On This PageAbstractThis document provides an overview of the business context for Microsoft® Solution for Internet Business (MSIB) version 2.0 and an introduction to what is included in the solution. IntroductionIn today's business environment, many companies are looking to computer automation as a means of better serving their customers, improving efficiencies, reducing costs, and providing a positive impact for their company. Microsoft® Solution for Internet Business (MSIB) was developed in response to emerging business models that have transformed Internet sites from relatively simple structures of linked HTML pages to complex, feature-rich applications that not only provide content and automate business processes such as selling and purchasing, but also provide personalization and collect data for analysis. MSIB is an integrated solution that is built by using high-quality Microsoft® Windows Server System™ products to provide end-to-end processes and features for sophisticated Internet sites. This document briefly discusses the business context that has led to the development of MSIB and outlines the features that are available on MSIB Web sites. Business ContextMSIB was developed in response to three business issues: | • | First, businesses and other organizations are always looking for ways to better serve their customers, improve efficiencies, reduce costs, or increase revenue. E-business solutions were developed to respond to these business needs. However, as dependencies and demands on the solutions have grown, the ability to respond to those demands with increased functionality, scale, and availability has decreased. | | • | Second, many companies are learning that there are significant advantages to interacting with customers across multiple sales channels, such as partners, catalogs, customer care services, and the Internet. | | • | Finally, many companies and other organizations are finding that e-business is not one of their core competencies. |
As a result, more and more organizations are looking for out-of-the-box electronic business solutions that can be branded and configured to meet their needs. However, these out-of-the-box solutions do not necessarily provide a competitive advantage. A Complete SolutionMSIB provides a single infrastructure that facilitates the rapid creation, deployment, and management of external and internal facing portals. By using MSIB, you can build dynamic, full-feature Web sites that are extensible, scalable, standards based, and template driven. The products included in MSIB are designed to enable you to manage, analyze, personalize, and target the content on your Web site, and to manage and analyze the users who visit your site. While MSIB implements certain features and functionality of Microsoft products, you are not limited to using only those features included in the solution. If you want to use features and functionality that are available in Microsoft products, but are not included in MSIB, you can activate them as part of your customized Internet business solution. (Your support services agreement must also include the additional features and functionality.) At a very high level, MSIB provides the following: | • | Integration components. MSIB is specifically designed for corporate Web sites and for government and education portals. You can tailor these two types of sites to accommodate your specific requirements, from basic to enterprise-level sites, with and without product catalogs. | | • | Proven prescriptive guidance. MSIB is extensively tested by Microsoft and implemented at customer sites to ensure high quality. | | • | Delivery by experienced consultants. Only trained and experienced consultants deliver MSIB. This means that your Web site is developed quickly and correctly the first time. | | • | Post-implementation support. After your Web site goes live, you will have a single point of contact for support, and enterprise-quality support options are available to make sure that your Web site stays up and running. |
MSIB takes advantage of a best-of-breed approach that enables you to build the most comprehensive solution with a variety of solution partners. MSIB is highly scalable and reliable, through its unique dynamic server clustering capabilities, to ensure maximum performance and availability for mission-critical 24x7 Web applications. It provides modular capabilities that separate Web site design, content creation, and publishing, so that members of your organization can focus on their respective areas of expertise, thus providing increased Web site quality and increased business efficiency. Further, MSIB does not limit the type of site that you develop. For example, MSIB meets the needs of corporate Internet sites, government and education portals, and customer service sites. You can also use MSIB to rapidly create prototype sites, using a prospective customer's own logo and product catalog, and even replicate the look and navigation of the customer's existing site. After the customer approves the site, you can add features and functionality to the prototype and move it into production. No code or time is wasted in developing the prototype. Quickly Build a Dynamic Internet PresenceMSIB was designed to reduce the time required to build and deploy content-driven Web sites while still providing high scalability, reliability, and performance. The templates included in MSIB help to achieve this goal in two ways: | • | First, templates include embedded logic, such as retrieving user profiles and selecting appropriate content, so that you are not required to write as much code. This enables you to focus on customizing the site to your business needs instead of focusing on site functionality. | | • | Second, because the controls and templates include this embedded logic, the members of your team can contribute to the Web site development by focusing on what they do best. That is, content creators can create content. Business users and other nontechnical team members can manage and publish content by using the workflow and approval process included in MSIB. At the same time, Web developers and designers can focus on site usability, layout, and branding. |
