The Office 2003 Salvo

After more than 20 years of watching Microsoft deliver new products to market, this normally wouldn't elicit much comment from me. But for Microsoft and the solution providers that count on these releases, Microsoft Office 2003 is a make-or-break product.

Microsoft has failed to deliver compelling upgrades or new products for nearly three years. As a result, end users see no reason to upgrade because what they currently have works just fine, regardless of the latest processing horsepower from Intel.

To compensate, Microsoft has resorted to unpopular licensing schemes to drive demand.

While most customers will bow to what they believe are draconian measures, they also have started thinking about their options. For many, that means moving to Linux on the server to offset increased costs on the desktop and to avoid hidden costs associated with Windows Server 2003 upgrades. Others are renewing interest in thin-client solutions from Citrix and Tarantella.

There was a time when such licensing schemes would have been unnecessary because Microsoft was perceived to be the champion of increased productivity derived from IT innovation. As a company, Microsoft has lost touch with that mission.

But there is hope. As part of Microsoft Office 2003, the company has come up with an offering called Microsoft InfoPath. It leverages Web services to make Microsoft Office a universal front end for any number of enterprise applications. Users can more easily create composite applications in InfoPath that pull data from a supply chain as well as CRM applications that can be viewed alongside their latest spreadsheet data, accelerating business processes across any number of industries and resulting in significantly improved productivity.

Alas, Microsoft is having a hard time getting people to listen, and even fewer to actually understand the concept. Until Microsoft solves that problem, economic recovery of the IT industry will be an excruciatingly slow process rather than an exciting event.

Are you listening? Do you agree? I can be reached at (516) 562-7477 or via e-mail at [email protected].