Data-enabling Webs with Microsoft FrontPage version 2002 Means Business

White Paper

Published: January 2002

For the latest information, please see http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/

Overview

There are a number of excellent business reasons to develop data-enabled Web sites. This article gives an overview of these reasons as well as why and how Microsoft® FrontPage® version 2002 makes gathering relevant data from your customers quick and easy- all without needing to know any database programming. You will be genuinely surprised by the ability to create complete database solutions, insert, update, and delete records without writing a single line of code using FrontPage version 2002.

This article assumes that the reader is interested in conducting or expanding their business on the Internet, has Beginner to Intermediate skills using FrontPage in a Microsoft Windows®-based PC environment, and understands how to author a basic Web site.

Why Database-enabled Web Sites Make Good Business Sense

Besides providing your business with a presence on the Internet, Web sites that are database-enabled offer a wide variety of opportunities in terms of communication within your organization, customer services, improved sales tools, and even direct sales. For example, you can: publish an interactive address book for employees on your corporate Intranet, let your potential customers populate your sales contacts database when they visit your Web site on the Internet, make current inventory information available online or create the first part of an e-commerce Web site that takes orders direct from your customers. With FrontPage 2002, you can set up an entire Web-based database management solution to improve your customer experience without ever having to purchase a single database product thus improving your online ROI.

Dynamic Content

There are many reasons to move your Internet business presence from a static Web to that of a dynamic, interactive one. Some of the possibilities data-enabling your Web site with FrontPage 2002 to open up a whole new world of business opportunities are listed below:

Collect customer contact information as well as feedback on goods and services.

Conduct online surveys to better understand your customers.

Offer online subscription to your company publications like email newsletters.

Provide complete product information or catalogs online.

Offer products and services for direct sale online.

Move old inventory or discount items via online auctions.

Collect entries for your online promotions such as give-aways.

Allow attendees to register online for events or workshops.

Enable suppliers or partners to maintain their information on your Extranet.

Improve your company-wide communication and workflow by creating SharePoint™ Team Services-based Webs on your Intranet.

What FrontPage 2002 Can Do for You

With FrontPage version 2002 and SharePoint Team Services (a technology included in FrontPage 2002), you have powerful database functionality to deliver on the online business opportunities listed above as well as many more all without having to know programming.

Instant Database-enabled Web Sites

You may already have a business FrontPage-based Web site that makes your company look good and gives your customers great service. You have lots of visitors to this site because it gives them all sorts of useful information. Because it's becoming more and more critical to get information and data about your customers, it's time to get some information in return. With FrontPage 2002, it's easy to set up a form and database that collects the information you want from your customers.

Let's take a look at a specific case: collecting email addresses from your customers so you can send a newsletter updating them on your promotional sales events.

The process of collecting your customers' addresses and entering them all in a database can be very involved and time consuming unless you use FrontPage 2002. Older versions of FrontPage had powerful database tools, but now, it's even easier to use. You can take advantage of this functionality to gather customer information by using the new Database Interface Wizard. This wizard walks you through the entire process and does the work for you! There are just two simple steps:

First, you create a submission form for the customers to enter in their information.
Then you create the database where the information will be stored.

But, you don't have to know any database programming to do all this. It's all handled by the wizard. The wizard automatically links the form and database together.

Once customers have entered information, you can even go to a results page that FrontPage creates for you, see and edit the contents of the database displayed in your Web browser.

You can do this either with a new Web site or add a form and database to an existing site. In only a matter of minutes, you can create a database, some forms, and connect it all together. Now, you can collect the information you need from customers to send out your company newsletter, which you can also create in FrontPage or Microsoft Publisher.

Summary

Using FrontPage 2002 to develop your database-enabled Web site means business and it's quick, easy and very cost effective.

More Information

The following list of resources will lead you to more information:
http://www.microsoftfrontpage.com/content/TipsAndTricks/FP2002/db_interface.htm
http://www.microsoftfrontpage.com/usingfp/newsletters/bonus/index.html
http://www.microsoftfrontpage.com/usingfp/index.html
http://www.microsoft.com/Frontpage/

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