With the explosive growth of electronic commerce, businesses are increasing their Web-based order rate at a phenomenal pace. Worldwide e-commerce could reach into the trillions of dollars in the next five years.

To exploit the efficiency and increased order-entry capacity offered by Web-based solutions, businesses are streamlining their internal order processing and external supply chain management operations. The ubiquitous connectivity offered by the World Wide Web provides the opportunity to automate these critical business processes economically and effectively.

To automate such business processes across corporate boundaries, systems need to deliver the context of the transaction equally effectively to trading partners who have automated and to those who have not. At the same time, corporate system administrators, in an effort to keep administrative costs down and protect the integrity of the system, are controlling the desktop more tightly than ever before. They are more reluctant to install anything on the desktop than they are to install a server application that integrates tightly with the organization's existing desktop setup.

The Role of XML
Extended Markup Language (XML) delivers data structures and the defining metadata in a self-describing package that enables organizations to use the Web to communicate complex business process transactions in their full context. Widespread adoption of XML in browser technology and data management applications enables interaction with this business transaction either through a Web-deployed form or through an XML-capable back-office application.

Business Process Management Across the Web
Keyfile for Office 2000 extends the proven value of enterprise process management to the extended enterprise that includes trading partners, suppliers, and outsourced development partners. Keyflow for Microsoft Exchange provides users with advanced productivity capabilities within the familiar Outlook user interface by integrating closely with the Microsoft Outlook messaging and collaboration client, the new Office 2000 Web-centric features, and Office Server Extensions.

Keyflow F3 Forms bring business processes into the XML world of "integrate data and deliver," combining business process data and documentation into a package delivered directly to the browser desktop or to the Web-centric Office 2000 application suite.

Through these applications, Keyfile enables organizations to handle and archive many different forms of information—including paper, fax, e-mail, documents, scanned photographs, voice, and video—more efficiently and cost-effectively. It also enables them to create workflows that determine how documents are created, updated, reviewed, and used.

Keyfile also offers customers a server-based deployment strategy that eliminates the need to install additional client software. For example, a recent sale of a Keyflow solution to the U.S. Department of Defense will provide automated workflow capabilities to more than 22,000 users while incrementally deploying servers as demand dictates.

Integration with Office 2000
Document creation and editing. Support for WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) enables users to check documents in and out of Keyfile directly from an Office 2000 application. The Office 2000 support for XML-based document property sheets enables direct indexing by leveraging the familiar Office 2000 property sheet. The Office 2000 document descriptions based on Document Type Declarations (DTDs) provide the ability to create templates based on Keyfile-managed information and to create new Keyfile document categories based on templates authored by the user.

Keyflow for Microsoft Exchange enables users to create workflows that determine how documents are created, updated, reviewed, and used from within the familiar Microsoft Outlook user interface.

• XML-based forms. A Web-deployed expression of a paper form uses the power of XML to encapsulate the logic supporting complex data entry tasks and business process management. This both improves internal deployment characteristics through intranets and incorporates customers and supply partners through secure extranet technologies.
• Messaging and calendaring. Users receive an e-mail message in Outlook that includes links to documents to be reviewed. Users click those links to access the documents so they can add or edit information.
• Data access. Support for OLE DB means that every time a user opens the package or responds by adding or editing information, that transaction is logged and recorded in either a Microsoft Access or a SQL Server™ 7.0 database to provide an audit trail of all actions involving that package.
• Data analysis and reporting. Users can call on Microsoft Access to analyze Keyfile activity and generate reports on individual and group productivity and processes, such as order entry and qualified sales leads.

Enterprise Benefits

• Reduced implementation costs. Support for WebDAV and HTML round-trip editing in Office 2000 enables Keyflow to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook 2000 without requiring any extra client software to be installed on desktops. Before, Keyfile developers would build and install macros into the Office applications which would connect to the server. With Office 2000, customers just need to install Keyfile for Office 2000 and don't have to touch any of the clients.
• Rapid deployment of new services. With more than 75 million users of Microsoft Office applications, there is a natural upgrade path to Office 2000. Direct integration of Keyfile products with Office 2000 enables organizations to deploy document management and workflow software rapidly without installing client software or disturbing ongoing operations. This makes it possible to deploy new applications, such as collaborative engineering, new product introduction, collaborative forecasting, Available-to-Promise manufacturing across an entire supply chain, and vendor-managed inventory.
• Reduced risk. No client software installation means minimal user training and no additional client support. Users can continue to work in their familiar productivity applications while gaining powerful document management and workflow capabilities.