Less than two months after acquiring ActiveViews in order to add ad-hoc reporting to its business intelligence stack, Microsoft unveiled the first service pack upgrade for its SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services software.
A key piece of the Redmond, Wash., company's SQL Server database platform, Reporting Services aims to help business performance by providing enterprises with graphical reports about the company, its products and employees.
On Monday morning, it looked as if Microsoft had done yet another about-face by extending NT 4.0 support past the rapidly approaching support-cut-off deadlines - despite repeated claims that it had no intentions of doing so. But by Monday evening, Microsoft was working overtime to correct any misunderstandings caused byits vaguely worded press release about its plans for continuing to offer NT 4.0 fixes beyond the currently stated cut-off period.
Microsoft released on Monday a new version of its accounting software for midsize companies. Great Plains 8.0 is designed to improve accounting functions for distribution, manufacturing and project companies, Microsoft said. The new version, with about 120 enhancements, also works with Microsoft's Business Solutions Business Portal 2.5 and Office 2003. Its looks are similar to those of Office Outlook 2003.
In what amounts to a change in strategy about ending support for Windows NT, Microsoft has agreed to an unspecified extension of Windows NT 4.0 software security and support for customers in the financial industry.
In a deal with BITS, a consortium of financial institutions that collectively holds more than half of the nation's financial assets, Microsoft has agreed on parameters for what is being described as "specialized support" for Windows NT 4.0. Under terms of the pact, Redmond will continue to provide NT 4.0 security updates for an extended period while U.S. banks work to migrate to new versions of the Windows operating system.
Microsoft released another trial balloon in the last week over what it should do with its anti-virus technology. The company is dragging its feet on a decision because it really has no good options here. Microsoft basically has four choices. None is particularly good.
Microsoft's initial approach has been to use the GeCAD assets to improve hooks for A-V vendors in the marketplace and develop Windows and Office to be less prone to virus attacks. This is the approach the anti-virus vendors would like to see most, as it preserves their market.
Microsoft this week will host 15 university students from around the world at its Redmond, Washington, headquarters to pick their brains on what the Office productivity suite should look like 10 years from now.
The students, all between the ages of 19 and 24 and from 14 different countries, for one week will form the "Microsoft Office Information Worker Board of the Future." The agenda includes group work and brainstorming sessions on the Microsoft campus, as well as a visit to a local elementary school.
At the end of the week, the students will present their findings to Microsoft executives, including Jeff Raikes, who as group vice president of Productivity and Business Services is responsible for the Office products.
Microsoft is readying a strategy to counter e-mail storage moves by Google and Yahoo. Customers have their own ideas as to what Redmond should do. When will MSN bite the bullet and come up to par with its Hotmail competitors, particularly in the area of free e-mail storage?
For now, MSN is still offering the same 2 MB of free e-mail storage - compared to the 1 GB offered by Google's newly minted Gmail and the 100 MB now offered by Yahoo Mail. (Microsoft currently charges $60 a year for 100 MB of free Hotmail storage.)
IDC this week issued a report predicting that Windows Server will snare 60 percent of the server market by 2008, compared to just 29 percent for Linux. "There continues to be very strong growth in the x86 industry standard server market, particularly for Windows- and Linux-based solutions," said IDC analyst Mark Melenovsky. "Growth has been strong for everything from stand-alone systems in small offices to several-hundred-node clusters in enterprise data centers." IDC also predicts that Windows Server will generate $22.7 billion in sales by 2008, compared to $9.7 billion for Linux. But the big money winners, despite only owning about 10 percent of the market, will be honking enterprise servers based on proprietary Linux. Even though that market is dying, such servers will account for over 50 percent of all server revenues by 2008. But don't worry, once the switchover to the year 3000 happens, those servers will also stop working. Or something.
Today, for example, there's no need to move computer files across a monitor the size of a wall, but there might be 10 years from now. And in the future, people might want to wear a camera that records every waking moment for instant playback -- call it "TiVo for life."
Last week, Microsoft hosted an open house at its Mountain View, Calif., campus to show off some of these new technologies being developed by research teams.
None of the technologies is ready for prime time. Some need much more work, and others seem to be creating a solution for a problem that doesn't yet exist.
Microsoft Business Solutions announced today some detail regarding its enterprise resource planning strategy. Based on the company's concept of "Integration Innovation," Microsoft has identified five themes, or development pillars, as central to the suites' respective development efforts: Best Total Cost of Ownership; Adaptive Processes; Empowered Users; Connected Businesses; and Insightful.
Microsoft said it has worked with customers to define and hone the pillar requirements and pointed to a beta program with Stulz-ATS as an example. The program apparently defined better user interface functionality to be included in Great Plains 8.0, expected in June, which falls under the Empowered Users category.