-commerce sector in the country. The company will create a country specific portal website to demonstrate e-commerce solutions.

The website will also showcase 'Biztalk technology', currently being developed by Microsoft, which will help two business organisations using different packages or applications, to interact with each other.

The company has also decided to develop solutions for business-to-business e-commerce usage, and is expected to assist independent system vendors, or ISVs, in India to develop these e-commerce products based on the 'line of business application'.

Microsoft’s initial focus will be on development of business-to-business e-commerce products based on Microsoft's own applications. Business-to-consumer products will follow only later since the company does not see this segment gaining momentum in the near future since the fundamentals are not yet in place.

The new ISVs will get all development expertise, training and technological support from Microsoft for developing e-commerce products for the country. The company will also undertake joint marketing of these products with the ISVs.

Microsoft India has already developed various products in India through independent system vendors in the fields of banking, finance, retail, mutual funds and asset and liability management systems. Key products include Bankaway (banking solution), by Infosys, EX next gen (accounting package), developed by TCS, Marshal (ERP) from Ramco Systems, Indus (financial package) from Lending Solutions, MSretail (retail store management system) from Netbase Computing.

Microsoft also plans to extend its data warehousing and database management solutions (products like SQL server) to operate across web platforms.