Microsoft Packs Plenty In New Suite

Microsoft is definitely thinking macro here--no pun intended. With a liberal dose of XML technology spread throughout Office System 2003, the company says it aims to break down the traditional wall that separates fat-client applications and documents from the rest of the IT infrastructure. This means unlocking all those Word files, spreadsheets and Office-created forms that for years have lived on hard-drive islands, virtually unsearchable and unusable by anyone but their originators. This also opens up an opportunity for partners to offer solutions beyond the initial sale.

"This is about solving the problems and challenges that businesses have today in increasing efficiency and data collaboration. And that requires more than a new feature in Word," says Dan Leach, lead product manager for Office System 2003 at Microsoft. "That's the key nugget: This is a larger collection of servers, solutions and Web services to solve productivity problems."

Office System 2003 is a massive offering. All told, the package consists of the Office 2003 productivity suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook), SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003, Live Communications Server 2003, Live Meeting 2003, Visio 2003, Publisher 2003 and Project Server 2003. There are also two brand-new applications, InfoPath 2003, which uses forms to capture data as XML and move it through a business process, and OneNote 2003, a note-taking program that synchs back to the desktop. Each component sports new features of its own. For example, notable new features in the core Office 2003 suite--comprised of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook--include information-rights management to protect privacy and control access to documents and e-mail, a new user interface for Outlook and an improved reading layout mode in Word. But the real value is derived not from one-off enhancements but the collective impact of the applications, Microsoft says. Exploited correctly, the suite should drive a "seamless management" of information and documents across systems, officials contend.

For partners--particularly integrators, ISVs and software-oriented solution providers--Office System 2003 provides a development foundation they can leverage to do such things as define XML schema for a customer's business data and then tailor a software solution around those definitions, officials say.

Solutions are where John Harris sees opportunity. As vice president of Network Support for Small Business in Renton, Wash., Harris has been testing out Office System 2003 and plans to develop some third-party solutions to take to customers. Harris says Microsoft has succeeded in making it easier to develop a solution in which desktop data can commingle with back-end systems and third-party applications.

"Now you can make other applications tie into and be part of Office," he says. "Before... you had to be a genius or work for a huge company to make it work. With the XML support and hooks so consistent, any good software person can make these connections happen."

Among the possibilities, savvy VARs can craft solutions that funnel a customer's Excel spreadsheet data automatically into the company's back-end accounting package, rather than having to rekey the information. Another example would be setting up a forms-based solution using InfoPath that collects and aggregates sales information from myriad clients, transforms it into XML and publishes it onto a SharePoint Portal Server. InfoPath also lets you map out how data will flow across systems in the course of executing a particular business process.

As Microsoft's Leach puts it, "You can use the different tools for different jobs you are trying to accomplish, but they all can handle, transport and use XML Schema to unlock data and systems."

To better understand how the pieces of Office System 2003 fit together, think of the amalgam in terms of tiers. Word and Excel, for example, sit on top; SharePoint and Exchange servers occupy the middle--much like an application server--and a variety of services and collaboration tools operate below that, using XML to tie into databases, enterprise applications and back-end servers. This system enables zillions of static desktop documents and spreadsheets to become part of an IT-wide transaction or workflow.

"We are finally getting to the point where one hand is talking to the other rather than having scads of documents that can't be related to back-end processes," says Dana Gardner, industry analyst at The Yankee Group, Boston.

Microsoft hopes the suite's collaborative potential will spur upgrades among legions of Office users. Each of the Office System 2003 applications will still be available separately, though the objective is clearly to sell it as a package. Microsoft is keeping much of the pricing stable from Office XP to the new version as another incentive to upgrade, officials say.

Estimated retail pricing for Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 is $399; Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 is $499. Prices for standalone programs are also unchanged. The ERP for InfoPath 2003 is $199, while OneNote 2003 lists for $199.

Solutions For Office System 2003
Ways VARs can add value include:

• Building customized software that takes advantage of XML and Web services within Office System 2003. For example, VARs can use InfoPath to create a standard form that pulls data from back-end applications, such as shipping times or order-inventory levels. The information can then be presented to customers and partners via a SharePoint portal interface.
• Defining XML Schema for customers' internal data definitions as preparation for the rollout of Office System 2003.
• Developing connections between Office applications and enterprise apps, such as SAP or Siebel, to funnel financial and customer data automatically from front office to back office. This also offers an opportunity to sell middleware, such as Microsoft's BizTalk Server, to enable application-integration-level transactions.
• Training customers on new facets of Office System 2003.