The Purpose of Microsoft.NET Initiative

The Purpose of Microsoft.NET Initiative

This project relates to the investigation of a brand new technology

from Microsoft - Microsoft.NET. The project was the final module of

the authors' BSc (Hons) degree in Business Information Systems at

Bolton Institute and was the suggested topic of the sponsor[1]. The

outcome of the project was perhaps not the outcome the sponsor might

have wished for as it had been undertaken from a business point of

view and not the more technical computing angle he may have hoped for.

This was due to the fact that the author was not on the computing

pathway for the degree qualification.

The outline of the problem was to investigate the purpose of the

Microsoft.NET initiative and to bring together the information found

from the research undertaken into two end products. Firstly a simple

interactive presentation explaining in simple terms what .NET[2] is

and secondly a PowerPoint presentation to bring together the findings

to present a comprehensive information base. At this point it is worth

noting that the information about the initiative is that of what

Microsoft.NET does for businesses rather than what it does from a

technical stand point.

At the time of writing a great deal of information had been

investigated and an overview of the technology established. An

understanding of what the aims of the initiative were had also

developed. The simple interactive presentation had been created using

Flash[3] and the PowerPoint presentation was underway. However, there

would still remain much research into the technology, as it was still

evolving, almost weekly. The investigations into the benefits to users

were incomplete due to the embryonic state of the technology. Case

study material had been found and investigated but financial benefits

were difficult to assess, as there was nothing to compare them to.

The achievements made during this project are reflected well by the

information contained within the final presentations. These include

significant milestones such as the Interim Research Report (appendix

1), the production of the presentations and the accomplishment of most