VerticalNet could have grown just as large with its current, custom-built solution. BizTalk Server 2000 makes it a lot easier, a lot faster and a lot less costly to perform this kind of integration. It provides the data management and analysis backbone for Microsoft's entire .NET vision. SQL Server 2000's data mining capabilities allow manufacturers to track business trends undetectable from the large volumes of raw data collected by the systems that run their sales and operations systems. For example, an industrial parts maker might use data mining to pinpoint the factors present on their production floor and within their systems at times of peak productivity.
Companies gain valuable understanding of the hidden patterns and relationships in their data.
Generating this type of knowledge can help companies make better decisions, automate their decision process, identify and avoid problems, discern business opportunities and optimize their systems. Microsoft released Windows CE 3.0 in June, along with Platform Builder 3.0, the software tool that makers of embedded devices use to build the operating system into their latest products. Lansinger explained that an operating system for manufacturing devices must be as precise as a stopwatch and able to run around the clock. Many manufacturing operations are driven by software and require thousands of calculations per second for accuracy. If one machine isn't producing good parts, or stops for some other reason, then the whole assembly line has to be shut down until the problem is fixed.