In an attempt to play a more direct role in supply chain and business-to-business e-commerce processes, Microsoft Corp. yesterday said it will upgrade its popular BizTalk Server integration middleware product, allowing it to integrate more easily with radio frequency identification (RFID) and electronic data interchange (EDI) technologies.
The enhancements will be part of the BizTalk Server 2006 R2 release, due for general availability in the first half of 2007. The release will be the fifth major upgrade to the BizTalk product since it was introduced in 2000.
The new 2006 R2 features will allow manufacturers to more easily use the BizTalk server to directly integrate RFID data and EDI transactions with existing enterprise applications such as ERP systems, said Burley Kawasaki, Microsoft's BizTalk Server group product manager.
Microsoft plans to achieve RFID integration, Kawasaki said, by developing an application programming interface (API) that works with a variety of third-party RFID devices such as readers and printers. BizTalk Server will be able to filter RFID data using an existing rules engine and either present RFID data through dashboards or send it to ERP applications using existing integration adapters.
The new API, he noted, will not be based on an existing industry standard, although Microsoft may promote it as a standard.
The BizTalk Server RFID support was quickly endorsed by several Microsoft partners including Alien Technology, Intermec Inc., and Printronix. Intermec, for example, said it plans to support the Microsoft RFID API via software drivers that will be released in the fourth quarter of this year. Symbol said it is working on a version of its Device Server Provider Interface that will allow its XR400 line of RFID readers to connect to BizTalk Server 2006.
Microsoft expects system integrators and value-added resellers to use those tools to build industry-specific products out of BizTalk Server 2006 and partners' RFID products, Kawasaki said.
The latest enhancements are part of an ongoing effort by Microsoft to transform BizTalk Server from a generic integration server platform to a rich platform capable of supporting complex business processes which, in some cases, are important for key vertical industries such as manufacturing. Last year, for example, the company added a rules engine and business process monitoring tools to BizTalk Server. Before that, Microsoft added support for industry-specific business-to-business e-commerce communication protocols such as RosettaNet, which is commonly used by high-tech manufacturing companies.
Microsoft said it also plans to build support for EDI and AS2 business-to-business protocols directly into the R2 release of BizTalk Server 2006. Currently, Microsoft partners provide adapters that allow BizTalk Server to interact with EDI and AS2 transactions. But, Kawasaki said, many customers asked Microsoft to build support for EDI and AS2 -- the standard protocol that enables EDI-over-the-Internet -- directly into BizTalk Server.
"Currently customers have to buy third-party software and integrate it with BizTalk Server, something they found too complex," Kawasaki said. "So we made the decision to bundle it in as a core piece."
With direct support for EDI and AS2, users will be able to harness BizTalk's workflow and rules engines to build new business processes around EDI and AS2 messages, he added.(Read how one provider of EDI services is standardizing on BizTalk Server.)
Microsoft also confirmed previously discussed plans to provide in the R2 release support for key service-oriented architecture features of Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system. BizTalk Server 2006, Kawasaki said, will support Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation, two key pieces of the Windows Vista architecture that allow for applications -- or pieces of applications -- to be presented and consumed as Web services.
With support for Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation, programmers will be able to present pieces of external applications -- such as ERP systems -- as services that can easily interoperate with other .NET-enabled services, Kawasaki said.
Current BizTalk Server customers covered by Microsoft's Software Assurance program will automatically receive the BizTalk Server 2006 R2 upgrades.