Ardentia Search was an early adopter of Windows Presentation Foundation and enrolled in the UK ISV Early Adopter Program (aka Touchdown). We had the good fortune to work with Ardentia Search throughout the development and migration from Java to .NET 3.
A few months ago we set up a briefing with Ardentia Search and Philip Howard of Bloor Research. Philip recently wrote an interesting article about structured search and included Ardentia Search in his analysis. You can read the article here.
To see both video and paper case studies from Ardentia Search, visit www.innovate-uk.com.
- Paul
We've been pushing for this internally and are all very pleased with the announcement to include Expression Blend & Web in MSDN Premium. There is a downside to this in that many (most) developers should not have access to Blend - it's way too dangerous for the non user experience designer.. but most small shops tend to have one person that does both dev + design so it makes sense.
Read more about it on the UK Web Agency blog.
- Paul
Technorati tags:
WPF,
WPFe,
Blend,
Web,
MSDN
There is a lot of interest from partners around Open XML, the new file format for Office System 2007, especially those partners that have ever tried to programmatically create or manipulate files - it was hard! its now a lot easier, and to help partners kick start this process, we are hosting a special one-off free developer workshop. Details and a registration link below:
30th April - 1st May 2007- Reading- Open XML Developer Workshop
This two day workshop focuses on Open XML, the new document format for Microsoft Office 2007. The new Office Open XML file format is compact and robust and enable better data integration between documents and back-end systems. In particular, this new format is designed to make it easy for applications and systems to create and manipulate documents, opening up a whole variety of opportunities for ISV’s applications to integrate document production, manipulation, archiving, etc.
This developer workshop covers the structure and semantics of the new Office Open XML file format. Attendees will spend time working with the three major markup languages; WordprocessingML, SpreadsheetML and PresentationML, and will learn how to develop Office Open XML enabled solutions using System.XML and the Packaging API. Advanced topics such as digital signatures and working with custom XML and data-binding to create interactive documents will also be covered.
For more information, and to register, see:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032334916&Culture=en-GB
I admit, the "I'm a PC. I'm a Mac" skit with the Windows Vista security dialog box warnings was pretty funny (well done) and I laughed quite a bit - despite the fact that asking users if they want to run potentially dangerous software is generally a good thing.
But on a more serious tone, I was very pleased to read the Windows Vista - 90 Day Vulnerability Report. Windows Vista leads the pack amongst operating systems with vulnerabilities in the first 90 days (just 1) and over the past six months has had the fastest patch time of any major operating system vendor, as reported by ComputerWorld.
- Paul
Technorati tags:
Vista,
Security
Everyone on our team is thinking about SaaS and what it means to our partners. This is a particular area of interest for Eric, who has the architectural background and painful memories learning from the ASP-days to make sense of it all and ensure we're providing sound advice to our partners.
I recently posted that SaaS is not the future but Software + Services is a candidate. Every time I talk with partners I'm reminded that they have a business to run and can't always afford to be on the latest trend. Software + Services (aka SaaS), however, is really starting to cross the line from "nice to know" to "need to know".
This Wednesday I'll be hosting one of our larger UK partners for an Envisioning Session in the UK Microsoft Technology Centre. I'll cover three topics:
- What does People_Ready Business really mean
- Software + Services (SaaS)
- User Experience Matters
The bit I've been stuck on is SaaS. How can I get everyone up to a level playing field in the first few minutes so we can have a healthy discussion about SaaS? Videos tend to work well for this sort of thing, so I started searching around YouTube and found this one. It's not bad so I might just use it.
- Paul
Technorati tags:
SaaS,
S+S,
MTC
The Microsoft Developer and Platform Group will be hosting two half day technical sessions aimed at Microsoft partners, especially ISVs, focusing on Microsoft Office Open XML, the new document format for Microsoft Office 2007. Theses sessions will cover the new format, and explore how they can be used within applications and systems.
Some potential scenarios include:
- Creating multiple, customised documents without automating Microsoft Word
- Drop custom data packets direct into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets from a database feed
- Swap style and images and text in documents by injecting XML
- Archive documents
If you have looked at working with Microsoft Office documents in previous releases, you will be pleased to discover that, based on partner feedback, the new Office XML Formats are compact, robust file formats that enable better data integration between documents and back-end systems. This new format is designed to make it easy for applications to create and manipulate documents, opening up a whole variety of opportunities for applications to integrate document production, archiving, etc.
This session is aimed at Architects, Senior developers and System Designers, and some familiarity with .NET framework is desirable to obtain the most from this event. The day will be a mixture of presentations, demos and discussions, and to keep a small informal atmosphere, the event is constrained to a maximum of 20 people (2 per company), to ensure lots of opportunity for discussion.
To Book
This event is being run twice
20th March 2007, 1pm – 4pm. Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 1WG.
To book: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032331093&Culture=en-GB
22nd March 2007. 9:30am – 1pm. Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 1WG.
To book: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032331106&Culture=en-GB
- David
That's right - SaaS (Software as a Service) is not a software revolution. Someone from a large Internet company recently referred to Microsoft's software as "old school" because it runs on the desktop. Heck, even some of our own executives have implied SaaS is the future. It's not. Service-based software is not the sole vision of the future at Microsoft.
