Microsoft Watch - Business Applications - Convergence=Integration

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:08:52 -0000

Comments:

Thanks for the insightful commentary Joe. I see things a bit differently. Maybe my tin foil hat is wearing a bit tight these days, but i see MSOffice XML (MOOXML and the MOOXML binary InfoSet) as a very important aspect of how Microsoft integrates and leverages their desktop office monopoly power into server side and device systems.

It is the combination of MOOXML and .NET that creates the integration mesh between desktop, server systems, and devices. Imagine every application or service participating in either a loosely coupled or carefully crafted information processing chain, being fluent in MOOXML, and able to process internal data structures and processing instructions unique to .NET.

Enterprise systems and services from ORACLE, IBM and SAP will not have this same integration fluency.

The design of ISO MOOXML is such that it would be impossible for <b>non Microsoft server and device systems</b> to match the quality and depth of integration with the 500 million desktops running MSOffice bound business processes.

Given that MOOXML will probably succeed at getting ISO/IEC approval, removing the last "legal" barrier for this MOOXML Stack, were looking at a massive migration of MSOffice bound workgroup - workflow business processes to a new lockin point; The Exchange/SharePoint Hub.

With the real estate industry, this migration to to E/S hosted applications only took six months to completely replace years of desktop productivity shrinkware dominance. The leap in productivity was spectacular.

The downside of this migration is that the real estate industry is now tied into Microsoft at the critically important business process level. A binding that will perhaps last through the next fifteen years. Try to take this away from the average Realtor though, and they will bite your hand off.

The productivity payoff of this migration is so dramatic that on one Friday afternoon, going into a weekend of showing homes and submitting offers - the stuff that will make or break every Realtor - Microsoft issued a summary end of life for all Win2K desktops. And pulled it off without a hitch.

What MS did was to issue a security patch for all Exchange systems. The patched systems then required IE 7.0. There is no IE 7.0 for Win2K desktops - notebooks. End of Life. And not one complaint. The entire real estate industry simply ran out to purchase new XP MSOffice 2003 systems able to run IE 7.0. The lesson i took away from this is that the productive value of these E/S Hub applications is such that writing a check to continue business was seen as a requirement equivalent to having a license to practice or a car to drive around in. It's a basic business expense. They were happy to write these checks.

I believe that the MOOXML Stack is designed to lock out competitors at a level they've never thought possible. And i think it will work given that there is no such thing as an alternative ODF Stack.

In 2004, washed away by the DOJ anti trust settlement, Scott McNeely announced the terms of Sun's surrender to Microsoft. He pointed out that Sun had find a way to work with Microsoft because the Sun's customers were demanding better integration of server side systems with the Microsoft desktop.

Sun sales people had tried to convince server side customers that they could achieve the needed level of desktop integration by replacing MSOffice with the inexpensive StarOffice or the freely available OpenOffice. When that didn't work, the sales staff stopped trying to bundle StarOffice with their server side systems because it was killing sales.

Now Microsoft has their own server side systems coming down the pike in droves. These systems all offer superior integration with MSOffice productivity environments. They also provide an easy to walk path towards the incredible productivity jump a business process takes by moving from desktop bound workgroups to an XML based integration Hub.

Server side vendors like IBM, Oracle, Zimbra, Alfresco, RedHat - JBoss, SalesForce.com and Google are never going to get that same kind of integration to the MSOffice bound desktop.

When the server side guys competed against each other, currying favor with Redmond was the secret to marketplace advantage. Now that Microsoft has competitive offerings, those favors might not be available. If the purchase decision is going to be based on integration with the MSOffice bound desktop, we're looking at a whole new monopoly realm of desktop to server to device systems.

There's one last hurdle for Redmond. Get MOOXML through ISO/IEC.

~ge~
posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Microsoft significantly increases cross-integration of features with the company's other software.

Microsoft acquired most of the products making up its Dynamics product line, and what a motley crew. New products and versions bring the Dynamics line more into the Microsoft family, in part by convergence—or increased integration with the company's other software.

Tags: chains exchange hubs microsoft odf office ooxml opendocument openxml sharepoint xml

Posted by: garyedwards

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Microsoft Watch - Business Applications - Convergence=Integration