Ingram Launches Seismic Hosted Microsoft Services

Distributors such as Ingram Micro are offering ' white labeled'  hosting of Microsoft solutions to their VARs. I wonder if Ingram Micro will also offer this any time soon in Europe ...

... The distributor says it will offer hosted Exchange and SharePoint Server through its Seismic Virtual Services Division, and will add Dynamics CRM 4.0 in May.

Ingram Micro on April 15 announced it will offer three hosted Microsoft Software-as-a-Service solutions targeting resellers and VARs.

The hosted Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and 2007 and Windows SharePoint Server (SPS) 3.0 will be offered through Ingram's Seismic Virtual Services Warehouse and can be white-labeled by VARs to increase their brand recognition and add value for their end-user customers, said Justin Crotty, vice president, Ingram Micro Services Division, North America. Crotty also said that in May, Ingram will offer hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 through Seismic.

Crotty said partners were keen for Ingram to add hosted Exchange, SPS and Dynamics CRM 4.0 as demand increases from their end customers. He said that end users are becoming more and more familiar with the benefits of purchasing IT as a service and preferred to have a VAR or solutions provider maintain that infrastructure rather buying their own software licenses and maintaining an IT staff to manage that infrastructure. 

"Resellers, VARs, solution providers are gaining lots of traction delivering IT as a service, and these hosted services allow them to add even more value into that capability," Crotty said. ...

Source: eWeek Channel Insider

Networkworld: Microsoft SharePoint taking business by storm

Networkworld published an article about the (very) rapid uptake of Microsoft SharePoint Server.

Very cool that the introduction of Microsoft Online Services, which includes Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 hosted by Microsoft, is referred to as the 'perfect storm' ...

... Versatile Microsoft server may not be perfect, but it is attracting interest as tool to address anything from collaboration to process management

Microsoft's SharePoint Server is on a billion dollar juggernaut to potentially become the next must-have technology, offering companies tools for building everything from collaborative applications to Internet sites and potentially handing Microsoft its next cash cow.

"I have not seen anything like this since the early days of [Lotus] Notes," says Mike Gotta, an analyst with the Burton Group. In those days, corporate users were enamored with a shiny new technology that seemed to have infinite uses. "The talk [around SharePoint] is getting strategic now and people are talking about it as a middleware decision," Gotta says.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 is the fastest growing product in the company's history and seems to have as many uses as a Swiss Army knife. Its six focus areas are collaboration, portal, search, enterprise content management (ECM), business process management and business intelligence.

Just last month, Microsoft added a hosted alternative to fuel adoption. There is a "perfect storm," observers say, around SharePoint in terms of the popularity of Web-based computing, demand for less-expensive ECM and portal tools, collaboration technology and integration around Microsoft's Office suite.  ...

Read on : NetworkWorld.com

Forrester: Get Ready For Collaboration In The Cloud

The full report is for Forrester subscribers only, however, the small management summary looks promising. My humble and biased opinion is that Forrester overestimates Google's current capability, but I do agree the landscape is changing much faster than it did in the past ...

... While Microsoft's move to acquire Yahoo! attacks Google's extraordinarily profitable search and advertising business, another angle could hold even larger implications for the Redmond giant. Google has moved tentatively into the enterprise software market, potentially threatening Lotus and Microsoft in a big way by continuing to add enterprise capabilities, such as the workspace offering Team Edition. Google's move essentially signals a sea change in how enterprises license and distribute software. Although Yahoo! could help Microsoft get there faster, it's not just a Google /Microsoft race, and all bets are off with IBM/Lotus' Project Blue for cloud-based Social Computing as a clear finalist. There is also a dark horse in this race: Cisco. Each vendor will face considerable challenges as significant portions of on-premise collaboration software disappear into a cloud. From an information and knowledge manager's perspective, putting productivity and collaboration software in a cloud-based model has clear benefits — it's potentially much less expensive, easier to manage a single source of the truth, and is available anywhere, at any time. ...

