Microsoft positions Office as .Net client

REDMOND, WASH. - Network executives last week got a first glimpse at Microsoft's plans to transform its Office suite into an all-purpose network client that can be used to interact with back-end systems easily.

The support for XML file formats Microsoft is adding to Word, Excel and Access in Office 11 means corporations would be able to use familiar Office applications to share data with a variety of back-end, XML-based data repositories, line-of-business systems and e-commerce servers - all without the need for clunky middleware or integration software.

The idea is to move users away from static text documents and spreadsheets and into a world where real-time data can be imported and exported from documents. And it finally might be a feature set that would spur Office upgrades, which have been stagnant over the past years.

The addition of XML support was the highlight last week in the introduction of the first beta version of Office 11. The support means Microsoft finally is beginning to detail how Office, which has nearly 95% of the desktop productivity suite market, fits into the client side of .Net, Microsoft's nebulous strategy for building and deploying distributed applications based on Web services.

In addition, Office 11 includes technology to tie its applications into collaboration and instant-messaging services key to .Net that are being added to the operating system.

"XML is beautiful," says Francis Blay, a Microsoft Exchange administrator for RWD Technologies, a consulting company focused on enterprise system integration, manufacturing and e-learning software. "If you save something in XML it is ready to plug into any system. It gets your data ready to use anywhere in the enterprise." Blay also says integration between Office and collaboration features being added in Windows .Net Server could eliminate the need for multiple clients.

"If we can tie our conferencing and collaboration into Office then users don't have to go to a third-party client," he says.

None of those possibilities is around the corner but Microsoft must begin moving in that direction, experts say.

"This is about the idea that Office is a smart client around .Net," says Simon Marks, product manager for Office. "It's about Office as the interface to a lot of other functionality. It's more about Office as a client/server interface and less about individual applications."

But make no mistake, it's also about reviving interest in Office, whose new feature sets over the past few years have not created an upgrade stampede among corporations.

"They really need to reshape Office to get users to adopt another upgrade," says Dana Gardner, an analyst with Aberdeen Group. "Office 11 really is a shell to the .Net framework."

And Gardner says Microsoft also will use that shell to entice independent software developers to the .Net platform. "It's a real sugarplum Microsoft is dangling to [independent software vendors]. They adopt the .Net platform and Microsoft gives them entree to Office." Microsoft last week announced an alliance with Siebel Systems to more closely tie Siebel's line-of-business applications to .Net and Office.