E-commerce Application Solutions Utilizing Microsoft's .NET

Preface

According to Forrester Research, as cited in Kessler, 2003, electronic commerce generated sales worth US $12.2 billion in 2003(Forester). Electronic commerce, e-commerce or ecommerce consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. .NET provides solutions in creating a better environment with in which the ecommerce applications exist.

.NET is the Microsoft Web services strategy to connect information, people, systems, and devices through software. Integrated across the Microsoft platform, .NET technology provides the ability to quickly build, deploy, manage, and use connected, security-enhanced solutions with Web services. .NET-connected solutions enable businesses to integrate their systems more rapidly and in a more agile manner and help them realize the promise of information anytime, anywhere, on any device (Microsoft).

The information technology industry sees ecommerce as an electronic business application aimed at commercial transactions. It can involve electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, e-marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, automated inventory management systems, and automated data-collection systems. It typically uses electronic communications technology such as the Internet, extranets, e-mail, E-books, databases, and mobile phones. Through the use of .NET programming languages and environments, ecommerce will evolve itself from web pages into dynamic web applications.