Microsoft Prepares CIDX Software Development Kit (SDK)

Microsoft Strengthens Its Support for Chemical Industry With New CIDX Solution for BizTalk Server 2000

Chemical Companies Increasing Productivity With BizTalk Server 2000

Houston, TX, USA. September 10, 2001.

Today at ISA 2001, the annual conference of the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society, Microsoft Corp. announced the Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000 CIDX Software Development Kit (SDK). The BizTalk SDK will provide chemical companies with a powerful solution enabling rapid integration of applications, platforms and businesses within and across organizational boundaries, using the chemical industry's core XML protocols developed by the Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX).

"Chem eStandards reduce the time, cost and complexity of making XML-based connections," said Patricia Simmons, executive director of CIDX. "Active participation of software suppliers such as Microsoft is critical to the success of Chem eStandards."

CIDX Chem eStandards grew out of broad standards for high-tech manufacturing developed by the multi-industry consortium RosettaNet. A founding member of RosettaNet, Microsoft announced the Microsoft BizTalk Server Accelerator for RosettaNet in April 2001, providing the software adapters and server platform needed to use RosettaNet standards and thereby integrate applications and supply chain partners and enable orchestration of complex, collaborative business processes.

"Microsoft is listening to its customers and developing industry-specific solutions ranging from chemicals to electronics to healthcare. Whatever the business, we're committed to delivering solutions for rapid development of the Web-enabled enterprise," said William Fong, global director for Chemical Manufacturing at Microsoft.

A prototype of the CIDX SDK was originally developed by Microsoft Consulting Services for Air Products and Chemicals Inc., a leading producer of industrial and specialty gases, chemicals and polymers. "Our pilot implementation of Microsoft's CIDX kit has enabled us to quickly integrate with partners using XML," said David Beltz, manager of B2B Integration Services at Air Products. "We're glad the kit will be widely available because it will help more of our partners deploy XML-based processes and integrate with us, boosting efficiency and productivity on all sides."

The BizTalk Software Development Kit for CIDX extends the library of document schemas shipped with BizTalk Server to include support for the documents most commonly requested by chemical industry customers, implementing support for CIDX Chem eStandards. The CIDX SDK provides Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) mapping documents that will enable customers to quickly map from CIDX transactions to SAP intermediate documents. Also included are a sample utility demonstrating an approach for automating the configuration of BizTalk and a step-by-step tutorial explaining how to implement support for a CIDX OrderCreate transaction.

"For chemical suppliers and their customers, BizTalk Server is an unbelievably powerful integration tool," said Christopher McCormick, president and CEO of IndigoB2B.com Inc., an e-marketplace and application service provider to the specialty chemicals industry. "Microsoft's CIDX SDK makes BizTalk Server even better. We will be implementing it for our clients right away."

The SDK is scheduled for release in October [2001] and will be available for free download at http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/downloads/.

Microsoft and industry partners will be demonstrating their innovative solutions for manufacturing industries in Hall C, Booth 2235, throughout the ISA conference, Sept. 10-13, 2001.

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See: "XML-Based 'Chem eStandard' for the Chemical Industry."

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