Build Loyalty and Increase RevenueWeb sites that are personalized to each customer or business partner help you to build loyalty and customer awareness and to increase customer knowledge. With MSIB, you can create Web sites that build rich customer profiles by mapping user and business data from across your site or external systems without changing business processes or data sources. Additionally, you can manage information about millions of users and establish secure authentication to permit access only to authorized areas of your site. You can use the target merchandising features to take advantage of customer knowledge. You can create a Web site that uses explicit user preferences, defined business rules, and system-driven trend analyses to determine the most appropriate content for each user, build customer loyalty, and generate repeat business. The Next Generation of Internet BusinessMSIB was designed so you can build it today and use it tomorrow. That is, MSIB includes extensive XML capabilities that can integrate internal legacy systems with emerging Web-services and next-generation technologies. This enables you to capitalize on existing investments in skill sets and technologies, so you can increase productivity, shorten learning curves, and take advantage of emerging technologies that meet your business requirements. Integration Service, ISV Partners, and Hosting PartnersMicrosoft partnered with leading system integrators, independent software vendors (ISVs), and hosters to provide services that assist organizations to rapidly deploy MSIB. For a comprehensive list of solution partners, see the Microsoft MSIB Web site at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=10442. Post-Implementation SupportMicrosoft provides post-implementation support for MSIB. The following table lists the levels of support. (Unless otherwise noted, these levels of support are available to Premier customers only.) Prescriptive services | Service level agreement | X | X | | Solution custom code QFE support | X | X | | Source code control | X | X | | Scalability and benchmarking labs | X | X | | Technical workshops | X | X | | Architectural review | X | X | Relationship and service level management | Solutions operational assessment | Additional fee | X | | Account reporting | X | X | | Escalation contact | Named | Onsite | | Onsite advisory | X | X | | Solution workshops | X | X | Advisory services | Solution advisory services (setup, configuration, and operations) | X | X | | Solution QFE support | X | X | Resolution services | Rapid onsite support service | X | X | | Emergency break fix support (1 business hour) | X | X | | Critical break fix support (2 business hours) | X | X | | Standard break fix support (4 business hours) | X | X | | Pooled hours | 800 hours | Custom hours | Internet and information services (available to all customers) | Solution expert roundtables | X | X | | Solution news flashes | X | X |
For more information about post-implementation support services, see the MSIB Support Guide. For more information about tested and supported configurations, see the MSIB Architecture Guide. Customer Group BenefitsOne of the challenges to maximizing the value of a Web site, minimizing costs, and meeting business goals and objectives is to balance the needs of the various users who are involved in creating and maintaining the Web site. The following topics describe the different users involved in creating a Web site and how MSIB benefits each role in the process. Business Users| • | Business decision makers (BDMs). BDMs, such as Vice Presidents of Sales and Marketing or Vice Presidents of E-Commerce, determine the project scope of a corporate Web presence solution as well as the technological and personal investments required to build a solution that meets business needs. MSIB gives BDMs the ability to: | • | Create solutions with predictable results. | | • | Rapidly react to changing business environments. | | • | Provide better service to customers. | | • | Easily add new partners. | | • | Provide deeper integration with other applications around the corporation. |
| | • | Business managers. The business manager creates the "public face" of the company on a site. A business manager can be a product manager, marketing manager, customer relations manager, or other person who creates advertisements, marketing campaigns, or target expressions. MSIB assists the business manager to be flexible and to respond to the need for rapid change. Additionally, business managers can involve nontechnical staff in site management tasks — such as updating content — that could formerly be accomplished only by technical staff. | | • | Content creators. Content creators include all users who create content that appears on a Web site. This includes subject matter experts (SMEs), graphic artists, and writers. MSIB provides content creators with a user-friendly interface for adding HTML and graphic images to the presentation layer. This means that the presentation layer can easily be modified to meet a particular organization's workflow requirements. |
