So (I have to start the sentence with ‘So’ because it makes it sound like I’m from the Valley) I’m off to Redmond. Off to the Microsoft Campus to talk to them about Office 14 and the Wave 14 products in the Unified Communications space. It should be exciting. I’m hoping they listen to some real world stories of how Office needs to mature in some areas - and I’m not talking about just adding piles more functionality. For me it’s all about integration. Adoption of Microsoft’s Information Worker vision is not simple, it’s not easy and most users don’t want to buy-in as it’s different for them from just clicking ‘Save As…’. As soon as you have to messing about with third p[arty products to get SharePoint to talk to Documentum you know it’s game over.
Equally the VOIP and Instant Messenger worlds need to be more joined up. The PC and the phone need to blend better than they do at the moment and I don’t want to have to use the complicated method of doing it that Microsoft and Nortel offer at the moment.
So Office 14 for me will be about integration, it will be about workflow, it will be about inheriting permissions from one system to the next and not having to manage multiple lists in multiple applications. “Hang on..” you say.. “you can do that now”. I always frown at such statements. “Have you tried to do it? Have you tried to support it? Have you tried to get your users to adopt it?” /grimace.
That’s the story I’ve got for Microsoft. This meeting is not about them telling me what they’re going to build, it’s about me telling them what to build. I hope they listen.
I tried a similar approach with Google last week when I met their UK people. They’re serious about touting themselves in the Enterprise space. However, Enterprise for Google means non-consumer. It means business, and from what I gleaned in a conversation with their UK Sales Manager it really means small businesses. When I mentioned security, Sarbanes Oxley and such like to Google they looked at me and said “But that’s not very interesting, it’s not very exciting”. The rules that SOX lays down were clearly not interesting to Enron prior to it’s enactment, and look where they ended up. I’m sorry Google. You’ve got a long way to go to get onto the radar of large corporates with your suite of applications. They might have some features that are nice, simple and readily accessible (accept for if you’re on a train or plane with no Internet connection and want to type a document or read a spreadsheet) but they’re not ready for the big time just yet.
It’s my second trip to Redmond. The last time I was talked to in their Executive Briefing Centre and I saw a great demo of their vision of the office of the future by a lovely lady who told me off for taking a Tablet PC out of it’s cradle. This time I’m going to talk to them. God help them…