It's the business processes that are bound to MSOffice - Windows' dominance stifles dem... - 0 views
-
15 years of workgroup oriented business process automation based on the MSOffice productivity environment has had an impact. Microsoft pretty much owns the "client" in "client/server" because so many of these day-to-day business processes are bound to the MSOffice productivity environment in some way.
-
The good news is that there is a great transition underway. The world is slowly but inexorably moving from "client/server" systems to an emerging architecture one might describe as "client/ WebStack-Cloud-Ria /server. The reason for the great transition is simple; the productivity advantages of putting the Web in the center of information systems and workflows are extraordinary.
-
Now the bad news. Microsoft fully understands this and has spent years preparing for a very controlled transition. They are ready. The pieces are finally falling into place for a controlled transition connecting legacy MSOffice bound business processes to the Microsoft WebStack-Cloud-RiA model (Exchange-SharePoint-SQL Server-Mesh-Silverlight).
- ...2 more annotations...
-
Anyone with a pulse knows that the Web is the future. Yet, look at how much time and effort has been spent on formats, protocols and interfaces that at best would "break" the Web, and at worst, determine to refight the 1995 office desktop wars. In Massachusetts, while the war between ODF and OOXML raged, Exchange and SharePoint servers were showing up everywhere. It was as if the outcome of the desktop office format decision didn't matter to the Web future.
-
And if we don't successfully re-purpose MSOffice to the Open Web? (And for that matter, OpenOffice). The Web will break. The great transition will be directed to the MS WebStack-Cloud-RiA model. Web enhanced business processes will be entangled with proprietary formats, protocols and interfaces. The barriers to this emerging desktop-Web-device platform of business processes and systems will prove even more impenetrable than the 1995 desktop productivity environment. Linux will not penetrate the business desktop arena. And we will all wonder what it was that we were doing as this unfolded before our eyes.