Experts say Microsoft's XML play won't backfire

Microsoft's move to create new XML-based file formats for three of its flagship Office products may make it easier for customers to consider rival software, but industry watchers aren't predicting an exodus just yet.

Conventional wisdom has long held that if Microsoft were to embrace XML as its default file format for Office and discard the proprietary underpinnings that have ostensibly handcuffed customers to its products, businesses might jump at the chance to move to other software providers, or at least start using rival offerings alongside Office more frequently.

And now that Microsoft has announced it will employ XML formats in the versions of Excel, PowerPoint and Word included in its upcoming Office 12 package, the issue is front and center.

News.context

What's new:
Microsoft's move to create new XML-based file formats for three of its flagship Office products may make it easier for customers to consider rival software, but industry watchers aren't predicting an exodus just yet.

Bottom line:
Bottom line: Analysts say customers will probably wait to see what the new Microsoft products can offer. Also, the software giant's XML move could rob rivals of one of their main attacks on Microsoft software. Plus, the move could deprive clients of a key bargaining chip in licensing negotiations.

More stories on Microsoft and XML

"It has to be one of the first questions you ask when you see (Microsoft's) XML plans: Will this encourage people to look at new products, especially open source?" said Forrester Research analyst Bob Markham.

But Markham and others say the predictions of a mass departure won't likely be proven correct, at least not right away.

Markham said customers in Europe and Asia may start more seriously considering alternatives such as the open-source software made by OpenOffice, but he believes most businesses will wait to find out how Microsoft's new designs could help them achieve existing goals with XML before they start looking for help elsewhere.

One of the most compelling elements of Microsoft's new allegiance to XML is that it should let customers and other software developers more easily integrate their IT systems with the company's dominant Office product line, a longstanding pain point for both camps.

An example of the gains that could be achieved via such XML tie-ups was recently displayed by enterprise applications specialist SAP, which has an ongoing project with Microsoft, code-named Mendocino, that uses XML-based middleware to pull together the two companies' products into a unified interface.

In a recent post to Microsoft's Web site, the company 's XML guru, Jean Paoli, said customers are only just beginning to understand the manner in which the open standard will change the way they view all kinds of technologies, and that Microsoft would be foolish not to further expand its XML strategy.

"Right now there's so much coalescence around XML, within individual organizations and entire industries, that I am convinced a new wave of XML-related content, applications and servers is just on the horizon," said Paoli, whose official title is senior director of XML architecture. "The ubiquity of XML will result in far more sophisticated ways of doing workflows between workers and business processes. We're really just at the tip of the iceberg."

Paoli is predicting that by more fully embracing XML, Microsoft is in fact making it less likely that customers will move to other software providers, as businesses will need more sophisticated tools to generate, store and analyze content created in XML-based programs, and he believes the software giant is positioning itself to help deliver those capabilities.

Still, it remains true that the same flexibility and openness that will supposedly allow for better integration between Office and corporate systems could let rivals make their Office alternatives more competitive.

[technewsjunkie]

Missed the point!

My concern on a previous post was not that Microsoft could make
XML useful - it was that they would invariably "tweek" it (like they
did with Java, etc, etc,!) and people would "wake up one day" and
be locked in. That's what I meant by hasn't "history taught us
anything"!

Why Sould There Be Concern About MS's Open XML Strategies!

"Only the strong survive" is the words of a song that reminds us about facts of life. If an aircraft's structure is not properly and efficiently designed and manufactured to recommended airworthiness "standards" we all do know what can be the circumstances of the aircraft having to endure all those "turbulences" during flight; just so I believe that as the world advances in the computer industry... companies like "Microsoft" must realize that as computer users and programmers around the world become more and more aware of the "tools" (FUNCTIONALITIES) available to them adherence to specific standards (XML Standards) will become the norm if individuals located in different parts of the world while using disparate systems are to be able to communicate, collaborate and communicate with each other efficiently and effectively.

The advent of the internet (on which the world now depends) and the subsequent applications development has certainly not been strong points in Microsoft's case and just as Java Technologies have emerged as "industry class" standards... the same will be the case with the XML Standards for Office and other products within the context of the global computing industry; as a matter of fact Microsoft may have already been late for the "party" with regards to XML Standards since IBM Workplace Products http://www-306.ibm.com/software/swnews/swnews.nsf/n/nhan6cgpwd are already dressed up for the fun. Windows with its 90+ percentile global marketshare may very well see its half-brother OS/2 Warp at the party - thanks to OpenSource "Eclipse" Standards. "Microsoft" and "SAP" can "tweek" as much as they like, the battle lines are now drawn in "Cloudscape" and "Managed Client" http://www.lotus.com/products/product5.nsf/wdocs/workplaceclienttech this time around!

;-)

[unknown unknown]

RE

You as though the story is a direct reply to your post.

[Mendz]

XML Matters...

Does using XML really matter to consumers? Straight to the point: not really. If I use Word to retrieve and save documents, for as long as the document looks the way I want it to be, that's it. That's good enough for me.

XML is a techie's technology. If you are a developer of software products, XML matters. If you are a business and application integration service provider, XML matters. If you are reading the actual XML code, NOT just how Excel or Word displays them on-screen, then XML matters.

What matters really is that consumers get to enjoy the benefits of XML -- specifically in this case, XML-based Office documents.

Looking forward, we'll see the products of the developers who worked with XML-based Office documents. We'll see the solutions of the integration service provider's who supported XML-based Office documents. And perhaps we'll see the great and wonderful inventions of the person who read the XML code of XML-based Office documents.

XML is here now. I've already seen and done really great and really wonderful things with it. Add XML-based Office documents in and you have more great and more wonderful things to expect...

[bigjim01]

XML?

What can I say about XML, well I think that it is pretty much the latest "thing" to cure all problems. Java made promises, but never delivered. The program that Java was to solve was to write the program once, and run it on any platform. Well the problem lies in that Java can't produce real programs. Java "programs" are runtime programs and since we have the horsepower, it don't really matter. XML was to solve the problem of integration between different platforms and enable business communication. In software development you view hiding the data as encapsulation, and don't allow anybody direct access to the data. The reason that you do this, is because if somebody were to have complete access to the data and muck it up, then you could not rely on it being correct. XML file formats are only useful for transmitting data to other parties. From what I see, open source packages need to be much better in order to take the place of the closed source packages that everyone uses today.