Source: Forrester Research: All Research - Get Ready For Collaboration In The Cloud

Microsoft Online Services - new portal

The new portal is live. It contains, information on the various offerings and lot's of links to trials, etc. If you are a Microsoft Partner (or want to become one) do check out the Partner section.

Please notice that the Microsoft Online offering for companies with less than 5000 seats is still beta only and focused on the US ... If your company has more than 5000 seats there's nothing that should hold you back wherever you are ...

CRN - Microsoft: SaaS-aanbod is niet per se goedkoper

CRN heeft een korte samenvatting van de recente Microsoft Business Productivity Online gepubliceerd

 

... Microsoft onthulde gisteren vergaande plannen om zijn belangrijkste producten als online-dienst aan te bieden vanuit zijn datacenters. De softwareproducent wil enerzijds serverapplicaties als Exchange en Sharepoint Server aanbieden in SaaS-vorm (software as a services), en anderzijds clientapplicaties als Office. Directeur Chris Capossela van de Microsoft-divisie voor kantoorsoftware benadrukt echter dat SaaS niet per se goedkoper is dan reguliere software-aanschaf. ...

... Capossela zegt wel dat over tien jaar de helft van Microsofts software online staat. Hij meent dat over vijf jaar al de helft van de Exchange-gebruikers de online-uitvoering gebruikt. De leverancier mikt hiermee vooral op middelgrote en kleine bedrijven die zelf een kleine of geen ict-afdeling hebben. ...

... Een van de grote, niet aan twijfel onderhevige, voordelen van SaaS is namelijk dat het beheerkosten scheelt. Dat is immers voor rekening van de aanbieder (hoster). De Coca Cola Company is alvast gezwicht voor SaaS, van Microsoft. Het frisdrankconcern doet de IBM-software die het zelf draait de deur uit ten gunste van het online-aanbod van Microsoft.

Het gaat om communicatie-, kantoor- en samenwerkingssoftware: Exchange, Office en Sharepoint. Tegen eind mei moeten 20.000 van de 75.000 werknemers al over zijn naar de Online Services van de Office-producent. Cio Esat Sezer van Coca Cola zegt dat het zelf draaien en beheer van dergelijke software geen onderscheidend vermogen is voor het bedrijf en dus geen concurrentievoordeel oplevert. Efficiënte online-samenwerking biedt dat wel, aldus de frisdrankenfabrikant. ...

Source: Microsoft: SaaS-aanbod is niet per se goedkoper

Microsoft Matches Google With SaaS for E-Mail/SharePoint

Gartner has produced a first response to yesterday's announcement. "Matches Google" is really an understatement ...

Responding to the threat from Google, and sensing a significant business opportunity, Microsoft has announced substantial plans for an Exchange and SharePoint software-as-a-service model.

On 2 March 2008, Microsoft announced a beta version of a multitenant server software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, to be used initially for e-mail and teamware (SharePoint), but expanding, we believe, to other applications, such as Office, over time. Delivery of the platform is planned for 4Q08. Microsoft already offers a dedicated server SaaS platform for companies with over 5,000 seats. This implementation is for organizations with under 5,000 seats. Pricing has not been announced.

The SaaS model is in its infancy, but holds considerable appeal, particularly for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). This is because it offers fixed monthly fees, freedom from most operational management, elimination of upgrade responsibilities and, in some cases, lower costs. The potential of the SaaS delivery model has had a significant impact on vendor dynamics, driving Cisco to acquire WebEx, Yahoo to buy Zimbra, Google to purchase Postini, Dell to buy MessageOne and SAP to invest heavily in its Business ByDesign platform.

We believe the SaaS model will dramatically change the way businesses provision, operate and consume IT services during the next five years. Microsoft's SaaS investment is both an offensive move to capture operational revenue (in addition to the license fees it now collects), and a defensive measure to combat potential incursions from suppliers such as Google.

