Microsoft Sharpens Its Software Factory Vision
261120
VANCOUVER, British ColumbiaâIn a speech at the Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages and Applicationsâor OOPSLAâconference here, Microsoft Corp.
379996
Microsoft has announced a new framework and tool for Visual Studio Team System to support the creation of service-oriented applications for various vertical industries.
312453
Office, Microsoft Corp.&#39;s collection of programs for business documents and tasks, is fast becoming a software platform unto itself.
339878
Microsoft, IBM and Borland are upgrading their software and offering users new workflow features, support for multiple languages and tools to manage the lifecycle of in-house applications.
201957
New product for Office is aimed at getting more people within each business to use Redmond's software.
490712
If software makers want better performance, they'll have to make some big changes in how they write applications.
404358
(InfoWorld) - Software giant Microsoft is focusing on selling to global technology manufacturers with a software suite it promoted at a Silicon Valley forum on Thursday. Microsoft showed off 2007 versions of its Office software suite for business functions, SQL Server database management system, Office SharePoint Server program for project collaboration and other products at its first-ever Global High Tech Summit in Santa Clara, California. Microsoft hopes to grab a piece of a growing market for IT spending by technology manufacturers next year. Fifty-nine percent of high-tech manufacturers surveyed by AMR ResearchÂ said they planned to increase their IT spending in 2007, averaging a 4.1 percent increase. An earlier survey about 2006 plans had shown only 42 percent planned to increase their spending, and they said they would boost it by an average of just 3.2 percent. Companies have already invested in technology to automate manufacturing processes, but now they are investing to be able to adjust production to changes in demand, said Eric Austvold, research director at AMR, in Boston. "They want to know how you create an agile supply network that ramps up a product to volume [production] quickly," Austvold said. The quicker a company gets a product to market, the more units it can sell. Microsoft is targeting product development, supply chain management, customer relationship management and operational performance, said Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, to about 400 participants at the daylong forum. Microprocessor maker Advanced Micro DevicesÂ uses a variety of Windows-based software in its chip fabrication plants and will upgrade to the new Vista operating system when it becomes available next year, said Tom Sonderman, director of automated precision manufacturing technology for AMD, in Sunnyvale, California. "Once we get Vista and get into 64-bit computing, you begin to raise the bar on the things we can do," said Sonderman. "There is an ongoing desire for us to have more computing power in the fab." Also at the event, Microsoft and IntelÂ jointly proposed anÂ open, interoperable industry standardÂ for document sharing based on the Office Open XML formats. The two companies presented the proposal to RosettaNet, a technology standards group. The Microsoft-Intel standard conflicts with one promoted by Adobe Systems. "They pushed Adobe aside with this announcement," said AMR's Austvold. "Adobe has been doing this already with a proprietary standard. This announcement trumps that and says, 'We [Microsoft] have got a standard we think is more open,' [although] I think thatâs debatable."
744708
The software company has undergone an extreme makeover.
229764
Microsoft has launched a partner program around Office Live, which it is grooming to be a major product.
99948
Web services are becoming increasingly popular for linking software programs. Now, Microsoft and some other big companies are pitching the technology as a way to manage everything from big corporate servers to mobile phones.
762428
Microsoft is polishing Vista with a long-awaited service pack in hopes of greater adoption among businesses.
308407
Compuware this week is upgrading its Vantage application service management software to highlight predictive analysis and performance assessment.
360565
Windows shops that want to build a product lifecycle management strategy now have the assurance that Microsoft will be more closely aligned with one of the PLM industry&#39;s largest manufacturing application vendors.
650005
MicrosoftÂ has taken another step to make it easier for customers and partners to customize its BI software suite.
268352
With SP2 out the door, Microsoft turns sights to Longhorn--which won't look quite as expected.
320341
IBM is moving aggressively into the software space.
600896
A software tools maker is staking its future on helping developers prepare for streamlined coding for Web services (define) as well as Avalon, the graphics display component in the works for Longhorn, Microsoft&#39;s next version of Windows.