Building Blocks For Office Dominance

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With Windows and Office, Microsoft Corp. already has a virtual monopoly on corporate desktop PC operating systems and end-user application suites—but it is aiming even deeper. Beneath the ubiquitous Microsoft Office interface is an extensive set of APIs and development tools that can be used to turn Office into a foundation for custom application development.

Building atop Office offers two key advantages: ISVs can potentially trim development costs by exploiting existing functionality, and end users like the user-interface familiarity and easy integration Office-based applications offer. That combination can be a profitable one for solution providers.

Legal software developer Client Profiles, Atlanta, decided three years ago to rebuild its case and contact management applications atop Office, tearing out its existing, back-end infrastructure in favor of Microsoft's. Custom applications allow developers to more closely tailor their software to precisely meet client needs, but in the end, Client Profiles' customers consistently preferred the simplicity of the Office interface, according to CEO Whit McIsaac.

"Our original application would take transactions out of our law-firm calendaring system and push them into Outlook. It was a constant struggle to enhance our application, keep up with Outlook, and keep the integration going between the two," McIsaac said. "What we ended up doing was turning off our calendar and launching Outlook directly from within our application. The tools available now are way different than what we had early on. We argued it—why does a law firm want to use Outlook as a document system even though it couldn't do all this stuff? We argued it, but they wanted to use the familiar interface."

The switch has paid off for Client Profiles: Revenue in 2007 was around $12 million, McIsaac said, twice what the company generated in annual sales three years ago. He credits the new infrastructure as a major contributor to the spike in business.

"The way we're doing the integration with Office these days fits in better in larger practices," he said. "The number of deals and the size of the deals is going up."

Microsoft hopes more ISVs will heed the Office siren song. In February, it will host the Microsoft Office System Developer conference in San Jose, Calif., with Bill Gates keynoting. This year marks the first time the annual gathering has been open to the general public; Microsoft expects at least 2,000 to attend. The conference climaxes a steady rise in marketing moves and technology releases intended to coax more ISVs into the "Office business applications," or OBAs, market, as Microsoft calls software built atop its Office infrastructure.

In July, Microsoft launched OBACentral.com, a tools portal and product showcase for OBAs. And in November, it released Visual Studio 2008, the first version of Microsoft's flagship IDE to include its Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) technologies, previously sold separately.

Microsoft Product Manager Jay Roxe recalls the enthusiasm that announcement elicited when he disclosed at a developers' conference that VSTO would be built into Visual Studio 2008: "It's one of the few times at a presentation I've had spontaneous applause," he said with a grin.

VSTO has also been substantially updated. The new release marks the introduction of visual design tools for Outlook development, bringing it to parity with Word and Excel.

Next: More People Building Office Applications

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