Microsoft Canada Co. and E-xact Transactions Ltd. said they are teaming up to build and market real-time transaction processing services for the e-commerce market.

The agreement will allow the companies to combine E-xact's payment processing technology with Microsoft's (MSFT) e-commerce platform.

Financial arrangements were not disclosed.

Microsoft Canada and E-xact will jointly develop E-xact's next-generation real-time transaction processing services and integrate them with Microsoft's e-commerce platform, including Microsoft Windows 2000, SQL Server and Site Server, Commerce Edition. E-xact's service will be offered as a preferred e-commerce solution to Microsoft Canada customers and other interested companies.

"Our strategic alliance with E-xact will allow us to continue to expand our e-commerce platform, providing unparalleled features and functionality to help businesses combine the efforts of all parts of the organization to concentrate on the e-commerce market," said David Daniels, manager of e-commerce for Microsoft Canada.

E-xact's software can process all leading forms of credit card payments and is certified to process transactions with major banks in North America. In addition to offering downloadable software, E-xact provides its customers the ability to track, analyze and research all of their e-commerce transactions and identify trends and opportunities in their sales and marketing efforts.