Martin LaMonica, Staff Writer,
Published: September 15, 2005
LOS
ANGELES--Microsoft plans to muscle into two markets next year, work flow and
enterprise content management, using its time-tested techniques of exploiting
its desktop dominance and appealing to developers.
On Wednesday, at its
Professional Developers Conference here, the software giant announced two
initiatives meant to grab more dollars spent on content management and work flow
applications.
The company
announced Windows Workflow Foundation, software plumbing that tracks the
different steps in a wide range of work flow processes, such as handling the
flow of one Web page to the next or passing electronic forms between two
systems.
The software, which
will be built into Windows Vista when the new operating system ships in the
second half of next year, will be used extensively in Office 12 as well as in
future versions of BizTalk and the company's Dynamics packaged applications,
according to Microsoft executives.
Though company
executives are cagey on packaging and pricing details, Microsoft also intends to
provide enterprise content management capabilities with BizTalk, which will be
available in the second half of next year as well.
Both initiatives
have the potential to shake up the competitive landscape in markets where there
are several specialized vendors.
"It's the classic
Microsoft approach, where they come in 10 years after the fact in work flow and
enterprise content management and they commoditize it," said John Rymer, an
analyst at Forrester Research. "They don't invent things--they popularize them."
Windows Workflow
Foundation is a Windows programming model and base work flow "engine," which
Microsoft is encouraging third-party vendors to use in their own products.
Microsoft executives said existing work flow providers can set themselves apart
from the software giant by offering things such as industry-specific versions
and end-user oriented tools.
Larger
infrastructure software providers IBM, Oracle, BEA Systems and Sun Microsystems
are also investing in work flow related software.
Similarly in
enterprise content management, Microsoft will compete against specialized
vendors, such as Documentum and FileNet, and larger software providers Oracle
and IBM.
Steven Sinovsky,
senior vice president in charge of Microsoft Office, said Office 12 will
introduce enterprise content management software that will build on the
company's existing Content Management Server product.
"The direction we
are definitely taking is to really have a very significant upgrade of what you
think of today as Content Management Server, the product--but re-architected to
run on top of SharePoint" portal software, he said, declining to discuss
packaging details.
Content management
is one of a number of server-delivered capabilities Microsoft intends to offer
in Office 12. Specifically, company executives said that server products will
also deliver search, collaboration, business process work flow and business
intelligence through ties to Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 database.
Combined with a new
user interface in Office 12, Microsoft appears to be readying a compelling set
of features with Office 12, which will make customers seriously evaluate an
upgrade, said Greg DeMichillie, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft.
"From a feature content perspective, it's very
impressive, and, as always, Microsoft will start to go for breadth and get a set
of features that will get them the broad middle market," DiMichillie said. "They
could always shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to packaging and
pricing, so we'll have to see."
2005-09-16 09:49