What is Site Server, Enterprise Edition?

• Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition version 2.0

SUMMARY

The following is a overview of Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition. To see additional information, please see the following Internet site:

   http://backoffice.microsoft.com/products/siteserverE/

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition is a comprehensive Web-site environment for enhancement, deployment and the advanced management of commerce-enabled Web sites on Microsoft Windows NT Server operating system and Internet Information Server.

Is Your Business Taking Full Advantage of the World Wide Web?

The Internet is having a profound effect on the way companies communicate with customers and partners. Establishing a strong Internet presence is enabling companies to reach customers in new and innovative ways and cost- effectively deliver their message. Transforming your Internet presence to an Internet enterprise through which you conduct business presents the opportunity to create a cost-effective channel for business transactions in the global market.

The most effective Web businesses enable managers to understand the impact of their site on different customer segments, deliver a personalized experience to each customer, employ a reliable content deployment process that maintains site availability, and actively manage and analyze their sites to support a process of continuous improvement.

Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition provides a comprehensive set of server components and management tools that help businesses manage the complete life cycle of their commerce-enabled Web sites. It significantly reduces the development time and cost required to deploy rich, dynamic commerce sites. Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition enables the sale of goods and services to customers and business trading partners. It provides the ability to easily deploy new content, deliver personalized experiences to customers, to analyze usage patterns, and manage site consistency and integrity. Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition enables businesses to understand in depth how customers are using their site and continuously improve the site to respond to customers' evolving needs.

Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition includes the following features to help you manage the complete life cycle of your Web site.

Add Commerce and Enhance Your Site

Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition enables you to sell goods and services over the Internet easily and cost-effectively. Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition can be used to create a high-impact site for your business to promote and sell to consumers or as a platform for corporate purchasing. Microsoft Site Server also enables you to extend and enhance your site through the easy creation of dynamic Web applications and the delivery of personalized content and experiences.

Commerce Server

   Enables you to develop and manage dynamic, robust commerce sites.
   Commerce Server includes a comprehensive set of components,
   templates, and tools, including:

   - StoreBuilder Wizard, a wizard enabling a simple, step-by-step
     approach to designing a commerce site. StoreBuilder Wizard
     removes the complexity of database schema editing, scripting,
     and HTML coding, and dramatically reduces site development time.

   - Dynamic merchandising, support for easy, real-time administration
     of product and price promotions from any remote Web browser.
     Dynamic page generation, creation of custom Web pages on the
     fly using Active Server Pages to directly address the needs,
     qualifications, and interests of visiting customers.

   - Order Processing Pipeline, a series of distinct stages to
     process an order according to specific business rules. Each
     stage of the order processing pipeline handles targeted functions
     such as product tax, shipping and handling charges, payment
     authorizations, and inventory checks. The pipeline can be easily
     customized and is designed to enable integration with existing
     systems so you can easily extend your business to the Internet.

  - Buy Now, a powerful new online marketing solution that lets you
    embed product information and order forms in most any online
    context, such as on-line banner ads, for quick, spontaneous
    purchase by consumers.

  - Commerce Host Administrator, a control center for site
    administrators and Internet hosting service providers that
    enables centralized administration of multiple commerce sites,
    while enabling individual site managers to update their sites
    remotely.

  - Commerce Server Software Developer's Kit (SDK), a set of open
    application programming interfaces (APIs) allowing full
    extensibility across the entire Order Processing Pipeline.

  - Includes Microsoft Wallet, client software that makes purchasing
    on the Internet convenient and secure. The Commerce Server SDK
    provides the tools to Wallet-enable your Web site.

  - Industry Standard Security, support for real-time credit
    authorization with secure transaction protocols such as SSL
    and Secure Electronic Transaction (SET).

   Works with Active Server Pages to dynamically generate Web pages
   based on stored user preferences. Personalization System
   enables you to deliver targeted content.

   Included as a promotion. The Visual InterDev Web development
   system is an integrated Web development system for building
   dynamic Web applications. It includes an integrated development
   environment, seamless connectivity to any ODBC-based databases,
   prebuilt components, wizards, and content creation tools.
   Visual InterDev provides everything a developer needs to
   quickly develop and enhance Web sites for business-critical
   applications.

Deploy Content Robustly

Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition enables you to publish Web content easily and securely to one or multiple Web servers inside the corporate firewall or across the Internet. Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition provides you with the ability to stage and test mission- critical content before global deployment.

Content Replication System

   Enables the implementation of site staging and mirror servers
   and the connection of departmental Web sites into a corporate
   backbone. Content Replication System provides a highly reliable,
   secure, and efficient way to move content within a corporation
   or across the Internet. Content Replication System automates
   the replication process.

   Enables users to easily post Web pages to your Web server. Web
   Publishing Wizard automates the process of copying files from
   your computer to the Web server. Posting Acceptor enables
   Microsoft Internet Information Server to accept Web content
   from Web Publishing Wizard and other clients via HTTP Post.
   Posting Acceptor also integrates with Content Replication
   System to automate the posting of Web content to multiple
   servers.

Manage and Conduct In-depth Analysis of Your Site

Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition actively manages Web content, regardless of the mix of Web servers utilized. Analyze sophisticated multihomed, replicated, or distributed Web server environments and learn about traffic and visitor patterns over time. Microsoft Site Server, Enterprise Edition enables you to visualize the layout of your site, measure the site's effectiveness, and continually improve user experiences.

Usage Analyst, Enterprise Edition

   Imports Web server logs and enables you to create custom reports
   for in-depth exploration of Web site usage data. You can classify
   and integrate other information with your Web site usage data to
   get a more complete and meaningful profile of your visitors
   and their behavior. Enterprise management capabilities enable
   the central management of complex, multi-homed or distributed
   server environments***. Supports 28 Web server log file formats
   on Windows NT, UNIX, and Macintosh operating systems, including
   those from Microsoft, Netscape, Apache, and O'Reilly.

   Provides comprehensive site visualization, content analysis,
   link management, and reporting capabilities for managing Web
   sites. Easily visualize how your site is laid out, recognize
   repetitive content, and identify broken links. Site Analyst
   lets you create comprehensive HTML reports that detail site
   content and consistency. Site Analyst enables you to manage
   Web content efficiently and effectively in order to provide
   a positive user experience.

** To replicate content with Content Replication System, you must acquire at least one additional license to install Content Replication System on a second server.

*** An additional license is required for each server analyzed with Usage Analyst.