How can Microsoft leverage Office 365 and other web technologies

N2IT

I was thinking about how MS can gain market share, especially since these mobile devices are stealing the show as of late.

Microsoft can keep their financials stable and forecast even more accurately if they can get people on a monthly fee for a web hosted application. Instead of purchasing the client out right.

Microsoft will be able to provide support for packages, which in turn would dismiss any MS support a large enterprise may have on their payroll, they would be able to outsource that piece.

Microsoft will be able to gain market share of the browser market again by only allowing these applications to work on the IE platform.

Microsoft could possibly force companies to use their cloud services to back up documents via Office 365.

What are you thoughts on the new direction the technology companies are heading. I use the C word with caution, but it's happening.

ptilsen

I really just think its MS late-breaking response to Google Apps. BPOS was already around (functionally, almost nothing in 365 is new), but relatively unknown. The change to 365 is mostly marketing, but don't get me wrong, it's good marketing.

The changes do lend towards a broader customer base ranging from 1-user SMBs to large enterprises.

But, here's the economic reality: Most large enterprises are going to get better bang-for-buck keeping this stuff in-house. MS doesn't have some secret trick in providing it other than that they don't purchase licenses for their software in the same manner we all do.

I don't see MS leveraging 365 to reclaim IE market share. If anything, I see MS being more and more friendly to Chrome and FF due to customer demand. As the demand to make most sites available on phones and tablets increases, the sense in trying to force PC users to IE when you're supporting competing phones' browsers goes away.

Like I've said in the past, I really see "Cloud" as a shift in market share, but not a fundamental game changer from an IT perspective. More companies will outsource more services, but many services will still be in-house. We won't lose many IT jobs, if any, since the technology is still getting implemented, designed, and supported by someone, somewhere. We might see some overall cost reduction for businesses, as we should and as is the way of things. Again, cost curve and market share shifts, IMO, not major upsets to the flow of things.

The irony is that 365 is still not feasible for a lot of SMBs, who IMO actually stand to benefit the most. At the end of the day, cheap enough bandwidth is just not there for a lot of organizations to really move everything to the "cloud". Five years from now might be a very different story, and it will be exciting to see it play out.

Everyone

To the cloud!

India recently chose Live@EDU (which is transitioning to Office 365 for Education) for over 10,000 of its colleges, and over 7.5 million users.

India Ministry Selects Live@Edu in Microsoft

Office 365 is still used mostly by SMB I believe... I think there are a couple big players on it now too... but for those that can't or won't go "to the cloud", MS is really pushing "Private Clouds" now.

This article I wrote recently may interest you.... http://www.fixtheexchange.com/doing-it-microsoft-way

It focuses mainly on on-premises, and I didn't even have time to touch all areas there, let alone get into cloud services.

N2IT

Thanks for sharing the article. I read the whole thing, I do agree with your assessment about Outlook being the biggest player in the office suite, but I wouldn't under estimate Word or Excel either. Both of those are huge players as well. Financial Analyst without Excel is like sending them back into the 90's. Especially with the new PowerPivot tool add-in, no finance or accounting department would ever be caught dead without Excel.