Microsoft Accelerators To Bolster Office 2003 Functionality

The new Office Solution Accelerator program kicks off with seven targeted offerings the company plans to roll out over the next year, with more to come, said Anders Brown, group product manager for Microsoft's Information Worker New Markets group.

There will be an accelerator for recruiting, one for proposals, one for extensible business reporting language (XBRL), one for Sarbanes-Oxley and for Six Sigma, Microsoft said.

All of the offerings, which will include templates and documentation, will sit atop various Office applications relevant to the task at hand. When combined with partner expertise in customization and configuration, they will boost functionality and offer an integrated solution, he said. An Accelerator for Excel Reporting, for example, builds on Excel's own analysis tools. Many will take advantage of Windows SharePoint Team Services.

The Six Sigma tool is version 2 of a free-download accelerator available since last spring. Six Sigma is a methodology pioneered by Motorola and espoused by General Electric and other companies to promote zero-defect design and manufacturing.

Packaging has not been set, but the accelerators will not be available through retail distribution, said Dan Leach, lead product manager for Microsoft's Information Worker Product Management Group.

All of the accelerators were are home-grown by Microsoft with consultation with partners. That is yet another example of Microsoft's determination to entrench its entire software stack, from the infrastructure plumbing of Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server up to the application layer and above, industry observers said.

Years ago, Microsoft tried to position Office as a platform for third-party development--an effort that faltered. Microsoft Business Solutions, a maker of CRM and ERP applications, is now courting ISVs in a similar vein.

Two weeks ago, Microsoft started volume duplication of Office 2003 and its main component applications, as well as OneNote. Volume cusomers wanting English, French, Italian and Spanish versions of the software could start downloading them as of Sept. 15.

Since that time, the company also started duping the new versions of Visio, FrontPage, InfoPath, Publisher and Project Server. The retail launch for all the Office piece-parts will be Oct. 21.