The challenges Microsoft faces are considerable. While it runs one of the largest public portal sites in the industry, providing large-scale SaaS services for business requires significant expertise in high availability, security, multitenant architectures, network topologies and problem resolution. Furthermore, Microsoft is retrofitting its existing software to the multitenant server model. It won't be until the next version of Exchange (due in 2011) that its core products are better architected to run in a multitenant SaaS model.

Nonetheless, Microsoft's substantial market share in the e-mail and teamware market, particularly among SMBs, and the growing acceptance of SaaS business models create a significant opportunity for Microsoft. We believe that 20% of enterprise e-mail seats will use a SaaS provisioning model by 2012, compared with 1% in 2007.

Recommendations

• Develop a model for evaluating SaaS offerings in preparation for the expected heavy vendor participation in this area during the next several years.
• Pilot Microsoft's SaaS offering in 2008 if appropriate, but deploy it in production only after maturity is demonstrated, which is likely to take 12 to 18 months.

Source : Gartner.com : microsoft_match...pdf

Microsoft met SharePoint en Exchange verder op het online-pad

Arikel in AG :t

... Microsoft schuift ook Exchange en Sharepoint verder naar voren als online-diensten, zo maakt het bedrijf vandaag in Seattle bekend.

Zeven grote bedrijven zijn overgestapt op een door Microsoft gehoste versie van Exchange en/of Sharepoint. Daaronder bevinden zich Coca-Cola, Autodesk, Blockbuster en Ingersoll-Rand. Microsoft vermeldt er expliciet bij dat Coca-Cola is overgestapt van het concurrerende Lotus Notes.

Beide bedrijven laten overigens geen kans onbenut om ter gelegenheid van hun collaboration-conferenties de 'customer wins' ten koste van de tegenpartij breeduit te etaleren.

Een nieuwe zet is de beschikbaarheid van het drietal Exchange Server, Sharepoint Server en Office Communications Server voor bedrijven  van elke omvang. Tot dusver konden alleen bedrijven met minimaal 5000 medewerkers de online-optie uitproberen. In de nieuwe opzet hoeft er niet per se sprake te zijn van afzonderlijke virtuele servers in het datacentrum van Microsoft. De softwareleverancier zegt vooral te mikken op bedrijven met tussen de 200 en 500 medewerkers, die over weinig IT-ondersteuning beschikken. ...

Source: Microsoft met SharePoint en Exchange verder op het online-pad

Google gaat met Sites op de Sharepoint-toer

Dat Google zich meer en meer begeeft op andere terreinen dan search is bekend; ook deze stap is geen verrassing. Google had JotSpot namelijk niet voor niets gekocht ...

Google is echter nog steeds voornamelijk bekend als searchengine met zelfs een eigen werkwoord "google-en". Maar concluderend uit deze en de vale andere artikelen over deze aankondiging stel ik vast : Microsoft en met name SharePoint is synoniem met online samenwerken : "SharePointen" anyone ?

Vanuit Microsoft zijn komende week ook wat aankondigingen te verwachten, dus stay tuned ..

Google heeft deze week Google Sites geïntroduceerd. Het opzetten van een website voor het samenwerken in een team wordt daarmee zo simpel als het aanmaken van een document, belooft het bedrijf.

Source: Google gaat met Sites op de Sharepoint-toer
Automatisering Gids
Date Published: Thu, 28 Feb 2008

HMC 4.0 - Exchange 2007 SP1 White Paper

 

... This white paper introduces the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) new features related to the Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration version 4.0. In particular, it addresses key features in anywhere access, built-in protection, and operation efficiency. ...

Source: HMC 4.0 - Exchange 2007 SP1 White Paper
Date Published: Wed, 30 Jan 2008

One Collaboration Platform to Rule Them All?

Cathing up on some news of earlier this month.

CMSWire published an article quoting some of the findings from a recent report by Osterman Research. Let's go straight to the quotes ...

... SharePoint is a big topic these days. With the release of SharePoint Server 2007, analysts everywhere are trying to get a grasp on its reach into the enterprise and the issues surrounding its implementation.

