World's toughest jobs: Microsoft's interoperability chief
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Putting the ability into Interop Interop He's faced with the unenviable task of convincing the world that Microsoft wants to play nicely with competitors - and also convincing the troops and top management that it's worth it.â¦
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Blog: General managers for interoperability at Microsoft argue that a boosted commitment to interoperability, as well as legal arrangements, are behind Microsoft deals with Linux vendors.
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Semantic interoperability remains a utopian vision without many practical implementations.
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Being secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is a &quot;tough, tough, tough job,&quot; said Dan Prieto. &quot;We have a robotics lab at Harvard.
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Just before his farewell CES keynote speech, Microsoft's chairman reflects on Redmond's rivals and the changing face of Windows. Photos: Gates' last call at CES?
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InfoWorld - Microsoft says it will focus on four key areas to improve interoperability between its own software and other vendors' products.
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Microsoft preached its "new world of work" mantra at the company?s Global High Tech Summit 2007 conference in San Jose, Calif. on Thursday.Noting synergy between the disciplines of business and IT, the event is intended for professionals from both realms, said Tyler Bryson, Microsoft's newly announced general manager of the U.S. Manufacturing Industry portion of the company?s Industry Solutions Organization."At Microsoft, we believe that alignment [of business and IT] is critical to innovation," Bryson said. Also featured at the event were speakers from chipmakers Intel and Freescale Semiconductor, who talked about modernizations to their systems and processes.Trends are accelerating, such as globalization and market growth that are creating a new world of work, Bryson said. Other relevant trends include the pressure to improve operation performance, quality-driven regulatory compliance, and rapid cycles of product innovation.Globalization and technology create entirely new ways that people think about work, and everyone must adjust and respond, said Bryson. "The world is transforming what it means to be at work," he said.The morning's presentations had a bent toward high-tech manufacturing. Bryson said the National Association of Manufacturers expects a 40 percent turnover in the manufacturing work base; companies must cope with transferring knowledge to employees."Most manufacturers are reporting a shortage of skilled workers," he said. A culture of innovation must be created that can attract the best talent, said Bryson.New tenets of work, according to Bryson, include creating a culture of innovation, empowering the workforce, driving operational excellence, running a customer-centric business, using compliance as a tool of transparency, and operating in a global environment.At Freescale, the company is undertaking several upgrades, including moving to a single global instance of SAP for supply chain operations. Freescale is what Janelle Monney, senior vice president of business operations at the company, described as "a 50-year-old startup" that was part of Motorola until 2004.The company also has initiatives in manufacturing and business intelligence, she noted. Freescale's business intelligence platform is intended to bring multiple data streams altogether into a single data warehouse."One of the key objectives of IT is to turn data into information for decision-making," said Monney.Also, employees can access e-mail on cell phones equipped with Windows OSes, she said.With Intel, the company is extending itself to accommodate three market opportunities: mobile Internet devices, consumer electronics, and development of low-cost PCs, said Stuart Pann, an Intel vice president and co-general manager of customer fulfillment, planning and logistics."One of our goals is how do we configure the supply chain to take advantage of these new opportunities," Pann said.Intel is running a new manufacturing process on Intel systems and Microsoft operating systems at its high-volume plant in Arizona, Pann said. "That is virtually run on Intel architecture and on Microsoft operating systems, so we've made the transition over the years, and we've found that the combination of these two products is more than robust enough to run $3.5 billion factories," said Pann.Among other improvements, the company is developing a new workspace that is a fundamental change to the company's cubicle culture, he said. Phone booths will be created, more privacy options will be offered, and the company will get rid of underutilized office space, said Pann.Also, author and consultant Geoffrey Moore, managing director of TCG Advisors, lectured on the challenges of finding a competitive advantage and innovation in a marketplace that faces frequent commoditization."You must innovate in order to continue to sustain advantage," Moore said.Differentiation also is important, he said. Apple with its iPod has customers acknowledging it is different, he said. But past differentiation can erode so that a company?s core competency is no longer core, he said."Our friends at Dell are dealing with that right now," with the industry catching up and Dell having to reinvent itself, said Moore.Microsoft officials briefly noted the company's new unified communications platform, which features Office Communications Server and provides such capabilities as IM, voice, and videoconferencing.
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MicrosoftÂs online chief wants to change the way his company runs its Internet business. But he is finding that redirecting such a behemoth is slow going.
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You will comply The European Commission has warned Microsoft it could face further penalties over what it calls "unreasonable pricing" of interoperability information.â¦
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Microsoft's chief software architect is expected to detail the company's long-term plan for trimming systems administration costs.
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Microsoft Corp. is facing growing pressure from open-source software across every segment of its businessâa competitive threat that could have significant consequences for its financial future going forward
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Over the next three days, in eight languages and 27 countries, Microsoft Corp.  will release its most important program of 2004 -- not a new version of Windows or Office, but an epic tale of a super-soldier defending the Earth from a mysterious alien force.
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That's what some IT managers say, a survey finds. Even more believe it'll be the toughest Windows update ever.
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While similar rules apply to Web security, the differences are crucial and the stakes are high, says Microsoft senior security director.Photos: Leading Microsoft's security crew
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By Tony Henshaw  Unisys Corp, a worldwide technology services and solutions provider, surveyed more than 200 IT executives recently, trying to find out how large organizations are restructuring end-user services to meet insatiable end-users, proliferating devices and soaring complexity.
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Virtualization and 64-bit will be key planks of Microsoft's architecture, says server and tools chief Bob Muglia.
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A new study by the Open Solutions Alliance finds interoperability is a top concern for customers.