Information Technology Users| • | Systems architects. Systems architects provide the infrastructure and software blueprint. They are also responsible for identifying and updating the business technologies. MSIB provides systems architects with prescriptive architectural guidance about hardware and software configurations tested and supported by Microsoft. | | • | Software developers. Software developers write, test, and manage code and scripts. MSIB frees software developers from the need to author content while still providing solid code and structure for the Web site. | | • | System administrators and operators. System administrators and operators manage and monitor the server environment to ensure the health, performance, and availability of the server. MSIB provides tools that system administrators and operators can use to easily manage and deploy the various subsystems of an Internet business. |
Dynamic Internet Presence Web SitesThis section describes the types of dynamic Internet presence Web sites that you can implement with MSIB. A dynamic Internet presence is a Web site that does not directly sell products or services to consumers. For example, corporate Internet sites are used to disseminate information about a company, its products, news releases, contact information, and so on. Dynamic Internet presence Web sites created by using MSIB include one or more of the following features: | • | Intuitive navigation and search. This feature enables users to quickly and easily navigate to different sections of your Web site and to search for relevant information. | | • | Approval process. This feature helps you to manage content updates through a built-in approval process before it appears on the live site. | | • | Personalization. You can use this feature to dynamically present content to users based on user profile information. Profile information includes behavior of users while they visit your site, and contextual information such as time of day and current site location. | | • | Fresh content. This feature enables you to manage and update content, products, users, catalogs, orders, and site look and feel without the involvement of technical staff. |
Types of dynamic Internet presence Web sites include corporate Internet sites, government portal sites, education portal sites, and prototype sites. Corporate Internet SitesAs described previously, corporate Internet sites are used to disseminate information about a company, its products, new releases, and so on. You can use MSIB to facilitate the planning, setup, and management of your corporate Internet presence. MSIB contains the tools you need to build a dynamic corporate Internet presence that efficiently manages your relationships with customers and business partners, increases your corporate visibility and brand recognition, improves customer satisfaction, and indirectly helps to increase your corporate revenues. Government Portal SitesGovernment portal sites are used to provide information to the public about community services, government programs, process requests, and so on. MSIB contains the tools you need to build a government site as a means of providing easy access for citizens to information and services. Education Portal SitesAn education portal site is a school or university Internet site that provides information to students, faculty, and/or alumni. For example, education portal sites provide course catalogs for students or provide automated registration. MSIB contains the tools that you need to facilitate the setup and management of an education site. Prototype SitesPrototype sites are "sample" Web sites that you can create with MSIB to demonstrate the look and feel of a Web site to the decision makers in your organization for approval, or to sell an idea to a potential customer. You can use MSIB to: | • | Leverage customer branding and data. You can easily re-create the look and feel of a customer's Web site by inserting their logo and other company information into the templates you create with MSIB. | | • | Demonstrate customization. You can demonstrate how easy it is for business users to update the look and feel of the site and to change content. |
MSIB contains the tools you need to quickly build a prototype site to join a sales team working on an important competitive opportunity. The site you build is not a "disposable" prototype — if the customer approves the prototype site, you can start work immediately by using the prototype as the starting point for the production development site. Dynamic Internet Presence Web Site FeaturesThe following table lists the various types of dynamic Internet presence Web sites and which MSIB features are maximized for each type of site. Intuitive navigation and search | X | X | X | X | Approval process | X | X | X | X | Personalization | X | X | X | X | Fresh content | X | X | X | X | Leverage customer branding and data | | | | X | Demonstrate customization | | | | X |
Solution HighlightsMSIB highlights include: | • | Faster time to market. Because MSIB includes features and functionality like integrated applications, administrative tools, and prescriptive architecture guidance, you can create dynamic, full-feature Web sites more rapidly than ever before. | | • | Mission-critical reliability and scalability. Web sites that you create with MSIB are fully scalable and can be used for mission-critical solutions. Features such as online index rebuilding, stateful inspection, and component load balancing are built into MSIB so you can use it to build scalable, mission-critical Web sites. | | • | Platform flexibility and employee empowerment. Integrated support of standards, the ability to integrate third-party programs and services, and decision support are some of the features that make MSIB a flexible platform on which to build Web sites. Additionally, business users, rather than information technology (IT) personnel, can use tools such as content contribution, site development, and content delivery to publish and manage site content. This enables business users and business decision makers to control the Web site content. |
