An old man is showing a young, new employee "the ropes." As they walk through a room with people filling orders on computers, the elder starts to reminisce. "When I was first hired, we didn't have all these fancy integrated systems," he says. "Our sales program wasn't even linked with accounting. The warehouse platform in Chicago wasn't linked to anything -- not even shipping." Behind them, computer screens show orders being placed, processed and confirmed. Merchandise is boxed for shipment. Computers update inventory levels. "Back then, orders took days; now, they just take hours," the senior employee reflects with a gleam in his eye. "How long have you been working here?" the new hire asks. "A couple of months now," comes the reply. It’s no joke. The scene is part of a US$200 million television and print advertising campaign that Microsoft launches worldwide Monday, Feb. 18, to illustrate the agility and responsiveness that corporations and their customers are already experiencing from the Microsoft .NET platform.

The campaign marks Microsoft's first synchronized global advertising effort to promote the enterprise software that companies and organizations are increasingly using to run their operations worldwide and to create robust, scalable solutions for the connected world. It is also the first major ad campaign in which Microsoft will present the .NET platform to the general public. The campaign comes on the heels of several major milestones that demonstrate rapidly growing acceptance of .NET in the enterprise marketplace. With this campaign, Microsoft .NET is moving from an abstract vision of how the Internet can help businesses to become more connected toward realizing that vision with tangible business value.