Mark Wilson I am the creator of TopXML. I am available for international and local (Australia) contracts. I am a Solution Architect/Business Analyst. I have worked in IT in several countries (NZ, Australia, South Africa, UK) building and training teams for government and very large non-governmental organizations. I am ex-Microsoft Consulting Services. I wrote the first book on Microsoft XML published in 2000 called XML Programming with VB and ASP. Most recently I have been building tools for the SEO industry. Ask me for a 37 point SEO health-checkup for your website.
As far back as 1998, if the U.S.-based Internet Economy (as
measured in terms of total revenues) were a nation by itself, it
would have ranked 18th worldwide behind Switzerland and ahead of
Argentina in terms of GDP!
Since then, the Internet has grown more rapidly than anyone could
have envisioned. It is now opening up new vistas of
communication, collaboration and coordination between consumers,
businesses and trading partners. What started out as simply a
marketing channel, is now an ubiquitous, low cost communication
network.
This remarkable network of interconnected brings with it some
incredible opportunities. These opportunities are usually
referred to as B2B (business-to-business) or B2C
(business-to-consumer) and as we will discover in some details are
huge and quickly growing opportunities which this online book and the
BizTalk initiative will assist you in tapping into.
BizTalk Online Series, is intended to cover the the BizTalk
phenomenon in general. This includes BizTalk.org (the website),
BizTalk Server (the installable server product) and BizTalk Framework
(the open guidelines for interacting with any BizTalk Server or even
to create your own BizTalk-conversant products!). This overall
BizTalk 'initiative' will be considered in the context of these
increasingly interconnected electronic marketplaces which are
operating over the network.
We will also be looking at how companies can use the Microsoft
BizTalk Server (and related tools) in order to build (or access an
existing) infrastructure for external providers, producers and
intermediaries in order to trade services or products with these
external businesses.
We will be taking a look at issues such as the potential for
growth which BizTalk bring to your company, the high availability and
customer service which BizTalk can enable and crucial issues
surrounding the use of the Internet, such as security.
NOTE: When we refer to 'BizTalk', we are referring to
the software, the website and also the complementary technologies
which can be reused.
BizTalk is extremely exciting for companies to use as glue between
themselves and their customers. For many offline companies
(companies which are not currently buying and selling via the
Internet), BizTalk offers access to this new and exciting frontier:
eCommerce (electronic commerce).
Regardless of what business you are in, be it online or offline,
BizTalk is about bring the world of eCommerce into your
business!
Who is this online book intended for?
We intend this online book to reach out to managers, technical
project managers, business managers and developers looking for an
understanding of BizTalk and related issues such as security and designing
workflows. If you need to get to grips with the
opportunities offered by the Internet, how companies are using
BizTalk and what BizTalk
Taking a look at the early years of the Internet, the first waves
of eCommerce focussed on doing "cool" things with this new worldwide
network called the Internet. The more recent waves are about
doing business over the Internet. Let's take a look at how the
progress of the Internet has brought the industry to this
point.
In the early 1990's and up to the year 2000, the arrival of the
Internet meant sending and receiving email and building websites
(which were essentially interactive brochures). The Internet
soaked up billions of Dollars/Pounds/Yen and made many instant
millionaires (via IPO or 'Initial Public Offerings' on the stock
exchange around the world). It was a time in which having a
dot-com was more important than actually doing business. It was
when having a dream was more important than actually making
money. The media did occasionally interrupt the party to ask
why so few websites were actually making money, but
most of us were sure that all the hype and excitement would amount to
something new, amazing and productive… and it has
(thankfully!).
The Internet has delivered on Marshal McLuhans's 'global village'
by enabling more and more people and businesses to connect and
exchange knowledge and products. Until recently this
communication has been manual (email and browsing) but with so many
potential customers and partners, in the future businesses will begin
to automate their communications with other businesses via the
Internet and they will begin reaping massive savings.
Some may ask where these savings will come from… they can
include:
reduced transaction costs (sometimes from dollars per transaction
down to cents per transaction),
increased worldwide exposure (for the relatively minimal cost of a
website), and
reduced cost of purchases as companies worldwide compete in huge
online marketplaces or reverse auctions (known as vortals or
'vertical portals')
The Internet, once only the domain of online companies, is now
opening up through the provision of applications like BizTalk and
websites. Businesses which were once only "brick-and-mortar"
(albeit armed with email and a website) can now take advantage of the
Internet and become "click-and-mortar" businesses with substantially
increased efficiency.
Substantial savings and growth can be achieved by doing business
on the Internet and now is the time to put all that investment in
computers and architecture to use. With countless millions of
people, government and businesses online, the next phase is to take
the business which we used to do offline and do it online!
Some
call this doing business at the speed of the Internet.
