Sitting proudly atop Microsoft"s software stack, the Office application suite that played a critical role in securing the company"s controversial desktop dominance now finds itself at a crossroads.
Historically immersed in a sea of proprietary APIs, Microsoft is in the midst of overhauling the Office code-base around XML to meet the interoperability demands of Web services and become the client window into its .Net strategy.
But XML is a double-edged sword, promising Microsoft the riches of tight integration across its diverse product lines while simultaneously opening the door to competitive displacement.
The next generation Office 11, scheduled to ship in 2003, will leverage XML so that it runs on a diverse collection of client devices from Tablet PCs, to PDAs, notebooks, and PCs.
These devices in turn will facilitate user collaboration courtesy of a single Microsoft data store, Yukon, that links .Net servers such as BizTalk and Exchange, and Microsoft applications such as Great Plains, Navision, and Visio.