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Press Releases

CONTACT:
Jean Barnes
Covast Corporation
(404)812.7157
jbarnes@covast.com

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 Supports UCCnet With New Toolkit for Retailers and Suppliers
Ocean Spray Improves Supply Chain With the BizTalk Toolkit for UCCnet

NEW YORK -- Jan. 13, 2003 -- Today at the 2003 National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Convention & Expo, Microsoft Corp. announced the Microsoft® BizTalk® Toolkit for UCCnet, which allows retailers and their suppliers to quickly and cost-effectively connect to UCCnet and bring them together with trading partners. Enterprises using the toolkit, which is built on the robust functionality of BizTalk Server 2002, can also utilize BizTalk Server's powerful Orchestration tool to automate integration of incoming data from UCCnet with legacy systems, increasing business productivity and enhancing business agility. The BizTalk Toolkit for UCCnet is a UCCnet-certified solution.

"UCCnet's mission is to enable collaboration that reduces complexities in the trading partner relationship between retailers and their suppliers by providing data registry and data synchronization services. The BizTalk Toolkit for UCCnet is a welcome solution to help us deliver on this mission," said Fred Geiger, senior vice president at UCCnet. "We are happy to have Microsoft as a Certified In Sync Alliance Partner and provide a UCCnet-certified solution. The company's participation with UCCnet, along with the new toolkit, shows a real commitment to the retail and consumer packaged-goods manufacturing industry."

Ocean Spray Gets Connected to UCCnet

Ocean Spray, the No. 1 brand of canned and bottled juice drinks in the United States, saw the advantage to connecting to UCCnet but wanted to make sure it used a technology that helped connect it within a reasonable amount of time and that could send its mission-critical data to and from UCCnet reliably.

"UCCnet is a great tool for Ocean Spray because it allows us to work with our retail trading partners much more easily. But we knew that to take full advantage of it, we needed to implement a reliable and cost-effective software solution," said Bob Carrell, managing director of IT at Ocean Spray. "We looked at a number of solutions, and the BizTalk Toolkit for UCCnet rose to the top of the list. We had the software implemented within two months and plan to work with several trading partners within the next few months. Our product data will be more accurate, and with the toolkit, this data will be automatically integrated into our legacy systems, making our business more productive."

BizTalk Toolkit for UCCnet: Features and Availability

Built on top of BizTalk Server 2002, the BizTalk Toolkit for UCCnet includes features such as these:

  • Prebuilt support for all 62 UCCnet item attributes
  • An extensible solution architecture to easily support custom attributes for pricing and promotions
  • A table driven, flexible architecture enabling rapid changes without additional coding
  • Simple yet robust tools for rapid deployment and cost-effective ongoing maintenance

"As more and more companies look to utilize UCCnet, they need a way to quickly and easily connect to UCCnet with minimal disruption to the technology they currently have running," said Brian Scott, general manager of the Retail and Hospitality Industry Solutions Group at Microsoft. "The BizTalk Toolkit for UCCnet not only allows enterprises to quickly get set up for sending and receiving transactions through UCCnet, it also has the distinct advantage of enabling them to easily integrate data from UCCnet transactions into their legacy systems using BizTalk Orchestration. Enterprises clearly see the business advantages of the toolkit when they realize how they can create a connected business so easily."

The BizTalk Toolkit for UCCnet will be available at no charge for licensed users of BizTalk Server from Microsoft Certified Partners or Microsoft Consulting Services by the end of January. Microsoft worked closely with High Performance Technology Inc. to develop the toolkit, as well as systems integrators, including Cactus Communications Inc. and TR2 Consulting Inc., all of which are experts at assisting retailers and their suppliers with connecting to UCCnet. Microsoft also works with Covast Corp. for general EDI and AS2 support related to UCCnet.

UCCnet is a nonprofit subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council Inc. (UCC), the global standards organization that provides data registry and data synchronization services for product information.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft and BizTalk are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft's corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft's Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.asp.

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