Long live Office 14

Having reflected on the impact of the Office 14 online and collaboration features I have to wonder what the road map for the Microsoft Groove platform is?

Groove is a very smart set of features that was available in Office that allowed users to work in an online/offline manner on documents and discuss what was happening. However, I now see that large chunks of this capability  is now being included in the next release of Office. 

Groove was always crippled by the licensing implications and was, in my opinion, only ever included because Ray Ozzie gave birth to it before he came to Microsoft. So it is nice to see that the collaboration is finally being embedded in the Office system as it should be.

Mind you I will be VERY interested to see just how they work the Licensing of all of this. Will one Office license cover online and offline etc. The legal pain is almost too painful to imagine. Just look at the pain the Microsoft Multiplexing license causes now integrating MSCRM with SharePoint . Then throw in online documents and the Azure services and you hit a world of pain!

We live in interesting times

There are so many things coming out of the Microsoft PDC that I am finding it hard to keep up so this is my first post listing some of the things that have come out so far:

Office 14 New online version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. These will be cross platform cross browser lightweight versions of the core Office components that will be available in the “cloud” or in a hosted/on Site SharePoint environment as well as being available on a phone (I am assuming a Windows Mobile device) Channel 9 video here (9 min for the demo) There is lots of talk about collaboration and the mobile options that are raised are very powerful especially for us at Aspective where our Vodafone links really count.

The next great feature is that they have included the ability to have multiple concurrent users of a document. I cannot say how much pain this will take away.

One thing I am disappointed at is that InfoPath is not included in the scenarios. I have encountered a number of real world scenarios where people want and need a form solution that InfoPath could clearly fulfill but it is ruled out because of the cost and complexity of deploying a SharePoint Forms server solution to a public/semi private facing site.

Windows 7. Lots of talk about the UI PC Pro has lots of coverage here and there is a screen shot slide show here. if you want the news from the source this post from the Windows Team covers a lot of the key points

On a more technical level Channel 9 has an interview with Mark Russinovich here. Most of Mark’s interview goes over my head but still interesting. It seems that a lot of deep down tweaking is going on in the kernel to improve multi core performance (Over 8 CPUs and up to 256. Now that’s forward thinking!)  and even got Dave Cutler involved. There is also a discussion on User mode scheduling which highlighted a key advantage the likes of SQL Server has in being part of the same global company. Namely that the Windows kernel team clearly work with the SQL team to drive performance. Not, I suspect, something Oracle can do. Also mentioned is a parallel plug and play boot process and yet more pre-fetch/ready boost, better battery life by letting processor cores sleep in preference to just ticking over. T

The final 15 mins goes into how deeply complex Windows has become and how the work is going on the concept of minWin is going. minWin is the code name for the work on developing a core version of Windows that can be isolated from the “nice to have” bits and allow Microsoft to really get to work on a component based version of Windows. That’s a 25Mb on disk core. When they get all of this sorted out then we will see the fastest evolution of Widows ever as it will mean that individual sub systems can be upgraded without having to spend ages worrying about inter-dependencies.

Finally in the last 6 mins there is announcements that you will be able to mount and create Virtual Hard disks (VHD) natively in Windows. VHDs become first class items in Windows. You can even boot windows from a VHD. This has potentially  huge implications for me in the pre-sales arena where we run virtual machines all the time as well as for setting up development and test environments.

More  next ……

Some years ago I ran my own small development house that specialized in writing applications for small and medium businesses in my local area. Much like Vlad is often saying we had to do a sanity check on where the business was heading. At the time there were 3 key features that were on our horizon:

1. Big boys coming down the food chain. It was clear that the likes of Microsoft and alike were targeting smaller and smaller companies with their Line of Business applications. This would mean that our customers would be able to get 80% functionality for way less than we could build 100% of the  functionality.
2. Rent – a Coder expectations. Even then we were competing against the outsource world. In particular the expectation levels that they set. More and more customers were expecting to be paying outsourced prices BUT getting traditional quality, control and budgetary reliability. Shame it never works but that’s the mind set.
3. Technology Route March.  We realized that we were having to learn and assimilate at least one new technology every 2 projects just to keep up. Whilst we all liked new technology and enjoyed it it was EXPENSIVE to have to learn all the time just to keep up. We had to keep up because if we fell behind we would loose productivity which would put us even further behind the Rent – a – coders.

