My name is Chris Bryant and I’m also a part of the team responsible for evangelizing Office as a platform for business applications.  The whole OBA concept isn’t something we invented, but is actually a pattern that we and others observed occurring naturally in the marketplace.  Several members of the press and analyst community have been tracking these trends and have published papers and/or articles on this topic.  I thought it would be helpful to share some links to press and analyst coverage on OBA and Office as an application platform.

May 2006 Forrester Research Report - Developers, Get Ready: 2007 Microsoft Office Is A Serious Application Platform

http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,39504,00.html  (Summary/TOC only)

June 2006 AMR Research Article 19538 – The 2007 Microsoft Office System as a Business Application Platform

http://www.amrresearch.com/Content/View.asp?pmillid=19538 (Summary only)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9B4306EC-6FD3-49FC-A581-2BB9E6E3BE56&displaylang=en (full article available for a limited time)

Oct 2006 Application Development Trends coverage - Microsoft Helps Developers Take Duet-Style OBAs Beyond SAP

http://adtmag.com/article.aspx?id=19426

Oct 2006 PCWorld Australia coverage - Microsoft offers Office integration for backend apps

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;622385817

Oct 2006 InternetNews coverage - Microsoft Offers Office Integration Sample Code

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3637126

- Chris