StoreFront 6.0 Delivers Microsoft .NET-based E-Business Tools for Developers

Business Wire, Nov 6, 2002

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

KANSAS CITY, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 6, 2002

LaGarde's New Software Allows Developers to Create Highly Functional

and Customizable E-Business Solutions for the Growing SMB Market

LaGarde, Inc., a leading provider of e-business solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced the immediate availability of its new StoreFront 6.0 software. This next-generation development platform, the first full-featured SMB e-business application built on Microsoft .NET technology, offers a range of functionality for Web developers and ISPs to design, deploy, and maintain full-featured, "Amazon.com-like" e-business Web stores -- at a fraction of the time and cost of other solutions.

StoreFront is widely used by Web developers and ISPs to provide SMB customers with a way to extend their sales and marketing operations to the Internet. More than 35,000 Web stores in over 70 countries worldwide operate on the StoreFront platform. StoreFront includes seamless integration with Microsoft(R) FrontPage, Macromedia(R) Dreamweaver(R), and Intuit(R) QuickBooks(R), allowing users to design custom, feature-rich applications to drive business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce initiatives. Leveraging Microsoft's new .NET architecture, StoreFront 6.0 is now more flexible, customizable, and scalable than ever. The software features an extensible development environment, an advanced product import feature, APIs for easier customization, and more.

"StoreFront is already the leading e-business platform for developers `in the know.' Accordingly, the feedback from our global developer user community has been instrumental as we evolved the StoreFront product," said Bob LaGarde, Founder and CEO of LaGarde. "Now in its sixth version, StoreFront 6.0 offers an integrated solution for developers to increase revenues by delivering world-class sites that make e-commerce easy for them and their customers."

Flexible Design Framework

With Microsoft's .NET technology, StoreFront 6.0 enables developers to build high-performance StoreFront sites with improved interoperability, scalability, and reliability. The .NET framework creates an open development environment for the creation of robust, extensible Web applications. Separate business and presentation layers make it simple for developers to continuously expand and evolve customer sites, without interrupting regular business operations. Additionally, ASP.NET application pages and documented .NET objects and APIs enable the simple customization of nearly every feature in StoreFront. For an even greater level of extensibility, StoreFront 6.0 XE version provides developers with a complete library of StoreFront 6.0 .NET source code.

Sophisticated Design Tools

StoreFront 6.0 includes a simple design template for the easy creation and ongoing maintenance of professional sites, with a consistent appearance from home page to checkout. A key new feature is the advanced product import tool, which saves time by fully automating the process of adding products to a store, or updating product elements such as price or description.

Scalability to Address Many Needs

StoreFront 6.0 is designed to maximize scalability, making it easy for developers to accommodate the needs of all types of customers. StoreFront sites can be set up to support sales in any language, currency, and country. The powerful StoreFront engine seamlessly supports Web stores of any size, with inventories of a few dozen to more than 200,000 products (although there are no hardcore limits). And developers can easily design StoreFront sites for both B2B and B2C customers, with features for multi-layer security, multi-tiered pricing and tax structures, customer-specific and volume pricing, affiliate/partner management, and more.

Simple Customer Management

With StoreFront 6.0, developers can deliver high-end Web stores that their customers can then easily manage and maintain on their own, regardless of technical savvy. The software includes a simple management interface for merchants to control every aspect of their operations directly online. The new version includes expanded functionality for merchants to better manage and market their e-commerce sites, such as extensive reporting capabilities, inventory tracking, and opportunities for cross-promotion and upselling. A range of advanced customer relationship management (CRM) features is also available to further enhance the user experience with personalization, wish lists, online shipment tracking, live help, and more.

Pricing and Availability

StoreFront 6.0 is shipping today. Specifically designed for the developer community, StoreFront AE is priced at $979 and offers the full range of advanced functionality and APIs. StoreFront XE is priced at $1379, and includes a library of StoreFront 6.0 .NET source code. An entry level version, StoreFront 6.0 SE, is available at $379. For more information, contact LaGarde at 800-943-5823 or visit www.storefront.net.