MarketSoft Corp , a Lexington, Massachusetts-based marketing automation software firm, has become the first independent software vendor to submit XML-based schemas for Microsoft Corp’s BizTalk e-commerce framework. The schema is for MarketSoft’s eLeads application, and has been submitted to BizTalk.org, the central repository and developer resource site set up by Microsoft for the framework. Its purpose is to carry out data exchange between its sales leads system and the rest of the demand chain. The system has been on trial at distributor Tech Data Inc, which needed to capture, qualify, prioritize and distribute leads from multiple sources (web site, call center, hardware and software partners) to its network of over 100,000 resellers. The company hopes its schema might be picked up by ERP vendors. Microsoft launched BizTalk last March.
