Brewing a new kind of connection: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters joins ranks of companies saving money, improving business processes by working with Web services.(Integration)

Manufacturing Business Technology, January, 2005 by Baer, Tony

The specialty blends from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Waterbury, Vt., are wildly popular in the cafes and restaurants where they are traditionally served. So popular, in fact, those who have savored the blends are clamoring to enjoy them at home. This trend boosted Green Mountain's direct-to-consumer sales by 50 percent in just the past year.

It also forced Green Mountain to reconstruct its Web site, which originally was built to accommodate B2B commerce. Just in time for the 2004 holiday season, Green Mountain launched a new, more consumer-oriented Web site powered by Microsoft Commerce Server. And Russ Wright, Green Mountain's IT analyst, says the site was developed in much less time--and at a significantly lower cost--than would have been...