Microsoft and Office 15: It’s Not Here, and It’s Not Quite Cloud, But It is a Good Step

This week, Microsoft partially unveiled the up-and-coming Office 15 business productivity suite, showing off its Cloud chops and added social (Yammer) and VOIP (Skype) capabilities. The full functionality, feature set, availability timeframe, and pricing were not released. But what we saw was encouraging, from the touch-screen capability to the Cloud-based doc storage. What was most encouraging was the fact that this positioning of Office as a Cloud-friendly business suite seemed to show that Microsoft really is “all in” when it comes to Cloud.

But it also showed how Microsoft’s approach to Cloud for its apps is still well behind most other ISVs right now. Yes, the company has enabled significant and solid Cloud-based functionality with Office 15. But it also has pursued an approach similar to the old ASP model, layering/adding Cloud interface capability to a traditionally-architected application built on limiting technologies.

As such, what Microsoft has delivered illustrates the conundrum facing many legacy ISVs when it comes to Cloud: How to simultaneously protect the base that is slow to change, while retaining the base that embraces change. In this way, Office 15 is a great example of the “innovators dilemma” – continuing to move forward while deliberately avoiding anything that might disturb the installed base.

To compete and thrive against Google and other pure-play Cloud business solutions and suites – with optimally-associated storage, socialization, and other services – Microsoft needs to re-think and re-architect the core Office structure. We believe it has about three years in which to accomplish this, and even then, we can see Google grabbing 10 percent or more of Microsoft’s current Office customer base.

Note: Ongoing Saugatuck subscription clients can access this premium research piece (1100MKT) by clicking here, and inputting your ID and password. Non-clients can purchase and download this premium research piece by clicking here.

Trackbacks

Trackback URL for this blog entry.

Bruce Guptill

Most research firms can explain what happened; some can explain what is happening. Saugatuck Technology excels at understanding both in order to explain what else is likely to occur, and to guide its clients toward the actions that deliver them the greatest business value while enabling the safest business path.
To accomplish this, and to continually improve the value of Saugatuck’s work to clients in a Cloud-obscured marketplace, Saugatuck SVP and Head of Research Bruce Guptill pushes his team to continually re-examine and re-invent the company’s research programs to focus more on the costs, benefits, effects, and value of an ever-changing mix of technologies and providers in different markets.
Guptill’s own technology and business background laid a solid foundation for such a flexible, yet stable, approach to IT research value for clients. His technology research work includes mobility, collaborative IT, telecom, data networking, web commerce, and electronic marketplaces; his research work for enterprise IT and business clients includes return on IT investment, total cost of IT ownership, and business planning for IT. His research and guidance on vendor channel management, market identification and development, and buyer behavior analysis has enabled hundreds of established and startup IT providers to find, enter, and profit from new and traditional markets, while helping to guide user enterprise leaders toward optimal IT procurement and vendor management.
Guptill’s research background includes several years as a VP and research director with Gartner, senior positions with TeleChoice and Robert Frances Group, and editorial work within the IDG companies, including four years as a writer and editor with NetworkWorld. His marketing business focus was honed as VP of marketing for firms ranging from custom development providers to non-IT firms in aviation and other industries. His sales and channel experience started by traveling with a sample bag, then working for IT VARs, then advising telecom and wireless carriers on partner choices, to developing partner programs for traditional and Cloud-based software development firms and ISVs.
Guptill holds an MBA in marketing and finance, and a BA in the psychology and business of mass media communication. He is licensed to fly airplanes, drive boats, and sell houses; he is also a certified baseball coach, serves on the boards of regional civic groups, and is a serial home renovator. Married with three children, Guptill resides on Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts, and is a lifelong fan of the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and the University of Connecticut Huskies.

Comment disabled by author.