The following topics describe specific features that support the solution highlights. Faster Time to MarketMSIB includes an accelerator site that you can use to rapidly build Web sites. The accelerator site puts content management, personalization, analytics, and e-commerce capabilities under a single common architecture. You can add additional features and functionality to this base site to speed up the creation of your site. MSIB includes the following features to enable you to quickly and easily set up and manage a Web site: | • | Integrated applications. Multiple Microsoft products, such as Microsoft® Commerce Server 2002 and Microsoft Content® Management Server (MCMS) 2002, are integrated and tested together for rapid and seamless deployment. | | • | Administrative tools. MSIB includes tools that centralize and simplify tasks such as configuration, deployment, operations, and maintenance of Web sites. | | • | Microsoft Consulting Services. Microsoft Consulting Professionals are trained to accelerate the implementation of your MSIB site. | | • | Microsoft Preferred Partners. These Microsoft selected and trained professional services firms work with clients to implement and support MSIB. | | • | Microsoft Prescriptive Architecture Guidance. Microsoft tested and approved hardware and software architecture is scaled to meet enterprise requirements with guidance about how to develop, test, deploy, implement, and maintain your Internet business. | | • | Content management tools. You can use administrative tools such as content contribution, site development, and content delivery to efficiently publish and manage site content. | | • | Content Publishing API. MSIB includes an open publishing API so you can rapidly create content-driven applications. |
Mission-Critical Reliability and ScalabilityYou can use MSIB to build Web sites that must have mission-critical reliability and must be scalable. The following list outlines the features that are included in MSIB to support mission-critical and scalable Web sites: | • | Multilayered firewall. You can maximize security with packet, circuit, and application-level traffic screening. | | • | No single point of failure. This functionality enables you to create systems that can withstand software and hardware failure at any point in the system without disrupting the application service. | | • | Enhanced differential database backups. You can use this feature to complete data backups based on what changed since the last backup. | | • | Stateful inspection. This functionality enables you to configure the Web site to examine data crossing the firewall in the context of its protocol and the state of the connections. Dynamic packet filtering opens ports only when necessary. | | • | Integration with Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Network Load Balancing. This feature provides automatic configuration and control over Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Load Balancing. | | • | Third-party load balancing compatibility. This enables you to manage applications running in clusters that use third-party hardware load balancing solutions. | | • | Catalog and order management. You can create, organize, and manage catalogs of products and related merchandising; you can also easily set up custom catalogs for groups of users to customize procurement. As your business grows, you can manage catalogs more effectively and with less effort. |
Platform Flexibility and Employee EmpowermentThe following list of features and functionality describe the platform flexibility and employee empowerment that is built into MSIB: | • | Standards support. MSIB supports a variety of standards, including Web-based standards, to enable a smooth interchange of information between heterogeneous systems. | | • | Profile system. You can use this feature to profile and manage customers and trading partners who visit your Web site for site usage authentication, advanced targeting, and personalization. | | • | Targeting system. This feature enables you to conduct focused content and mail campaigns for selected customers/partners to improve the relevance of the communications. | | • | Business analytics system. MSIB provides holistic decision support through data warehousing, data mining, and advanced analysis. | | • | Broad vendor support. MSIB is an extendable platform that allows for integration of third-party programs and services for enhanced total value. | | • | Integrated Web service support. By making use of XML, MSIB integrates with services provided by using the Internet. You can consume and expose XML Web services for faster time to market by leveraging existing investments, reduce costs by integrating with best-of-breed partners, and increase revenue by expanding your business to new channels. | | • | Content management tools. MSIB includes content management tools so that business users can quickly and easily update, manage, and publish content. |
Site HighlightsAt a high level, MSIB sites provide a mechanism for understanding the users who access your site. Sites that you create with MSIB can enable you to: | • | Understand user roles and rights. For example, you can understand how to differentiate between anonymous users, registered users, customers, employees, and so on. | | • | Dynamically control content. Logic is built into the Web site so that content is dynamically delivered to different users. For example, an anonymous user might be presented with different content than an employee or a registered user. | | • | Implement business rules. Business rules are in place that govern and optimize the interactions of the site with each type of user. |
Users who visit your Web site see dynamic content, and if they provide registration credentials, the site actively targets information to them based on stored profile attributes. The site can communicate the products and services offered by a company, help to build community among the company's customers, or help support product sales. MSIB site highlights include: | • | Managing content | | • | Personalizing and targeting content |
