Rumor: Microsoft about to unveil web-apps strategy
roughtype.com
roughtype.com
What is required in the web space is elegance and simplicity in your userinterface and workflow. The reason for this being that if a potential customer doesn't "get it" within 5 seconds he will move on to the next offering. Microsoft is not used to this scenario. Of course MS has some muscle to move around, but it won't get them the users they crave. They have tried moving on to the web before, and never had the success a company their size aims for. Remember passport?
Their problem is very fundamental, making it hard for them to bridge the gap. They value lock-in and pushing other services from themselves or their partners. This muddles the proposition of their products, and makes it very hard to create a good webbased product.
True. I would say they just don't have the taste. I guess you just cannot create design marvels without taste. I'm still at a loss to figure out why Ray Ozzie couldn't add any magic to the recipe. I also think he's in agreement with MSFT-Yahoo acquisition. If so, then this is beyond my comprehension and they (MSFT) should admit that this is a problem they cannot solve. Even worst, they have lost focus on delivering quality desktop software (but thanks goodness there are investors like YCombinator and companies like Xobni :-). Vista is also miserable failure and a thorough rip-off. Remember Apple SE VP's comments?
I started noticing how deep the problem runs after Ray Ozzie joined the company. He has done great work, knows a great deal about usability, hacking, etc. And he has taste. Yet he has completely failed to change anything, despite the fact that he is as high on the corporate ladder as you can get, and has a lot of clout within the company.
What that shows is that the corporate culture simply doesn't support what he has to offer, and that it is not willing to change in order to accomodate a new reality.
Same thing happened to IBM in the 90's.
SSRS (sql services reporting services) was implemented as a webservice. Clients include BIDS (visual studio), and reportmanager, WMI and well maybe more
Now, what MS can do, is host my SSRS service, and I can still connect to it to deploy my reports and admin them from report manager
Why i gain is, I dont need a server to host it, upgrading to ssrs 2005 would have been as simple as a request and if they host my reporting webservice they might as well host my sql servers too.
So as you see MS is very very smart, and they will eventually host my databases and applications
Eventually my firm wont have to invest in server hardware at all and largelly reduce it IT workforce, next thing you know, I will move to MS and become an account manager, for the same company i used to work for
I would say its google who doesn't seem to get it, google docs, come oooon, an ECM (enterprise content management) is more like it , do they have this already!
But the problem is just that this is not a very interesting market for Microsoft. The services are pretty generic with (relatively) low barriers to entry, and a resulting low profit margin. Basically that is not where the money is.
same goes for sql server 2005, very complex beast
okay so maybe you mean, the hosting service, not the ssrs as a serice as i first thought,
well, its only a licensing thing, MS will charge other who host ssrs webservices or sql services more then it charge the user clients, it will make money from both, those who use the service and those who provide it
and the thing about good or bad market, isnt really an issue, i think this model is an improvement, which mean companies will go for it anyway, its really a matter of time, and yes it may mean and should mean less money for MS, but i think less money is better than no money at all
and well, one topic lead to another, capitalism and growth etc ... growth is a complex issue, the problem with increasing a company revenue period after period, is that it focus on revenue and profit growth, while growth in economics is more about welfare, with doesnt directly translate to more money, so in a way, in the future we will be richer/grower but have less cash!
And MS will increase welfare, but reduce its revenues!
In the US go apply for an job, an actual job, in a small office and they'll ask you three things: can you type? in Word? when can you start?
They've printed hundreds of books to teach you how to use Office. The main interface of office has stayed relatively the same from 1994, 1998, 2000, 2004, XP and it is by far the standard in small to medium businesses and enterprise. This isn't about style, it's about utility and functionality that people recognize.
And this SaaS strategy is even more fundamentally important because they can now finally achieve their BackOffice dreams started in the 90's. Complete service backend (SQL, Exchange, systems management, ISA, IIS) to power Excel, Acess, and Outlook and charge you globs of money each month for it.
I wonder what they'll think of next?
I'd rather a company tell me what it has done, what products exist. A strategy is just "hey, everyone else is doing something cool, let's tell the world that we are too so we can reserve our piece of the pie".
Especially coming from Microsoft, who made part of its business by telling the public all the great things it was going to do without actually having a product...
Hmmm ... I wonder when will google start offering ERP modules, actually I wonder why are they so late!
All in all, i believe this is a good thing, it should kill most IT departments or largly downsize them, and MIS ppl might be the first to resist this, but, well, its coming .. and few can stop it
The next Microsoft will probably be one. So the question is whether the next Microsoft is Microsoft or someone else.