The end result was to realize that there were only 2 routes forward; massive scale up or pack up and join someone who has done a massive scale up. We chose the latter.

The point of all of this is that the technology route march is about to step up the pace by an order of magnitude.

Not since the release of the .NET framework have I seen as much fundamental change being released as is being let loose at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC)

Just looking through the recent channel 9 videos about what is coming at the PDC shows how massively the ASP model  cloud computing world will again be changing the way applications will work. Just watching this video shows the huge step change that is coming. An online scalable system with all the capabilities of a full scale business system, web services, databases and workflow.

All in all I feel justified in making the choices I did as only the big players can afford to maintain momentum whilst absorbing the sea changes that are coming.

PS. I am also in awe of the founding architects of the .NET vision that has taken the core concept through so many unforeseen changes whilst still being flexible enough to cope.  

Last week I posted about a demo Microsoft did at the BI conference that used their surface table to deliver a BI demo.

Well nismith got backstage for this demo and got a sneak peak.

UPDATE – looks like the video has been pulled – dont know why but I have emailed to ask for it back

A very cool demo – reality, no (unless Microsoft want to loan me a Surface Table, Hint Hint),  but a good thought provoking idea.

EDIT

I have come up with a nice scenario that could merge BI and the Surface platform:

We shop at our local Sainsburys’ which has a loyalty card scheme called Nectar. It also has a Starbucks in store.

My idea is that in the Starbucks they could have Surface tables. if you put your Nectar card on the table it could read the unique barcode on the card and then display the BI data about the spending I have done over time at the supermarket.

I could then look at my spending patterns whilst sipping my latte and the supermarket could also be serving up contextual adverts.

I win by seeing where my budget goes and the supermarket wins with access to an engaged audience.

No doubt one day!

Chris Webb has a final round up of some views on this new project that was announced at the BI conference. I particularly like this quote:

"Where is the single version of the truth in this architecture? I’ve just spent 4 years of my life trying to convince users to stop using Excel as a data store and here are Microsoft positively encouraging it. Hell will freeze over before this capability is used responsibly in most organisations".

I have little to add but I do think it is highlighting a view that I came across frequently when working in the Microsoft BI space namely that the development of BI at Microsoft is becoming more and more detached from real world deployment.

This view first came to my attention in the fiasco that was the SQL 2005 SP1 to SP2 transition. At first I dismissed this but the more I wrestled with the quirks the more I wondered.

I now wonder if this is another example of the left hand not getting what the right hand is doing, much like the gaps between the work the Excel team do and the SQL team do.

Thanks to Stephen for this post.

The 2,000 rule: because stored procedure calls to SQL Server slow down as you reach 2,000 items, have less than that in a view on a List. Less than 200 ideally to have optimum performance.

 

The post also covers off a number of other constraints that should be considered when designing your SharePoint deployment

Slightly off topic but…

Scott Hanselman has developed an application called Baby Smash that is a WPF application that allows babies to interact with an application designed for them by “smashing” on the keyboard.

As I understand it it was a way for him to explore the WPF framework that would also be of use for is new family. By a combination of seeking feature requests and a conspiracy over at Channel9 the most requested feature was for a networked Massively Multiplayer Online BabySmash so Babies can Smash together.

The end result is that he will be developing such a feature live during his PDC talk and inviting the audience members to join in and try it.

So the image is…

A room full of grown up geeks smashing their keyboards and “imitating” a bunch of 2 year olds.

please God let someone video it!

First off a disclaimer. I am NOT a Master Data Management (MDM) expert – far from it. I am just a pre-sales consultant that has to raise the concept on almost every engagement I am involved with.