The following figure shows the three major components of the MSIB site highlights. Managing ContentThe following figure emphasizes the managing content aspect of the MSIB site highlights. Managing content on your Web site means that you serve personalized and targeted content dynamically to your users. MSIB offers a wide range of content management features that enable you to effectively and efficiently manage the content on your Web site. MSIB content management features include the following: | • | Custom site content. You can easily update the site you create by using MSIB in the following ways: | • | Update site contents | | • | Secure pages | | • | Change the order of navigation links | | • | Add background colors to sections of the site | | • | Remove page sections | | • | Localize the site | | • | Change the site logo |
| | • | Content creation. MSIB enables authors to use the authoring tools of their choice, such as Microsoft Word, to create content. After the content is created, it can be dragged into MSIB page templates. | | • | Templates. MSIB enables site designers to create templates for the Web site. You use templates to ensure the consistency and the look and feel of the site. Nontechnical staff can use the templates to modify site content, and can quickly learn how to modify the site itself by adding new Web pages or by changing site navigation characteristics. The templates that you create have embedded logic to retrieve user profile attributes and evaluation expressions to select appropriate content. MSIB includes templates for Web site content and catalog pages. The template used for catalog pages automatically matches product type with the correct page template. Site designers can use any HTML editor to create templates. | | • | Content workflow. You can use the content workflow and approval process that is built into MSIB to ensure that content is approved before it is published. You can establish workflow rules to implement a review and approval process. Workflow and publishing options include scheduled automated publishing, two levels of approval, and a customizable workflow. |
MSIB Site Content Management Features The MSIB site integrates the MCMS Content Connector to extend Commerce Server Business Desk with two additional categories: Content and Targeting. The following table briefly describes the content and targeting features for the MSIB site. Content | Page Profiles | Creates pages that appear in specific areas of your site. | | Product Pages | Creates pages that view product catalogs. | Targeting | Personalized Content Object | Configures what content is displayed, to whom, when, and where. | | Content Groups | Groups together page profiles that have common properties. | | Content Expressions | A tool that you can use to create content groups. | | Page Positions | Provides additional filtering for personalized content objects. | | Publish PCOs | Publishes to production the content changes that you make. |
Personalizing and Targeting ContentThe following figure emphasizes the personalizing and targeting component of the MSIB site highlights. Personalization and targeting is the process of delivering personalized content to one or more users, or to any other business entity that has a profile on your Web site. Targeting content to your users increases the possibility that they will return to your site in the future. MSIB Site Personalizing and Targeting Features MSIB has the following features to enable you to target and personalize your Web site. Campaign Manager | Enables you to create customer accounts. You can create and manage advertising campaigns, discount campaigns, and direct mail campaigns. All functionality in the Campaign Manager category is available on the MSIB site, except for Catalog Expressions. | Content Selection Framework (CSF) | Enables you to build new types of content delivery applications and to customize and extend the Commerce Server 2000 advertising and discount delivery systems. | Expression Builder | Enables you to create, edit, and view conditions that are evaluated against profiles to determine whether to deliver content or perform another action. | List Manager | Enables you to create and manage lists of users for direct mail targeting campaigns. | Commerce Server Direct Mailer | Enables you to send personalized or nonpersonalized e-mail messages to large groups of recipients. |
Managing and Analyzing Your Internet SiteThe following figure emphasizes the managing and analyzing component of the MSIB site highlights. To ensure that your site is effective, you might analyze who visits your site, when they visit, how much time they spend, and so on. MSIB includes features that enable you to manage and analyze the traffic on your Web site. The following list describes some of the MSIB features for managing and analyzing your Internet site: | • | Data analysis. You can analyze specific information about registered users and analyze user behavior during visits to your site, including how much time users spent on a particular page or which links they clicked. For example, MSIB includes reports that enable you to review data and view population segments. The information provided in these reports and segments can help you make informed decisions about pricing, marketing, advertising, and other aspects of your business. | | • | User profile management. A profile is a set of characteristics that define any business-related item, for example, a user or a company, or a context such as date and time. A user profile might include characteristics such as first name, last name, city, gender, age, and e-mail