News
Microsoft Banks on Business Upgrades
New software line-up, including a SharePoint Server update, aimed at improving business processes.
(Redmond, Wash.) Bill Hartnett got accustomed to the screaming.
As Microsoft Corp.'s manager of software sales to financial services companies,
Hartnett used to get pelted with complaints about the security and reliability
of Microsoft's products.
Hartnett speaks openly about those dark days because he's sure they're
well past. He and his colleagues contend the company is about to give
businesses compelling reasons to not just tolerate Microsoft, but to be
thrilled with it.
The occasion is the launch of crucial upgrades to Microsoft's most widely
used and most profitable products. All at once, Microsoft is releasing
Windows Vista, an update of the Office "productivity" package
that includes Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint, and server software
that handles behind-the-scenes functions.
The products will begin to be available for business users Nov. 30, with
a consumer release of Windows and Office on Jan. 30.
Even in a less competitive world, the enormity of the launch would make
this a crucial time for Microsoft. Vista has been delayed so long that
it has been five years since the last overhaul of the operating system,
which runs 90 percent of the world's personal computers. Office last got
refreshed in 2003.
But the stakes are particularly high now. Savvy competitors using the
Internet are challenging Microsoft's status as computing's vital plumbing
provider. Meanwhile, Microsoft is spending some of the vast fortune it
has amassed in desktop software to branch out with expensive splashes
in video games and music players.
In other words, this is no time for Microsoft to deliver a dud in the
core of its franchise. Next Thursday's corporate launch of Vista, Office
and server software is being called "A New Day For Business,"
meaning Microsoft's customers, but the phrase applies in Redmond just
as well.
Microsoft executives claim that computer users who upgrade to Vista or
Office, but especially both together, will be dazzled by how much more
productive they can become. The company spent years studying how people
use its most popular programs and retooled the user interface accordingly,
trying to make it easier to find and use features.
It also worked to make its software sturdier than ever -- less prone
to crashes and less vulnerable to hackers. Because of that and new tools
aimed at pleasing corporate technology staffs, Microsoft estimates the
labor costs of supporting a machine running Vista will be $507 per PC
a year, down from $542 with Windows XP.
Despite the improvements, many analysts don't expect corporate technology
buyers to rush to buy PCs with Vista or Office 2007 upgrades. Surveys
have found that fewer than half plan to adopt Vista in its first year
of release.
That's largely because switching can be a complicated, costly process.
Many organizations only recently upgraded to Office 2003.
And while Vista and Office may look better, a lot of the features are
likely to be seen as nice-to-haves rather than must-haves.
"If you look at Vista, you say, `What's the killer app?'" said
Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler. "Somebody else will build
a killer app on it, but until you get a killer app, you don't see the
power of the platform."
His Forrester colleague Kyle McNabb, who tracks business computing, believes
the most powerful new item from Microsoft won't be something PC users
can see. It's Microsoft's server software -- particularly the Sharepoint
document-management service -- that McNabb believes has been best reshaped.
This is no small matter. Together, Sharepoint, the Exchange e-mail offering
and Office software rang up $14.5 billion of Redmond's $44.3 billion in
revenue in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30. That exceeded Windows
sales of $13.2 billion.
These segments are so profitable -- that combined $27.7 billion from
business software and Windows sales produced $19.9 billion in operating
income -- that they all but float the company, letting Microsoft's entertainment
and online divisions lose money.
Still, competitors have made important inroads -- one reason that Microsoft
stock remains cheaper today than when Windows XP launched in 2001.
Open-source offerings such as Zimbra, an e-mail service that competes
with Microsoft Exchange, have grabbed customers with lower sales prices
and a more flexible delivery method. Zimbra founder Satish Dharmaraj thinks
the Office 2007 launch is a great opportunity for his company, since it
forces companies to think about what to do with their e-mail systems.
Other rivals, including Google Inc., are increasingly hosting Office-like
applications over the Web for free, supported by ads. For now, that threat
to Microsoft is somewhat muted, since most businesses probably would rather
pay for software than let their workers be distracted by ads all day.
Even so, Microsoft has been racing to develop ways to deliver its software
over the Web as well.
And it's not just a bunch of gnats targeting Microsoft. IBM Corp. sells
a range of productivity applications and Web services. Database leader
Oracle Corp. has been maneuvering closer to Microsoft's territory by pledging
to support open-source products.
Proof that Microsoft is watching closely came in the recent $400 million
cooperation pact it signed with Linux vendor Novell Inc., a deal aimed
at strengthening Microsoft's hand against other open-source players. Even
after the agreement was signed, however, Microsoft and Novell were squabbling
over its details.
Microsoft's best chance of continued riches from the business sector
likely lies in its products' ubiquity. Just about every PC user is familiar
with Microsoft programs. That tends to make it safe for many companies,
and a risk to use something else.
Of course, that ubiquity is also a hazard for Microsoft. Its software
is the ripest possible target malicious hackers could exploit, so they
do. And being everywhere often ties Microsoft's hands. Microsoft considered
more radical changes to Vista, for example, but feared whether users and
third-party software developers would be able to adapt.
This landscape means that "Microsoft's always going to be a half-step
to a full step behind" many of its rivals, said McNabb at Forrester.
But at the same time, he added, "they don't have to be the innovation
leader."