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February 10, 2003 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft's purchase of PlaceWare Inc. is an effort to supplement the company's meager offerings in collaboration technology. But it doesn't answer the question about how Microsoft will satisfy the on-premise, enterprisewide collaboration needs of Windows users. PlaceWare is a hosted service for which users pay a fee.
For those seeking an on-premise option, IBM has already spread out its road map to move customers from Domino to WebSphere, DB2 and Tivoli.
Providing on-premise technology makes sense for some users because it can push the cost down to pennies per minute. Most collaboration technology decisions are made at the departmental level. But by having a single, in-house standard, businesses can more effectively use their corporate purchasing power.
Sure, some companies are better off renting collaboration tools on an ad hoc basis from WebEx, PlaceWare, Raindance and others because of relatively low usage levels or because those services don't need to integrate with corporate applications. For them, there's little value in an enterprise-level collaboration system.
But for those that are plotting an overall collaboration strategy (for example, to integrate in-house applications), bolting that software to a hosted collaboration service such as PlaceWare isn't the most elegant solution. Building links from a CRM or ERP application or a database to a collaboration technology is going to be a headache without, for example, controlling upgrades.
That's why Microsoft's purchase falls short of articulating a complete collaboration strategy. It also doesn't address Microsoft's desire to embed collaboration tools using XML (and probably SOAP, UDDI and WSDL) into .Net, which would include capabilities such as Passport. Furthermore, the company has yet to release an instant messaging package as part of Windows Server (that's slated for the third quarter), key to an integrated collaboration system.
According to Mike Gotta, an analyst at Meta Group, there also are some architecture challenges to the PlaceWare deal. Microsoft will have to port PlaceWare to the Windows Server operating system (it's now based on the Java/Sun platform and isn't .Net-certified). All this has to happen before integration into portals, project management applications, the Office suite, Windows Messenger and Exchange can take place. Plus, the purchase doesn't clarify plans for the Real Time Communications component of Windows Server due later this year.
Gotta hopes Microsoft will spell out how on-premise conferencing and collaboration within Windows and with real Web services components will take place.
Until then, enterprise customers will be kept waiting. Or go to IBM.
Pimm Fox is a freelance writer in San Francisco. Contact him at pimmfox@pacbell.net.
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