According to the latest from Osterman Research, SharePoint is becoming the de facto collaboration platform for many organizations today. ...

Strong confirmation on the uptake of SharePoint ...

... The Osterman study sought to determine trends in the use of SharePoint over the next 12 months. Results of the study indicate that in organizations that deployed Microsoft Exchange, more than half are currently using SharePoint and 12 percent plan to deploy it in the next 12 months.

The number of organizations that employ SharePoint for mission-critical applications is less than 20 percent, a figure expected to double over the next year. Meanwhile, the number of SharePoint applications will quadruple. ...

Good detail on the level of application into 'mission-critical' area's and a strong confirmation of the level of trust companies have with regards to SharePoint, as the mission critical application of SharePoint will double over the next year ...

... The study also noted that most deployments are hosted by third-party hosting providers. Organizations for the most part don’t have plans in place for hosting SharePoint applications. ...

This is one I didn't expect to be the case already. The fact that the majority of the surveyed companies uses a hosted SharePoint environment shows also a high level of confidence in the partner ecosystem around the Microsoft platform and in hosted (SaaS) solutions ...

... To many IT managers, implementing SharePoint is a no-brainer. ..

... At the end of the day, SharePoint is still a lot cheaper than many other enterprise CMS systems. Thus it makes sense that organizations want to take advantage of it for content management and collaboration.

However, with great power comes great responsibility.

Organizations looking to implement SharePoint just need to remember this one word: governance. It’s not a big word, but it carries a big stick. ...

Be sure to read the whole article for the full perspective : CMSWire.com

IBM announces Lotus "Bluehouse"

Ed Brill blogged today about a new announcement by IBM on Lotus Bluehouse, a SaaS offering by IBM which focuses on extranet collaboration ...

Many of you have had the opportunity to check out the Lotus Greenhouse over the last year.  In Greenhouse, the latest Lotus technologies are available to evaluate and tinker with, all in an environment hosted by IBM.  

The notion of software-as-a-service has become more dominant in the industry, and today IBM is announcing Lotus "Bluehouse" (codename), to provide extranet collaboration tools.  "Bluehouse" expands on IBM's introduction of Sametime Unyte, a hosted e-meetings service, which is now incorporated into the "Bluehouse" environment.  "Bluehouse" is now in beta at bluehouse.lotus.com and will be available in the second half of 2008.

Source: Lotus "Bluehouse"
Ed Brill
Date Published: Mon, 21 Jan 2008

domains.live.com wordt admincenter.live.com

Als trouwe gebruiker van onze eigen spulen kreeg ik vandaag deze boodschap: domains.live.com wordt admincenter.live.com. De betekenis is generieker geworden; simpelweg omdat de functionaliteit toeneemt ...

Beste Custom Domains-gebruiker,
We willen jou als gewaardeerde Windows Live™ Custom Domains-gebruiker op de hoogte brengen van het nieuws dat de naam van de service is gewijzigd naar Windows Live Admin Center. De naam wordt gewijzigd om beter aan te sluiten bij de functies en mogelijkheden die we bieden, maar geen zorgen: Admin Center is nog steeds je beginpunt voor alle geweldige functies die je gewend bent van Custom Domains.
Daarnaast hebben we nu zelfs nóg een nieuwe functie toegevoegd waarmee je services als Windows Live Hotmail® kunt personaliseren met je eigen logo. Alle gebruikers van jouw domein krijgen dan iedere keer dat ze hun e-mail checken het logo van je groep te zien. Klik links op Co-branding om te beginnen.
De service is nog steeds beschikbaar via domains.live.com, maar uiteindelijk word je doorgeleid naar admincenter.live.com.
We zijn blij dat je voor ons gekozen hebt en blijven je in de toekomst graag van dienst met allerlei nieuwe functies.
Hartelijk dank voor je begrip tijdens de naamswijziging.
Het team van Windows Live Admin Center

LiveSide: Our first look at Office Live Workspaces

I enrolled today for Windows Live Workspaces. LiveSide's Kip Kniskern posted a very good overview of the functionality last week. Follow the link for all the details:

... Well it took a few days, and I actually got an email saying it would be a few more, and hey watch this video while you're waiting, but then an invite was waiting for me in another account this evening.  I had already installed the Office Live Workspaces plug-in to Office 2007, so signing up was a simple matter of logging in via the plug-in and signing up for Office Live, which only took a few clicks.  After that, preparing the workspace only took less than a minute, and I was in:

(click on the pictures for larger views)

...

