Microsoft Corp. unveiled pricing and packaging details for its forthcoming release of BizTalk Server 2004. BizTalk Server 2004 will deliver enhanced business process orchestration functionality, new business activity monitoring (BAM) and human-based workflow capabilities, and a new scalable rules engine. In addition, the new BizTalk Server 2004 license will include copies of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003. BizTalk Server 2004 will enable Standard Edition and Partner Edition customers to connect to more applications and trading partners than in previous versions of the product and will be localized in nine languages, five more than in BizTalk Server 2002. Current BizTalk Server customers with Software Assurance will receive a license for BizTalk Server 2004. BizTalk Server 2004 will be offered in four editions: Enterprise, Standard, Partner and Developer. The pricing for these editions is on par with the 2002 version, with ERP Open B pricing starting at $25,000 CPU for the Enterprise Edition, $7,000 CPU for the Standard Edition, $1,000 CPU for the Partner Edition and $750 per user for the Developer Edition, which can be used for development and testing purposes only. The availability of BizTalk Server 2004 has not yet been announced. www.microsoft.com