Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today outlined a new "People-Ready" vision of business tools that will be based on feature integration across the company's forthcoming versions of the Windows Vista operating system, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows Mobile software and the next version of Microsoft Exchange Server, as well as infrastructure offerings such as Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005.
"Fueling our vision is a series of software solutions resulting from a $20 billion R&D investment over the past three years that is producing new innovation in a range of categories. From business intelligence to the mobile work force, from collaboration to communications, and from CRM to enterprise search, the opportunity for software to deliver even greater customer value is limitless," said Ballmer.
Key areas of focus include:
- Unified communications and collaboration. Technologies such as
Exchange Server, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator will break down today's silos of
communication (e-mail, phone, instant messaging, Web conferencing). - Enterprise search.
- The mobile work force. Specifically, the next version of Exchange Server offers a speech-enabled and unified messaging platform that integrates e-mail, fax and voice mail in the user's inbox with support for a variety of clients, including traditional and mobile devices. The integration between Windows Mobile, Exchange Server and the 2007 Microsoft Office system enables entirely new scenarios for businesses to turn their work force into a mobile work force without having to manage additional server infrastructure.
- Business intelligence.
- Customer relationship management (CRM).
