Microsoft certainly had all this in mind when it created its new Site Server 3.0, Commerce Edition enhancements. New free downloads for Site Server 3.0 include both an Auction Component and a business-to-business relationship component called the Commerce Interchange Pipeline Manager (CIPM). Both are welcome additions to Site Server 3.0, Commerce Edition, which already contained a host of features--secure business-to-business and business-to-consumer Web sites, content analysis and log analysis--that made it a superior commerce application. (For more information on its log-analysis capabilities, see www.networkcomputing.com/917/917r1.html).

The Auction Component lets you create a customized auction for use over a TCP/IP network. The component is built with a series of Active Server Pages (ASPs), which limits the use of the Auction Component to users who have Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.1. The CIPM is a snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and makes it easier to build and manage secure business relationships over an extranet or an intranet. This new feature makes it possible to digitally sign and encrypt documents that will be exchanged between business partners across multiple networks. Digital signatures validate the sender, while the digital envelope encrypts the information that's traveling across a public network.

E-Commerce Made Easy I tested a full shipping version of Site Server, Commerce Edition 3.0 in our Syracuse University Real-World Labs®. The CIPM was tested on two identical Dell Computer Corp. Optiplex Pentium II computers running at 300 MHz with 256 MB of RAM under Windows NT Server. We placed the systems on two different shared Ethernet subnets to facilitate a buyer/seller environment. Both systems were installed with Microsoft's SQL 6.5, Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0, Option Pack, MMC 1.1 beta and Internet Explorer 4.01.

Microsoft's CIPM is actually a new management interface for an old feature; CIP (Commerce Interchange Pipeline) has been a part of Site Server, Commerce Edition since version 3.0, but it required the use of the CIP editor to create and manage the profiles, which was very cumbersome. Now, however, the CIPM simplifies the management of business routing across the Internet through the use of wizards. To accomplish this routing, Site Server generates a "pipeline" between you and one of your business partners. A pipeline is a series of components, with each component as a stage within a business process.

During testing, I set up a pipeline between two systems: the first acted as a buyer, the other acted as a seller. I created a user profile on each system, which consists of basic demographic information, as well as information relating to how the organization transacts business. Next, I exported my company profile and imported it into my lab partner's system (typically a business could e-mail a profile to its partner). I repeated these steps but this time I used my lab partner's profile. At this point, both systems had copies of the two businesses' digital certificates, and they understood the method in which to send and receive specific business documents.

I then used the CIPM to establish order, shipping, tax, inventory, transport, payment and acceptance components. I was happy to find that CIP is transport- and data-independent, which allowed me to exchange documents to a secondary system that may not have the Site Server, Commerce Edition installed.

Site Server, Commerce Edition does not include any built-in, real-time payment authorization. For this, Microsoft relies on six payment partners, who can provide the solution over dial-up modems, leased lines, Internet-based services (such as CyberCash), SET or SSL.

Jeffrey H. Rubin is an adjunct professor with the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, and a consultant for Internet Consulting Services.

Ricardo Reimundez is an independent contractor based in Syracuse, N.Y. Send your comments on this article to Rubin at jhrubin@internetconsult.com or to Reimundez at ricardo@ reimundez.com.