eWeek runs a story about the role of Microsoft and other ‘Big Software’ in Enterprise 2.0 / Office 2.0
… Microsoft and other big vendors may help Office 2.0 applications win IT favor in enterprises.
In many circles Microsoft might not be considered hip enough or at least too mature now to pull off Enterprise 2.0 or Office 2.0.
But eventually having Microsoft and other big technology vendors in the game may give technologies like social networking the legitimacy they need to take hold in the enterprise, according to analysts.
Joshua Greenbaum, principal analyst for Enterprise Applications Consulting, pointed out that the movement of Enterprise 2.0 technologies—blogs, wikis, social networks—taking off in the enterprise sanctioned by IT may just come about when the big guys get in the game. ….
… Microsoft is also offering two on demand initiatives that are relevant to the Enterprise 2.0 movement. The first is Office Live which delivers SharePoint Server over the Web as a hosted service to small businesses.
The second initiative aimed at enterprises is Microsoft Managed Services that hosts e-mail, SharePoint Portal Services and soon, most likely, voice, according to Helm. "Right now it is working with a small group of clients [for voice]," said Helm. "Long term, Microsoft could set itself up to be a major outsourcer." …
The article shows that Microsoft is taking Office 2.0 seriously and does have the breadth to develop in various area’s. In software as well as services …
… Despite Microsoft’s moves toward adding the basic Enterprise 2.0 concepts to SharePoint there are some areas where the company is lacking in functionality, according to Forrester analyst Rob Koplowitz. "Microsoft has built a fair amount of Enterprise 2.0 capabilities, mostly into SharePoint," he said. "They’re getting all the check boxes checked, and moving in the right direction [but] their blogs and wikis are not really advanced when compared to best of breed offerings from some of the pure play vendors." …
… There are some things about Microsoft that make their value proposition interesting," said Koplowitz. "Each of these things generates content, so whether it’s in a profile, a blog or a wiki, it’s content and increasingly [companies] want that content under greater levels of control and better management. That’s one of the core concepts of SharePoint. The fact that [IT] can manage these in SharePoint is going to be a key link to companies moving down the SharePoint path," Koplowitz said. ….
Source: Big Software May Give Office 2.0 Apps Needed Legitimacy
Author: matthew_rothenberg@ziffdavis.com?subject=messaging_RSS
Date originally published: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:24:27 GMT
Peter, nice story but you forgot to mention that the article also mentions that “Microsoft has some stiff competition on the horizon with both application and infrastructure vendors. IBM has the most complete offering with Lotus, though BEA Systems, Oracle and SAP are intriguing in their own ways, according to Koplowitz. Each company provides an application server that can help embed social networking at the infrastructure level”.
It’s going to be an interesting next few years, as different vendors develop their Web 2.0 and the Social Networking strategies, however, it appears that Microsoft is several years behind some other major competitors.
Blogs, wikis and the rudimentary content management capabilities of Sharepoint are far from state of the art in this fast paced sector of the market. But at least Microsoft has made a start.
Ian,
Sure I’ve been selective in my quote and took out some of the Microsoft related elements.
I far from agree with your ‘ assessment’ on the fact that “it appears that Microsoft is several years behind some other major competitors”. Where do ou base this assumption on ? I think Unified Communications is a very good example of what Microsoft can achieve in relative short timeframes comapred to IBM in this same space …
You can bet Microsoft “has made a start”. I for one look forward to the coming 5 years …
Peter, I didn’t mean to imply that Microsoft was behind in every aspect of your product line, but only in the specific area of Web 2.0 and social networking.
Peter, it’s not only me that feels that Microsoft is behind other major competitors in the area of Web 2.0 and Social networking, the press seems to share that same perception, hence the numerous articles from the New York Times, Financial Times, Boston Globe, CRN, CNET, The Register, ZDNet, Business Week & InfoWorld that report that some of your competitors are leading in this area.
There is no need to get defensive about it, that is the market perception.
Ian,
My apologies if I came on too strong.
The thing is that phrases like “it appears that Microsoft is several years behind some other major competitors” is really taking things out of perspective.
Sure Microsoft is not on par with best of breed Wiki, Blog or social tagging vendors. However, nor are the other platform vendors or at least thay are not years ahead.
Mike Gotta gave some good feedback on Microsoft’s position related to another post I did last week :http://www.peterdehaas.net/2007/09/collaborage-sha.html
I agree with most of his assessment.
Furthermore my take on Microsoft’s position is that they did set the right priorities. The current release of the 2007 Office System addresses solutions such as :
– Business Intelligence
– Enterprise Content management
– Collaboration with some solcial networking aspects
– Unified Communications
I hope you’d agree with me that these solutions are currently much more in demand and becoming mainstream than Social Networking and other Web 2.0 solutions.
I do think that Microsoft should have pushed harder on Knowledge Network as an add-on for SharePoint, but you can bet on it that these developement have ot gone to waste and will surface in some form or shape in wave 14 (the next release of Office System) …