Hotmail pioneer embraces SaaS office

THE internet pioneer who founded and built the Hotmail service before selling it to Microsoft has launched a suite of online personal productivity products that will compete with the powerful MS Office franchise.

The Live Documents service was launched last week by Bangalore-based Instant Collaboration Software Technologies (InstaColl), a start-up founded by Sabeer Bhatia – a co-founder of the phenomenally successful Hotmail services.

Mr Bhatia rose to international prominence in the industry when in 1997 he sold Hotmail to Microsoft for US$400 million.

Live Documents is a full-featured suite of online Office productivity applications offering functionality equivalent to Word, Excel and PowerPoint that can be used through any computer with a browser.

The Live Documents service also allows online collaboration and sharing of documents. The hybrid online-offline service lets users work on documents offline on any PC that runs Flash software, regardless of the operating system.

“Live Documents offers a unique perspective on Office productivity and collaboration that merges the best of two worlds - the richness and familiarity of desktop software with the collaborative capabilities of the web,” InstaColl chairman Sabeer Bhatia.

“It provides a reliable bridge between the online and offline worlds that consumers and businesses can count on, he said.”

“Live Documents is the new productivity suite for the internet generation providing flexibility lacking in traditional software while retaining that which is important from the past and extending it with unique collaborative capabilities.

“I believe that Live Documents does for documents what Hotmail did for e-mail,” Mr Bhatia said.

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Microsoft growth surge as Halo returns

SOFTWARE giant Microsoft must be partying like its 1999.

The company announced a revenue surge to US$13.76 billion (A$15.06 billion) for its third quarter to the end of September, a 27 per cent increase over the year-ago period and its faster growth since 1999.

Operating profit and net profit for the quarter were US$5.92 billion and US$4.29 billion respectively, making it a bumper quarter for the company on all measures.

The company pointed to outstanding sales of Halo 3, which achieved the biggest launch day return in game industry history, as one of the reasons for the strong quarter.

But demand had been strong across the board in all its business and entertainment sectors, with continued strong growth expected in the short term.

“This fiscal year is off to an outstanding start with the fastest revenue growth of any first quarter since 1999,” Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell said.

“Operating income growth of over 30 per cent also reflects our ability to translate revenue into profits while making strategic investments for the future.”

“Customer demand for Windows Vista this quarter continued to build with double-digit growth in multi-year agreements by businesses and with the vast majority of consumers purchasing premium editions,” said Microsoft Platform and Services Division president Kevin Johnson.

Microsoft expects revenue for the full fiscal year to the end of next June to be in the range of US$58.8 billion to US$59.9 billion, with operating income of between US$23.3 billion and US$23.7 billion.

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Microsoft prepares VoIP beta for Office

MICROSOFT is preparing to dip a toe in the water of voice over IP telephony with the launch of beta VoIP server and client software based on the company’s dominant Office franchise.

The rest of the VoIP industry is now preparing for the waves that a Microsoft toe can cause.

Microsoft business division president Jeff Raikes said the company expects that within three years 100 million – twice the number of VoIP users in the world today – will have the ability to make phone calls from Office applications.

In three years, the cost to businesses of voice over IP solutions would be half of what it is today as VOIP systems moved from hardware to software, Mr Raikes said.

The company would later this month release beta versions of its Office Communications Server 2007 – Microsoft’s VoIP server – and Office Communicator 2007 client product for public testing, he said.

Millions of users are expected to become involved in the beta process.

“Software is set to transform business phone systems as profoundly as it has transformed virtually every other form of workplace communication,” he said.

“Over time, the software-based VoIP technology built into Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator will offer so much value and cost savings that it will make the standard telephone look like that old typewriter that’s gathering dust in the stockroom.”

Microsoft says its VOIP server and client technology represents the most important new communications technology since Outlook – the company’s email client – was launch in 1997.

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Microsoft extends Dynamics ERP to Office

MICROSOFT has unveiled new client software for its flagship enterprise resource planning platform Dynamics that uses the familiar Office software to deliver ERP function to more customer employees.

Called Microsoft Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office and SharePoint Server, the software is contains a collection of self-service applications built into Office designed to simplify access to business information and better connect employees to business processes.

The applications include things like Time and Attendance for Microsoft Dynamics, Project Time and Expense, Snap Business Data Lookup, and DrillDown Viewer.

Also included in the launch at the company’s Convergence 2007 conference was new licensing rights that lets customers, value-added resellers and business partners build their own Office business applications that use Office as the front-end to the Microsoft Dynamics back-office ERP system.

“This … package is aimed at helping our customers improve the situation they face today, where on average 85 per cent of their employees do not have direct access to critical information, such as data on customers, costs, orders and schedules contained in their ERP application,” said Microsoft Business Solutions Group corporate vice-president Satya Nadella.

This new offering demonstrates “Microsoft’s vision” of connecting people across a company with the business processes and information they need to be successful, and to do that within the context of their existing productivity tools, Ms Nadella said.

The company says the new package has been priced to facilitate companywide deployment. pricing for Microsoft Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office and Windows SharePoint Services is US$195 per user and Microsoft Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office and SharePoint Server is $395 per user.
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