Source: Our first look at Office Live Workspaces
Kip Kniskern
Date Published: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:35:00 GMT

Microsoft Delivers Office Live Workspace Beta

The next step in the live of Microsoft Office Live Workspace. I need to chaeck what can and can not be shared at this moment and will certainly do some demos using my Office Live Workspace.

The beta is not available in The Netherlands but in the coming quarter it will we expanded ...

 

Microsoft Office Director of Consumer and Small Business Product Management Kirk Gregersen discusses the public beta of Office Live Workspace, an online extension to Office that provides new Web storage and collaboration capabilities. Microsoft today is beginning roll-out of the public beta of Office Live Workspace, a secure online workspace to which Office users can post Word, PowerPoint, Excel or PDF files directly from Office applications to work on remotely from virtually any web-connected PC and collaborate on with others.

... To learn more about Office Live Workspace, PressPass spoke with Kirk Gregersen, Office Director of Consumer and Small Business Product Management.

PressPass: So, what are you announcing today?

Gregersen: We’re announcing that the public beta of Microsoft Office Live Workspace is going live for the first set of people in the United States who pre-registered for the service at www.officelive.com.

We’re also introducing community discussion forums on the Office Live Workspace Community site, which should provide a great way for our early beta users to share their experiences, tell us what we can improve and ask any questions they might have.

PressPass: What is Office Live Workspace and how does it try to help Office users?

Gregersen: Office Live Workspace is the first Office Live service for all Office users. It provides an easy way for people to save their Office documents and other files to the web, and then to share their work and collaborate with others. We think that Office Live Workspace will be important for our 500 million Office customers because it’s one of the first tightly integrated web-based sharing and collaboration services designed to give a seamless experience for Office users.

The service also responds to some of the top requests that we’ve gotten from Office customers, which require a combination of the web and great integration with Office on the desktop to really solve. The way that Office Live Workspace extends Office on the desktop is a good example of what Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie refer to as our “software plus services” approach. ...

Source: Microsoft Delivers Office Live Workspace Beta
Date Published: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Forrester: RIAs Bring People-Centered Design To Information Workplaces

I am learning a new buzz word every day ... RIA, it not someone I know, it's a Rich Internet Application. These RIA;s will impact the Information workplace according to Forrester. Good insight, a bit of an open door as the majority of players in the market have a strategy and solutions which include RIA's in one way or the other. Microsoft's Software + Services strategy is a good example of how Microsoft views the Information Workplace is changing ...

... Until recently, the primary options for delivering on the vision of Information Workplaces were enterprise portals or Microsoft Office. While those options remain suitable for many scenarios, rich Internet applications (RIAs) are emerging as vehicles to enable the next generation of Information Workplaces that are best suited for decision-makers and task-oriented workers who engage in complex, multistep processes — people who need seamless, individualized, and highly visual user experiences. Information and knowledge management (I&KM) professionals should analyze roles to decide if RIAs are appropriate, integrate data from existing applications into RIA-based Information Workplaces, and test rigorously to make sure that RIA-based Information Workplaces attain optimal results that will improve both employee and end customer experiences. ...

Source: RIAs Bring People-Centered Design To Information Workplaces
Authors: "Erica Driver, Ron Rogowski"
Date Published: Mon, 26 Nov 2007

Office Live Add-in for Microsoft Office: Open and save documents directly from Microsoft Office Word, Office Excel, and Office PowerPoint to Microsoft Office Live Workspace

Linking the offline to the online world. Microsoft Office Live Workspace is not an open beta yet. I will try and find out if there's dates available for this because this is worhwhile evaluating ...

