Facing 'new world of work,' Microsoft locks up Office

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and it satisfied their needs," said Lotus Notes founder Ray Ozzie, who joined Microsoft after it purchased his company, Groove Networks. "And then that centralized logging (found in Live Communication Server) satisfied the organization's needs."

But Greifeld said Microsoft has to deal with the fact that changing the rules can change the medium. Once you start logging instant messages, it's not the same tool it was.

"What happened is the dynamic of IM changed when people knew it was being logged," Greifeld said. But both Capossela and Greifeld said that the change is not necessarily a bad thing.

"For us, the value of instant messaging isn't the sideshow where people get to have private conversations," Capossela said. "The value of instant messaging is the ability to connect with somebody absolutely real-time and to have that quick burst back and forth."

Capossela pointed to IM today as "going through the normal growing pains" in the transition from social phenomenon to useful business tool. "It's not about instant messaging your friends. It's not about instant messaging people to have a conversation that is completely private. That's not going to be how those tools are used five years from now."

Rather, he said, the medium itself will shift, just as e-mail and Web browsing evolved once they became mainstream business tools.

Gartner's Austin tried to make the case that, despite the recent shift to increased regulation, the ultimate trend in technology will be toward the democratization of information with less central control. However, that idea was shot down by both Greifeld and Ozzie.

Ozzie said that if a technology is to be successful, it needs to meet both the needs of the individuals using the product as well as the company's overall goals. Many a company, he said, has deployed a sales force automation tool that it thought would have great benefits, only to find that no one used it because it was too difficult.

While its main purpose for the meeting at the CEO Summit was to get feedback on its "new world of work" idea, Microsoft may have also made a sale for its collaboration technology.

Greifeld indicated during the meeting that were Nasdaq to launch a new acquisition bid, it might want its partners to have tools like Microsoft's at their disposal. Later in the day, Greifeld said in an interview that he had "already made some phone calls on that."

"We are going to definitely look at it," he said, stressing that it might be a while before Nasdaq has another acquisition to deal with. The company already has plenty on its plate with its plans to buy the Instinet electronic stock exchange. "There are definitely no deals in the works. We are concentrated on making this one happen."

Good For The Goose, Good For The Gander!

Jast as these rules will be applied to businesses using Excel (and Word and PowerPoint) for their computerized files... with IBM's Lotus 1-2-3 and Word Pro (for IBM's Workplace Editors) very much on the "prowl" this certainly appears to be the case where what is "good for the goose will be good for the gander". Based on its possible limitations... Keep watching for the "Shot over Microsoft's Excel's Bow" coming from within Workplace!

;-)

[Too Old For IT]

Chilling Effect

Locking down office may prove to be the catalyst for Open Office in a number of industries. In addition, how would I as an external user of IM, communicate with The Big Company, and forbid them from logging and saving my IM conversations.

The CEOs miss the point. There will have to be some communications app that is unmonitored, unlogged and unregulated, or the internet community will create one.

[KTLA_knew]

OO?

Why would the fact that Office now offers corporation the choice to lock down data if they so choose somehow drive anyone to OO?

The organizations that don't want to lock down data will continue to do whatever they were going to do anyway, and the companies that DO want to lock up their data now have the ability to do it in a much simpler manner than before.

I fail to see the drive to OO based on what's in this article.

[aabcdefghij987654321]

This is so pathetic...

There is no such thing as a document macro virus, only a Microsoft Office macro virus. There are no Word Perfect viruses, no OpenOffice viruses. Use anything but Microsoft Office and rid yourself of document viruses all together. Not only that, but you'll save a ton of cash, have a much more stable and compatible product too!

Remember...Anything But Microsoft (dot) ORG.

[System Tyrant]

Wordperfect

I use WordPerfect Office 12 and it works great. Open Office might be better than Microsoft Office and maybe even some earlier versions of WordPerfect, but not WordPerfect Office 12.

Yeah I said it. The best office app available as of today is WordPerfect Office 12. And no they aren't paying me, but it would be nice if they did. So let the bashing begin.

[LGUsec]

bring them in!

technology has no room for laggards, bring them IN!