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Commerce Server Code Name “Mojave” TAP Announcement

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Technology Adoption Program (TAP)

Nomination Period Announcement

 

The Microsoft® Commerce Server Product Team is very excited to inform you about our upcoming release of a new multi-channel retail accelerator to Commerce Server 2007, code-named “Mojave”, which is being designed specifically to meet the e-commerce needs of enterprise & midsize businesses. 

 

"Commerce Server" - What is it?

 

Microsoft® Commerce Server 2007 is a full-featured e-commerce platform and tool set, and has been the most successful release of the product to-date. With thousands of customers in the Enterprise segment and growing, it is the leader in packaged solution market share.

 

Its approach is fundamentally different than that of its peer competitors – as Commerce Server is centered on developer extensibility and the ability to customize, rather than packaged functionality.

 

The core value themes of Commerce Server 2007 are:

· Multi-channel support

· High extensibility and easy integration

· High availability and performance

· Core e-commerce functionality

To maintain Commerce Server’s position of strength – and grow it – additional investments are occurring through the Mojave Program.

 

"Mojave" - What is it?

 

Mojave is the first significant functional addition to Commerce Sever 2007 that address these following core themes:

 

Multi-channel is here now

- Out of the box integrated consumer centric multi-channel capabilities over multiple mediums, brands, and locales.

- 3 out of the box channels ready to go: Web, Mobile, Live Services

- New channels require configuration and not customization.

Out-of-the-box shopping experiences

- Out of the box ASP.NET 2.0+ web part shopping features.

- Web 2.0 social networking paradigms via SharePoint and Live integration.

- E-commerce web features easily added by business users, skin-able by designers (Expression), extendable by developers (Visual Studio).

Tools to empower Merchandisers and Marketers

- Centralize day to day marketing and merchandizing tasks in a single portal.

- WYSIWYG content editing with preview.

- Content management capabilities: workflow, approval, auditing and publishing.

- Leverage familiar Office tools to minimize the learning curve.

 

Together, Commerce Server 2007 and Mojave offer the most complete e-commerce software on the market:

· Multi-channel is here now

· High extensibility and easy integration

· High Availability and Performance

· Out-of-the-box Shopping Experiences

· Tools to empower Merchandisers and Marketers

"Mojave" TAP – How to Engage

We have heard from many customers that they are anxious to be ahead of the curve and start testing and deploying "Mojave." As you know, at Microsoft we have developed the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) to engage customers with our product groups to provide feedback and validation.

 

Nominations for the "Mojave" TAP are being accepted now through August 1st, 2008. Before submitting your nomination, please consult the program overview below and coordinate with your Microsoft account representative. You can also email the nomination alias at MoTAPNom@microsoft.com. We will coordinate with you a meeting to explain the program details.

 

Sincerely,

Commerce Server Product Team

“Mojave”

Customer Technology Adoption Program (TAP)

 Program Overview

The “Mojave” TAP provides an opportunity for enterprise and midsized businesses and Microsoft to collaborate for the purpose of product validation of the first release of "Mojave", through deployments of pre-release builds in a production environment and product feedback.

 

As a result of this collaboration, TAP participants will have an opportunity to validate the design and direction of the “Mojave” by discovering bugs, submitting Design Change Requests (DCR's) for the product development teams to consider, and providing general feedback. 

 

In addition to being an empowered partner in the development process, TAP participants will enjoy many benefits of a closer working relationship. This program also provides customers with support from the Commerce Server product team, including support for production deployment issues (when builds are deemed “production ready”).

 

At the conclusion of the Program, Microsoft would like to cultivate the experiences gained in this collaboration to produce joint Public Relations and/or Marketing opportunities.

 

Program Mission:   To partner with Customers to improve customers’ business, validate and improve Microsoft productsthrough the deployment of pre-released technology.

 

Program Product: “Mojave” (exact name not final).

 

Mojave is the first significant functional addition to Commerce Sever 2007 that address these following core themes:

 

Business Value:

Increase reach through multiple channels

- Mojave gives Marketers and Merchandisers new ways to engage customers with information at their fingertips via consumer devices such as mobile and Xbox; and new mediums, such as Live.

Leverage the Microsoft consumer community via Microsoft properties, such as Live!

- Mojave enables businesses to leverage more consumers via Microsoft properties, such as Live and Xbox.

Engage and Interact with your Customers

- Mojave enables rich engagement and interaction with customers using Web 2.0 community features.

Get online quickly with an out of the box production-ready shopping site

- Mojave offers a production-ready shopping site that can be quickly set up via a task-orientated approach, without Developers, so that Merchandisers and Marketers can easily configure product and marketing information; getting you online quickly and easily.

Reduce need for Developers and empower Marketers to manage the Presentation

- Mojave reduces the need for Developers by enabling Marketers to create a new site or change the look and feel of the existing site through “drag and drop” Web parts.

Quick, efficient new product introduction

- Mojave enables Merchandisers to easily and quickly add new products to their online channels through easy bulk data uploading and previewing capabilities.

Brand Portfolio Management

- Mojave brings brand management back where it belongs – into the hands of business users. They can create brand information once and use it across different sites and other channels.

 

Technical Value:

Out of the box e-commerce features that meet or exceed industry standards, reducing custom development

- Mojave meets or exceeds industry features such as Profile Management, Lists and Registries, Marketing and Personalization, reducing customer development.

Design and Integration Extensibility

- The Mojave framework enables additional functionality, custom business rules, and integration to external systems, business partners, and ‘cloud’ services; while maintaining its simplified API.

Leverage other Microsoft technologies

- Mojave maximizes your investment through synergies and integration with other Microsoft platform tools and solutions, such as SharePoint and Live!