The Office Live Add-in will install new menu options allowing you to open and save documents directly from Microsoft Office Word, Office Excel, and Office PowerPoint to Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta.

Source: Office Live Add-in for Microsoft Office: Open and save documents directly from Microsoft Office Word, Office Excel, and Office PowerPoint to Microsoft Office Live Workspace
Date Published: Thu, 29 Nov 2007

Microsoft SharedView Beta2

Microsoft has released a new Beta of Microsoft SharedView, the free webconferencing service ...

Connect with up to 15 people in different locations and get your point across by showing them what's on your screen. Share, review, and update documents with multiple people in real time.A Windows Live ID (Passport, Hotmail, or MSN) is required to start sessions, but not to join sessions. New in Beta2: now even easier to use, with group chat and performance improvements!

Source: Microsoft SharedView Beta2
Author: Date Published: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:59:11 GMT

Jeff Raikes: Desktop application software is not dead

InfoWorld published an article featuring some comments made by Jeff Raikes in his keynote at Convergence. I think that the article takes things a bit out of context; it makes Microsoft look defensive in a way. Microsoft should have no reason to be defensive over the Software + Services model it has introduced. Microsoft has created an asset over the last decade which it leverages in a very good way; it protects clients' investements in software and hardware and allows them to gradually take advatage of SaaS solutions.

Like Jeff Raikes said many other vendors are introducing or expanding solutions that create offline / rich client capabilities which indicates that not many client take a leap of faith to fully "cloud based" solutions ...

... top Microsoft executive defended desktop application software, the source of the company's revenue for three decades, arguing on Tuesday that even services-based companies such as Google still need it.

The comments by Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business applications division, come as Microsoft is trying to position itself as a company capable of delivering applications over the Internet as well as on PCs, its traditional distribution model.

"It's interesting some our competitors who like to espouse the idea that software is dead," said Raikes said. "I think they're worried that actually people like a lot of what they have at their fingertips, and the real success is to use a combination."

Microsoft has come under increasing pressure from companies such as Salesforce.com, which specializes in Web-based CRM applications and Google, whose Docs suite is an online alternative to Microsoft's Office suite. Web-based applications tend to be cheaper, easier to update, and require little installation since applications are delivered through a Web browser.

Raikes claimed during a keynote to about 3,300 customers and partners at its Convergence conference that only Microsoft can deliver "the best of the traditional software model in combination with software as a service."

Later, Raikes said Google realized its Web-based applications need further enhancement on the desktop by introducing Google Gears, a set of open source tools to build applications that can run offline and then sync when a computer comes back online.

"It's fascinating to me to see that even some of those companies now are trying to backtrack on what we've been saying and to offer things like Gears in order to be able to be offline and or take advantage of global computing power," Raikes said. ...

Source : InforWorld.com

Microsoft Integrates Office Live Workspace Into Microsoft Live@edu Suite

Office Live Workspace spreads its wings ...

... Today at a symposium with more than 400 of its higher education customers at its Redmond, Wash., campus, Microsoft Corp. introduced the integration of Microsoft Office Live Workspace into its Microsoft Live@edu suite of services for universities. Office Live Workspace, a new Web-based feature of Microsoft Office that lets people access and share their documents in a familiar online environment, will enable each Live@edu user to upload Microsoft Office documents and grant collaboration permission to other students and educators, allowing universities to give their students and educators a new, free option for organizing research or class assignments or working with classmates or colleagues.

“Our continued aim is to offer education institutions the best choices of tools to meet the evolving needs of their organization, educators and increasingly tech-savvy students,” said Alan Yates, general manager for the Worldwide Public Sector Education at Microsoft. “Tools such as the expanded e-mail, calendaring and IM functionality of Live@edu and the Microsoft Office capabilities of Office Live Workspace give students a rich ‘connected learning’ experience, putting them at the center of a vibrant, collaborative teaching and learning community.”...

