Prophet 21 announced its support of Microsoft's BizTalk Framework by developing industry-specific diagrams to enable the exchange of business information for wholesale distributors. The company also announced its outsourcing partnership with Sales Systems for system management.

Prophet 21 recently announced its support of Microsoft's BizTalk Framework by developing industry-specific schemas, or diagrams, to enable the exchange of business information for wholesale distributors.

The BizTalk framework is based on new Extensible Markup Language schemas and industry standards for sharing information. Wholesale distributors will execute BizTalk schemas as the default business-to-business communication language and Prophet 21-developed schemas for industry-specific functionality.

Prophet 21 is working to ensure that the BizTalk server and programs will seamlessly integrate with its products, including Prophet 21 Wholesale and Prophet 21 Acclaim. Prophet 21 Wholesale customers will have access to BizTalk solutions later this year; Microsoft anticipates general availability for early 2000.

In other news, Prophet 21 announced its outsourcing partnership with Sales Systems of Manasquan, N.J. According to a statement, the full-service agreement provides small distributors with a cost-effective alternative to employing an internal system administrative staff. Customers and prospects with fewer than 10 licensed users can seek services from Sales Systems for information technology infrastructure design and Prophet 21 Acclaim system management.