Long-term supportability

- Mojave is designed for the future, offering a cleaner API using up to date technologies and architecture designs such as .NET 3.5, SOA, and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).

 

 

High Level Program Participation Requirements: 

Identify joint goals

- Identify new technologies/features to be leveraged

- Commit to deploy Mojave in a production environment +90 days from release to manufacturing.

- Commit to significant testing and deployment goals at each major milestone

Provide feedback

- Provide active and prompt product feedback at each milestone

- Provide comprehensive feedback including IT environment, functionality, experience, documentation, and ways to improve

- Participate in surveys and TAP portal information gathering

Project planning

- Develop an architecture plan

-          Produce a deployment plan

-          Develop a hardware plan

-          Develop test plans including performance metrics and create a test lab

Resources required

- Commit to appropriate long-term resources and funding

- Participate in weekly status with TAP Program Manager

Public relations

-         Commit to public relation activities

 

 

Program Benefits for participants:

Business Advantages

- Early access to pre-release version of “Mojave”

- Collaborate for success in a deployment project

- Product and Business validation for e-commerce platform investments

- Competitive advantage of multi-channel reach

- Hands on development labs for select customers

- Step by step training documents and rapid ramp-up on new technologies

- Closer relationship with Microsoft as a partner

- Opportunities to influence future products

- Private community support via Microsoft Connect Program.

Microsoft Commitments

 

- Assigned a TAP Program Manager

- Technical Relationship

- Training and Technology Ramp-up

- Support from Premier Beta Product Support Team on select builds

Public Relations Opportunities

- Case studies, testimonials and video clips

 

 

Customer Scenarios of Interest:

The following list of customer scenarios and characteristics is tentative and subject to change without notice.

 

Customer Scenario

Characteristics

Category Leading Retailer

- Retail & Wholesale Trade

- Media, Entertainment & Leisure

- Finance & Insurance

 

- One or more brands promoted via online properties.

- International support required, primarily around multi-language and multi-currency support.

- Require ability to manage information in bulk will be necessary because of multiple categories of merchandise and large number of SKU’s. 

- Engaged in multiple electronic channels (multi-channel), such as promoting products via mobile devices, and possibly integrating with third party social networking sites (i.e.: Live!, Facebook).

- Large number of shoppers and focuses both on both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) transactions.

- Upgrading from a legacy system and require minimum risk.

- Require side by side deployment (with Commerce Server 2007) and/or mixed coexistence to minimize any down time and deployment risk.

- Require Four/Five 9’s availability.

- Monthly online transactions in “millions” necessitating high scalability; e.g.: daily 3+ million visits; daily 500,000 orders; daily 60+ million page views.

- Experience 20%+ increases of load at peak times.

- Deployment will require custom, highly complex integration work, dealing with multiple bi-directional Line-Of-Business (LOB) systems.

- Require out of the box “industry-standard” shopping features.

- Require ability to build a custom shopper experience using ASP.NET or possibly a rich internet application (RIA) technology, such as SilverLight.

- Require significant extensions to Commerce Server and introduce custom business rules, above and beyond the out of the box shopping experience.

Growth Retailer

- Retail & Wholesale Trade

- Media, Entertainment & Leisure

 

- Existing online presence seeking to perform full transactional e-commerce online.

- Existing number of differently branded sites off main site.

- Primarily focused on web channel with interest in electronic channels currently not engaged in.

- Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) sensitive.

- Generally averse to customizations.

- Seek to grow into a top 10 National Retail Foundation (NRF) in category or looking to sustain and defend market position.

- Upgrading existing technology.

- Require 99% availability.

- Monthly online transactions are in the “(tens) thousands”; e.g.: daily 50,000 visits; daily 1,000 orders; daily 1 million page views.

 

 

Enrollment Process

The enrollment process is constituted of a nomination, selection and registration process. 

(1) Nomination

Please coordinate with your Microsoft account team or e-mail MoTAPNom@microsoft.com. We will schedule a follow up meeting with you to further explain the TAP program.

(2) Selection

Selection of candidates for the program includes consideration of the following criteria:

- Maximize testing coverage of Mojave scenarios, 

- Interesting public relations opportunities,

- Willingness to provide multi-channel e-commerce requirements and product feedback

(3) Acceptance

The registration process requires:

- Signed Master TAP Agreement

- Acceptation via email of the specific Program Description document.

 

Timeline:

The program is expected to follow the following timeline (dates subject to change).

Period

Phase

Activities

Q2 CY2008*

Nomination

Customer selection &

Program Planning

- Submit nominations forms

- Selection of candidates

- Signature of TAP agreement and Program description

- Customer environment information gathering

Q3 CY2008*

Completion of 2nd Development Iteration – public Community Technical Preview (CTP2)

- Test releases and provide feedback

- Submit feedback on Product Quality

- Step by Step training documents begin

Q3 CY2008*

Completion of 3rd Development Iteration – public Community Technical Preview (CTP3)

- Test releases and provide feedback

- Submit feedback on Product Quality

 

Q4 CY2008*

Completion of 4th Development Iteration – public Release Candidate (RC)

- Test releases and provide feedback

- Submit feedback on Product Quality

- Ability to go-live with PSS product support (TAP participants only) on the functionality completed to-date

Q4 CY2008*

Release To Manufacturer (RTM)

- Full deployment in production environment

- Submit feedback on Product Quality

Q1 CY2009*

Production Deployments

- TAP launch activities.

- End of program (RTM+90 days)

- TAP participant thank yous, surveys, and follow-up.

All dates are tentative and subject to change.

 

 

Questions: Please forward questions to MoTAPNom@microsoft.com.

 

 

Sincerely,

Commerce Server Product Team

 

 

 

 

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