Source: Microsoft Integrates Office Live Workspace Into Microsoft Live@edu Suite
Author: Date Published: Mon, 22 Oct 2007

Computable: Microsoft combineert software met services

Bas Paumen geeft uitleg over de aankondiging van Microsoft rondom Software + Services :

... De opkomst van Software as a Service krijgt nu ook erkenning van Microsoft, dat kortgeleden nieuwe online diensten voor zakelijk gebruik onthulde. De Office-producent koppelt de services echter wel aan zijn software.

Bas Paumen, product solutions manager bij Microsoft Nederland: "Het is niet zo dat we het Office-pakket nu als online-dienst aanbieden." De algemene indruk op internet was dat Microsoft nu eindelijk de stap naar SaaS zet, mede onder druk van online-kantoorapplicaties van Google en nu ook Adobe. De softwareproducent koppelt de geboden online-functionaliteit vooralsnog aan zijn Office-pakket.

Office Live Workspace, voor het online opslaan en delen van documenten, is toegankelijk voor gebruikers van Office 2003 en 2007. Mensen die die software niet hebben, kunnen wel uitgenodigd worden voor Live Workspace, maar krijgen dan alleen leesrechten.

"Workspace is vanaf eind oktober beschikbaar, als bèta, maar de software is in wezen wel af", vertelt Paumen. Hij stelt dat het dus meer een ‘internet-bèta' betreft, zoals de diensten van Google, dan een ‘Microsoft-bèta'. De lancering van de uiteindelijke versie verwacht hij begin 2008. ...

Source: Microsoft combineert software met services
Author: Date Published: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:51:29 GMT

Microsoft Live Labs rolls out list-sharing tool

More cool stuff from the Microsoft Live Labs kitchen :

Microsoft's Live Labs -- the team that brought us PhotoSynth (photo manipulation/melding) and SeaDragon (smooth-browsing) technology previews -- has introduced another offering to its roster: Listas. Listas is a list-sharing collaboration tool.

Listas is a list-sharing tool. According to a description of the technology on the Live Labs Web site, Listas “allows you to quickly and easily edit lists, share them with others for reading or wiki-style editing, and discover the public lists of other users. We encourage you to try using it for meeting notes, bookmarks, shopping lists, to plan a night out, or whatever other creative ways you can think of.”

Source: Microsoft Live Labs rolls out list-sharing tool
Author: Mary Jo Foley
Date Published: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:51:32 GMT

Microsoft's Office Live Workspace

Here are a few screenshots of Microsoft's Office Live Workspace. The beta will start soon ...

... Microsoft last month announced plans for Office Live Workspace, a free online tool for viewing Microsoft Office documents. On Wednesday, Microsoft shared a few screenshots of what the service will look like when it goes into beta later this year. ..

More screenshots at source : News.com

Melanie Turek: AT&T Acquisition Highlights Importance of Customer Choice

Melanie Turek gives her veiw on the AT&T acquisition of Interwise which is a provider of converged voice, video and web conferencing software in the same space as Cisco's WebEx and Microsoft's LiveMeeting. Also very interesting is the quoted Frost & Sullivan report because it says :

1. Revenue for the North America for webconferecing solutions will more the double in the next 6 years.
2. On premise solutions will also undergo rapid growth.

... In an effort to expand its IP business services, AT&T Inc. last week announced that is has agreed, through one of its subsidiaries, to acquire privately held Interwise, a global enterprise provider of converged voice, video and web conferencing software. AT&T will pay approximately $121 million in cash for the company, which will operate as a business unit within AT&T Global Business Services. AT&T expects to retain Interwise’s 150 employees, including its R&D center in Israel.

AT&T says the acquisition, expected to close in the fourth quarter, strategically aligns Interwise’s IP-based conferencing and collaboration solution with AT&T’s enterprise networking, communications and collaboration services, global MPLS-based IP network and its portfolio of conferencing services. ...