address. A company profile might include different characteristics, such as the company name, contact, city, and e-mail address. A context profile might include characteristics such as the date and time when a page is displayed, and the path the user takes to get to that page. Profiles are essential to Web site management because they provide information about the users who visit your site and those users who use your site. For example, if you run a promotion on your Web site, you can determine if it increased the purchase of the targeted items. If your users did not increase their purchases of targeted items, you can create a direct mail campaign to deliver personalized messages offering the users a discount on a certain product. | | • | Page profile management. MSIB includes features that enable you to create pages that appear in specific areas of your site and to specific users. | | • | Catalog and product management. MSIB includes features that enable you to create and organize catalogs by maintaining a description of what properties various catalog items must have. |
MSIB Site Management and Analysis Features MSIB has the following features to enable you to manage and analyze your Web site. User Profile Management | Creates and updates user profiles for registered and anonymous users. | Page Profile Management | Configures page profiles and product catalog pages to provide rich, personalized content for your site. |
Microsoft Solution for Internet Business ComponentsThis section outlines the software required for dynamic Internet presence Web sites. Base SolutionThe following figure outlines the software used in the MSIB site. You can use the base solution to create dynamic Internet presence sites, such as a corporate Web presence, a government site, or an education portal. MSIB requires Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server as the underlying operating system. The following table lists the required software for the MSIB site. Microsoft® SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition and SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services | A reliable, scalable database and analysis system with built-in support for XML. | Commerce Server 2002 | Enables you to quickly build tailored, scalable e-commerce solutions. Includes Authentication, User Profile, Expressions, Direct Mail, Business Analytics, Site Packager, Commerce Server Manager, and Business Desk features. | MCMS 2002 | Enterprise Web content management system that enables you to quickly and efficiently build, deploy, and maintain highly dynamic Internet, intranet and extranet Web sites. | Microsoft® Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000 | An extensible enterprise firewall and Web cache server that provides powerful security and network acceleration. | MSIB | Starting point for production deployments and rapid prototypes; reduces complexity of deployment and uses coding best practices. | Microsoft® SharePointTM Portal Server | A flexible portal solution that lets you find, share, and publish information easily. Enables you to use existing information, capture information in new ways, deploy an out-of-the-box portal site, and use Web-Parts technology to customize a Web-based view of your organization. |
OptionalThe following table lists additional software for the MSIB site. Microsoft® Application Center 2000 | A deployment and management tool for high-availability Web applications. | Internet search software | Adds search capabilities to your Web site. |
Architectural OverviewThe following figure shows one example of a recommended environment for developing, deploying, and managing an enterprise-class Internet Web site. The following list describes the various subenvironments shown in the previous figure: | • | Runtime. The run-time environment is in the Data Center and includes load balanced Web servers running in the perimeter network (also known as DMZ, demilitarized zone, and screened subnet), dedicated search servers in the perimeter network, and clustered SQL Server computers containing Web site content in the Data Center intranet. These servers are deployed in high-availability configurations to avoid single points of failure and to reduce downtime. | | • | Offline. The offline environment is in the Data Center and includes servers and databases that do not need to provide real-time services to users of the MSIB Web site. These servers perform such tasks as importing data into the Data Warehouse and generating reports and OLAP cubes. This business functionality does not have such strict high-availability requirements. MSIB uses offline databases for the Data Warehouse, Direct Mailer, and Search Crawler. | | • | Stage and test. The stage and test environment is in the Data Center and provides a completely separate environment in which changes to the Web site can be thoroughly tested prior to deployment on the live Web site. | | • | Development. The development environment is on the corporate local area network (LAN) and allows Web site development to be effectively performed outside of the physical Data Center. Development includes content development using MCMS workflow and Web site development, most often involving MCMS Site Builder, ASP programming, and the use of the Commerce Server run-time objects. | | • | Administration. The administration environment is on the corporate LAN and enables business managers to run reports and manage marketing campaigns. System administrators also work within this environment, typically using Microsoft Management Console (MMC), to perform administrative functions without the need to physically be in the Data Center. |
Additional ResourcesThe following URLs are links to Web sites that contain valuable information relating to MSIB:
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