Having got that out of the way I was intrigued to read this post from Mick Horne at Conchango. Now I take anything a Conchango employee says VERY seriously as they are all very bright lights and lots of what they do and say makes my brain hurt!

In the post he reflects

 

Having sat through three keynotes, I’m now concerned that I haven’t heard any mention of two areas that are important to the work I’ve been doing for the last 3 or 4 years and in one of those cases which I thought would be fundamental to Microsoft’s strategy for BI going forward.

The glaring omission is Master Data Management.  In 2007 Microsoft purchased Stratature, one of the leading MDM tools on the SQL Server platform which looked at the time incredibly sensible since it filled a big gap in Microsoft’s portfolio for BI and data integration.

I’m left wondering where Microsoft see Stratature (now "Micorosft MDM") fitting into their vision for BI; clearly it’s not near the top of the priority list. There have been several posts on these blog pages about what MDM is and where it fits into data integration architecture, and one of its key roles is in the enablement of data services as part of an SOA.  This is the second omission from any of the keynotes so far and I’ll come back to it. ( emphasis MINE)

Now I would agree that there did not seem (based on someone who was not there) to be much shouting about this and I think the responses Mick got at the Q&A session reflected this but I suspect there were 3(probably more) reasons for this.

Firstly the marketing drive of the conference was the democratization of BI. As such MDM is seen as a back end tool and, quite frankly, not sexy. If there had been keynotes about it then the “message” might have been lost.

The second reason I think is that the perception, and in 80% of the cases the correct perception, is that the core of MDM is NOT a technical problem. It is first and foremost a business problem. The issue is far less a technical one but one of balancing the client’s internal politics and balancing the needs of the project sponsor with those of the rest of the business.

If you have a successful client team and good senior management then the business issues can be resolved and then, and only then, it moves to a technical issue.

The third reason I think is that the purchase of Stratature has not yet bedded down. I suspect (based on no evidence I admit) that there is still considerable discussion about where in the product line up it will sit, how it is going to be developed and what is going to happed to features that overlap other MS products. This seems a bit like ProClarity. Lots of work getting the product embedded into the Microsoft way, lots of code reviews, quality checks and documentation updates before it can even appear on the Microsoft pricelist.

In conclusion I think the reasons Microsoft didn’t get MDM at the BI conference is that:

1. Its not sexy end user self serve stuff
2. Its not relevant to the audience they were pitching at (see 1)
3. Its primarily a “soft” business issue that Microsoft don’t really care about (No revenue)
4. It was not invented there. The cultural shift has not been achieved and the overlaps with other Microsoft products has not yet been

Ok I am now REALLY jealous of all the BI people at the conference!

This post covers my slight disappointment at there not being more PerformancePoint news coming out of the conference but it seems the best is yet to come.

It hints at a demo using PerformancePoint and Microsoft’s Surface technology.

Now Surface is a touch sensitive table that allows users to manipulate images and items using their fingers. I would love to see how a presentation of a BI and forecasting tool will be deployed to such an interactive medium. I hope there is a video!

One of the recurring themes I encounter when talking to customers about how they are going to implement CRM is the issue of Master Data Management. That is getting them to think about and establish which of their systems is going to be the controlling point for data entities. Needless to say this often revolves around account data but also frequently includes Invoices and orders.

Now there is no simple solution to this and it often involves delicate discussions with different business users. Typically the CRM implementation is being sponsored by front line business users and sales but the accounting team need to be engaged with as well.

The higher up the enterprise chain you go the more complex this issue becomes as more systems and strategies are involved.

I was particularly interested, therefore, in a post Jeremy Kashel from the excellent Adatis team made from the BI Conference which linked to this presentation (pptx) which deals with what Master Data Management really means. It is unfortunately one of those obtuse Microsoft slide decks   but there are some very worthwhile points in it. Such as:

MDM Misconceptions

1.MDM is a data warehousing project

2.MDM is solely for maintaining data consistency across business transaction systems

3.MDM is simply another data integration project

4.MDM integrates and manages all enterprise-wide data

MDM is a data quality project