... The acquisition should help AT&T gain a foothold in the web conferencing market as a player in its own right, rather than relying on reselling services from WebEx and Microsoft. (What it will do with those partnerships remains to be seen, but clearly this move puts pressure on them.) ...

... According to the latest research from Frost & Sullivan, the web conferencing services and software market in North America reached $594.4 million in 2006 and is forecasted to grow to $1.4 billion in 2012. Although currently 85% of web conferencing revenues come from hosted services, Frost & Sullivan expects that the new generation of on-premise software applications is poised to undergo rapid growth, as software applications become easier and less expensive to deploy. ...

Source : Collaboration Loop

Office Live Workspaces: Our interview with Kirk Gregerson

Kip Kniskern of the LiveSide blog interveiwed Kirk Gregerson about Office Live Workspaces. So if you've got 20 min. listen to the podcast ...

... Office Live Workspaces, announced on Monday and set to go into beta in December, will provide workspace manipulation and storage from within Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and integration with Outlook), and a web browser interface with a viewer for those Office files (and .pdf), and an ability to comment, along with rich list making capabilities that will synch to Outlook Tasks, Contacts, and Calendar. ....

... I talked to Kirk Gregerson, Director of Product Management for Office for Consumers and Small Business, about the upcoming beta:

1. Introducing Kirk Gregerson, and Office Live Workspaces
2. What is Office Live Workspaces, and what is Microsoft Office Online?
3. How does it work? Kirk talks about Workspaces within Office
4. Office Live Workspaces in the browser
5. Kirk explains the commenting process
6. How collaboration works: a check-in metaphor
7. 2 different interfaces
8. Store many types of (non-Office) files
9. What's the relationship to SkyDrive?
10. Workspace size explained: 500mb limit
11. What versions of Office will work with Workspaces?
12. Integration with Office Live Small Business
13. Beta information - begins in December (sign up now) ...

Office Live Workspaces: Our interview with Kirk Gregerson
Kip Kniskern
Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:12:00 GMT

Dana Gardner: SaaS adds up better with eXpresso’s hosted solution for Excel collaboration

SaaS solutions blending / integrating with Microsoft Office products. Dana Gardner posted about eXpresso, this company provides a SaaS based spreadsheet collaboration solution. They've aparently chosen to integrate with Microsoft Excel rather than to compete. Dana also mention the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server based Excel Services solution as something that is comparable for 'in house' use. This triggers me to look into Excel Services for cross firewall collaboration options. I will get back to that.

Ofcourse collaboratively working on spreadsheets in real time can be accomplished woth Microsoft Office LiveMeeting as well. Only the 'hosting user'  needs Excel running ...

... With over 150 million business users worldwide, Microsoft’s Excel has become a de facto standard for vast sets of business information and collaboration points.

Problems arise, however, when users and managers try to share spreadsheets and coordinate updated internal Excel information, sometimes from hundreds of far-flung users. Those seeking ease in distributing the contents of spreadsheets often bemoan the closed and brittle nature of “spreadmarts” — the burgeoning assemblages of spreadsheets, usually amid multiple versions of each.

eXpresso Corp., Menlo Park, Calif., has introduced what it says is a unique hosted solution that provides broad functionality while eliminating the cost and need for the IT department’s involvement for even minor Excel support, access and customization.
Using native Excel components, eXpresso’s product allows the spreadsheet owner to invite other users to view, edit, and update a spreadsheet, while retaining control over the permissions that each user has, right down to the cell level — something current online collaboration tools, such as Google spreadsheets, don’t currently offer.

Because it’s a SaaS, hosted system, users don’t need to download software or involve IT departments, something that would be required with such solutions as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. The hosting also allows collaboration outside the firewall, something that can present problems with in-house collaboration solutions. ...

 SaaS adds up better with eXpresso’s hosted solution for Excel collaboration
Dana Gardner
Mon, 17 Sep 2007