ITC  Infotech India Limited, an SEI CMM Level 5 company, has become the first in India   to  set  up  a Microsoft  COE  (Centre  of   Excellence)  in  e-commerce technologies. ITC Infotech will now closely work with the e-commerce group in Microsoft to provide B2B and B2C solutions on the various Microsoft technologies.

The COE  programme involves workshops conducted by Microsoft Consulting Service personnel  for  knowledge transfer in technology and best practices, followed by their application on full cycle projects.

Using  the MS COE framework, ITC Infotech developed a B2B e-commerce application for   the  greeting cards business of I.T.C. Limited.  The solution can be scaled up  to  provide on-line selection, ordering and catalogue management of greeting cards to around 500 distributors in cities and small towns across India.

Apart  from  gaining  expertise  in  standard Windows 2000 technology areas, ITC Infotech  has  also  built  significant   capabilities in BizTalk Server 2000 for Enterprise   Application   Integration  and  Commerce  Server  2000  for   B2B/B2C solutions. ITC's  knowledge of competing platforms will help in cross-platform integration scenarios, especially with Biztalk.

Commenting  on  the  alliance,   A.  Saravanan,   Director,  Enterprise Services, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd., said,   "ITC Infotech has made significant investments  and  efforts   in  creating  the  COE on Microsoft.NET platforms and technologies,   more  specifically  on  the  platforms  and tools for B2B and B2C solutions.   We,  at  Microsoft,  are  very   pleased  to  see  the  high quality architectural  and   development  skills that ITC Infotech has developed over the last  one   year.   We  value  the alliance with ITC Infotech and look forward to working  with  them  on  developing  and   delivering  '.net'  solutions  to  our customers".

According  to  Mr.  Sanjay  Verma, MD of ITC Infotech, "this alliance is in line with  ITC  Infotech's continuous pursuit of knowledge leadership in cutting edge technologies.  This  will be a focused and dominant practice among the Company's global service offerings."