SAN FRANCISCO -- Feb. 11, 2003 -- One year after the launch of Visual Studio® .NET and the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Microsoft Corp. today demonstrated a thriving ecosystem for customers and partners around its flagship development tool. Speaking to developers in his keynote address at the VSLive! 2003 conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Senior Vice President Eric Rudder highlighted the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., Danske Bank and Verizon Communications Inc. as examples of companies and organizations realizing the benefits of increased productivity and reduced costs with Microsoft .NET. Rudder also announced that the Visual Studio .NET Integration Program (VSIP) expanded at a rapid pace in a year's time, with Borland Software Corp. and AmberPoint Inc. joining the ranks of more than 130 industry partners providing customers with a complete set of solutions to meet their full range of development needs.
"The past year has been rewarding for the .NET ecosystem," Rudder said. "We are pleased to see so many customers and partners achieving success with Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework." Microsoft also announced public betas of key technologies -- including ASP.NET Starter Kits and a new set of tools code-named "Visual Studio Tools for Office" -- designed to enable developers to be successful in building Windows®-based and Web applications. The ASP.NET Starter Kits, a set of five sample applications that demonstrate how to create complete solutions using ASP.NET technologies, are available for download today at http://www.asp.net/starterkits/. "Visual Studio Tools for Office," which will enable Visual Studio .NET developers to build solutions based on Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel documents, is scheduled to enter public beta in March.
.NET Technologies Help Customers Achieve Success
In his keynote address, Rudder demonstrated several examples of customers benefiting from Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework today. Rudder also highlighted customers using other .NET technologies such as the Web Services Enhancements (WSE) for Microsoft .NET and MapPoint® NET. Henry Dennig, director of technology and information management at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, joined Rudder on stage to discuss an application designed to improve the foundation's grant approval process and provide support more quickly to its grantees. The Annie E. Casey Foundation works to build better futures for disadvantaged children and their families through public policy, human services reform and community support. "By choosing .NET and Infragistics Inc. technology, Ajilon Consulting was able to deliver a streamlined grant-processing application while reducing overall development costs by half," Dennig said. "This will enable Casey's managers to get grants out the door faster to those who need it most." Bear Stearns, a leading investment banking and securities firm, needed a solution to extend stock-order-processing functionality residing on an AS/400 system to its developers. Using Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework, Bear Stearns built and deployed a set of Web services that provide an easy way for developers to produce powerful, value-adding applications. Today, Bear Stearns has exceeded its performance goals, increased productivity and saved an estimated $250,000 over alternative solutions. Using the Web services capabilities of Microsoft .NET, Danske Bank, one of the largest banks in Northern Europe, was able to overcome time-consuming and costly integration of disparate mainframe applications. Danske connected and exposed its mainframe processes to partners and customers as Web services using the .NET Framework and Web Services Enhancements for Microsoft .NET, which gives Visual Studio .NET developers support for the latest advanced Web services specifications. The transition to a flexible, customizable architecture not only reduced development time, but also enabled Danske Bank to create new revenue opportunities by repackaging and reconfiguring core services to new customers and partners. Verizon's SuperPages.com, the Internet's No. 1 online directory and shopping resource, went live with services based on MapPoint .NET version 3.0 in January 2003. Using MapPoint .NET, Verizon provides maps and directions for 17 million yellow pages listings and 9 million unique monthly visitors. MapPoint .NET version 3.0 gives developers more capabilities to easily enhance a broad range of enterprise-grade applications and Web services with location technology.
New Tools and Resources Fuel Momentum One Year Later
As part of its ongoing commitment to providing developers with the resources and training they need to be successful, Microsoft announced the beta availability of the ASP.NET Starter Kits. Building on the success of the IBuySpy Store sample application, the ASP.NET Starter Kits are designed for both new and experienced developers to simplify the development of ASP.NET applications and enhance productivity.
There are five Starter Kits ranging in functionality from e-commerce storefronts to community portals to data reporting applications. Each sample application ships with well-documented source code so developers can quickly start viewing and editing the Starter Kits code using Visual Studio .NET or ASP.NET Web Matrix.
Microsoft also announced that "Visual Studio Tools for Office" is scheduled to enter beta availability in March 2003. Using "Visual Studio Tools for Office," developers can create applications in Microsoft Visual Basic® .NET and Microsoft Visual C#® .NET that run in Word and Excel. The integration of Microsoft's developer tools and programming model with the upcoming "Office 11" provides developers with significant advancements in the areas of language choice, security technologies and application deployment. In addition, Microsoft is pleased to announce important strides in the .NET ecosystem:
- The .NET Code Wise Community doubled Web site traffic to more than 4.5 million developer sessions per month on its member forums.
- The International .NET Association (INETA) grew from 40 groups to more than 200 worldwide, with a total of almost 75,000 members.
- More than 450 books have been published covering Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework in the past year.
- New Integrated Community Search functionality in Visual Studio .NET 2003, in addition to resources on MSDN®, helps connect developers with third-party resources such as help and sample code.
- New Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) for Microsoft .NET certification enables developers to extend their skills to Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.
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