“How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose.”
                                                                                                - Bill Gates  

In a few months, Microsoft will unveil the next generation of its desktop product suite, Microsoft Office. For those who have not seen or heard much about this version, it marks a significant milestone in the evolution of this productivity toolkit. The message from Microsoft (which you will hear in the coming weeks) and what rings true when using this version is that this is not an incremental upgrade. As you look at the individual products (Word, Excel, etc.) and at the entire “system”, you recognize that it is less about the new features and more about the vision that ties them all. At a recent Microsoft Partners meeting, Office System 2003 was introduced as the means to “deliver the right information to the right person using the right medium”. This article will explain the framework around Office System and why we think Microsoft will deliver on its goal.

For those familiar with previous versions of Microsoft Office, the first noted change is the re-branding. Microsoft Office System will contain programs, servers and services. This will include improvements to the existing Office products, the introduction of new Office products (InfoPath and OneNote) and the inclusion of several server-based products. In some ways, Microsoft is positioning Office System as a development platform. The goal is to use a collection of the individual components (which, by the way, interact very well) to build solutions. The notion is that users should focus less on the individual features of a single product and more on how the products can be tied together to solve critical business problems.

How do you build solutions with Microsoft Office System? If you push upon Microsoft’s statement about the “right information to the right person”, you focus on the challenge of getting data from its source to the end user and then extending the results through collaboration. As an example, a financial analyst is most likely an expert in Excel but not a database administrator. Corporate financial data exists in a SQL Server database. The goal is to get the data to Excel in a timely and consistent fashion to facilitate the use of base functionality (pivot tables, charts, etc.). You can do this with the XML and Web Services capabilities within Office System. Maybe you argue that you can do this today. So, let’s push some more. What if our financial analyst creates an Excel-based report and emails it the CEO? If they are using Outlook 2003, the synchronization between the original file and the attachment is maintained. The CEO calls and asks for changes; the changes are made; the financial analyst tells the CEO to look at the attachment (the same attachment in the original email!) to confirm the updates. Given the sensitivity of the data, what if we use Information Rights Management to not allow the attachment to be forwarded or printed? Maybe it expires in two days. What if another, less sensitive report is published to SharePoint Portal Server and made available to all employees? This is the context upon which Office System solutions are built.  

As Microsoft launches Office System (tentatively scheduled for late summer or early fall), you will hear more about the features within the individual products. You will see the added robustness of Word and PowerPoint through the ability to customize the task bar. You will be introduced to forms management through InfoPath. You will understand how SharePoint Portal Server sits at the core and facilitates the exchange of data and the collaboration around it. As this information begins to sink in, you recognize that Microsoft Office System is indeed about connecting components to solve business problems. It is ultimately all about getting the right data to the right person using the right medium.