Microsoft Debuts XDocs For Office

Microsoft

The XDocs software, which will be officially introduced at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2002, will ship in mid-2003, according to a statement released by the company.

XDocs will support any customer-defined XML (extensible markup language) schema and integrates with XML Web services.

XDocs may address concerns raised about potential interoperability problems among documents created using different XML schemas. It will also enable desktop Office users to access more XML-tagged data spread throughout a corporate enterprise as well as bring XML web services more seamlessly to the desktop.

For example, support for XML in XDocs will allow customers to integrate information directly into their line-of-business processes including CRM, ERP and supply chain management to workgroup processes such as project status and team reports

"The vision for XDocs is to deliver on the needs of our customers by connecting XML Web services to information workers at their desktops," Ballmer said in a statement. "XDocs provides new ways to gather and reuse company data, enabling better information flow, more informed decisions and greater integration of people with business processes throughout an organization."

XDocs is designed for users of Microsoft's Office, which owns more than 90 percent share of the PC desktop. Microsoft plans to deliver Office 11, the next upgrade of Office, in mid-2003 or late 2004, to coincide with the Blackcomb release of Windows. Office 12, due sometime between mid-2004 and 2005, is geared for the Longhorn wave of products including Longhorn Windows.