SaaS is a very real thing and every company should think about the implications. It creates new business models and opens up the door for some interesting B2C and B2B opportunities. It in no way negates the need for desktop (or server) software.
If I were to give up local software for software that was only available when connected, I'd lose anywhere from 50 - 75% of my working day. I travel a lot to and from work and spend a large amount of time on airplanes, but even for the most connected individuals with fancy little 3G cards would lose a significant amount of productivity if they had to be online to run software.
But it's early days, right? No - it's not. Broadband access is becoming more and more ubiquitous but to think it will someday in the near future (next 5 years) be anywhere and everywhere with 100% uptime at affordable prices is too idealistic for my tastes.
The only analogy I can think of is equating SaaS to airplanes and traditional software as trains / cars / metros. The airplane is a fantastic invention - without it the world would be much different but we probably shouldn't get rid of cars and other local transportation options just yet.
So how would I look at SaaS?
A good option is to think about it as Software + Services. Some chatter about this surfaced on a few of our internal aliases at Microsoft and I really like the way one person described it. Services are software and require a platform to run.
The platform, in some instances, can be a simple AJAX-friendly browser (Firefox or Internet Explorer), it can be a slightly richer application that requires connectivity (AJAX + WPFe or .NET or Flash), or it can be a premium desktop experience (C++, WPF/.NET, Java) that exposes additional functionality when the user is connected to the Internet but is perfectly accessible offline.
There's a need for each of these scenarios now and the foreseeable future. There's a reason Adobe is working so hard to bring Flash to the desktop and Microsoft continues to invest a significant amount of R&D in desktop technologies in conjunction with services.
Now don't get me wrong - we get the concept of services. XBox Live was the fastest growing subscription service in history. We're making huge investments in other aspects of our Live platform (Search, Office Live, Windows Live, Live Messenger, Spaces, Live Local, etc.) but our services are not a bet on the future. Those services have fantastic potential because of their ability to operate online while integrating with other powerful software.
- Paul
Technorati tags:
SaaS,
S+S,
WPF,
WPFe,
AJAX,
Live
If you are developing with Windows Presentation Foundation, check out our new series of screencasts and videos on Channel9, known as Real World WPF. The UK MCS User Experience Team and a number of UK partners have been working on WPF for over 12 months and this Real World WPF series is intended to show some of their work and capture/share some of their learnings. We hope you find them useful and there will be more to follow.
post by Nick Page
About 3 months ago our team made a great acquisition - Andrew Shorten.
Andrew has been helping developers, partners and customers leverage the Internet as an application platform over the last 8 years; from designing & building web-based solutions for enterprise customers at Fujitsu, through to evangelising about the importance of user experience and smart client technologies at Macromedia/Adobe. Andrew believes that experience matters and nowhere is this more important than when accessing services, applications and content online – he is excited by the opportunities that “Web 2.0” and rich Internet applications present to deliver applications that people actually want to use and which deliver real business benefit.
One of the great things about having someone with this experience is they can relate first-hand the strengths, weaknesses, and unique opportunities Microsoft's client / web technologies present for custom development agencies.
In light of this, Andrew put together a series of quick 5-minute guides to several Microsoft technologies from a non-Microsoft perspective. Check them out:
- Paul
We were waiting for the announcement to go live as the folks at CrunchGear just mentioned it. You can now download Virtual PC 2007 at no cost.
Technorati tags:
Virtual PC
James has just announced a Web 2.0 mashup competition. If you're a developer looking to experiment with Web 2.0 and various complementary services - BT has built a sandboxed environment for you to give it a go, with a $25k price to boot.
www.networkmashups.com
A good article on the importance of Vista for developers. I particularly like this article because you hear from customers and partners directly on what Windows Vista means to them and their business. A few good quotes:
"Perhaps even more profound, if somewhat less groundbreaking, is that the .Net Framework 2.0—on which 3.0 sits—is also included, thus making Vista the first version of Windows that ships ready-to-run .Net ClickOnce Smart Client applications and any other .Net application," Brust said. "That's big news. Since .Net apps, when shipped without the framework, can be extremely small, the release of Vista makes it possible for .Net apps to ship as casually as Visual Basic apps could years ago once the VB run-time started shipping as part of Windows."
Jim Arrowood, an enterprise architect with Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, in Tulsa, Okla., said, "One major benefit gained out of the box from Windows Communication Foundation for Dollar Thrifty was the ability to offer different Web service endpoints built upon a single code base." Arrowood is working on a new car rental system for Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental that will be based on Vista.
The New York Times' Times Reader, a Vista-based beta application, is one such [killer] application, he said. "It's the visuals and the underlying capabilities made manifest in killer applications that will convince consumers to upgrade," Schadler said. "It took only one application to convince me: the Times Reader."
You can read the full article over on eWeek.
Software partners that view Innovation as a key ingredient to success should stop by on January 18th. We're holding our first software partners Innovation day in 2007 and will run through both commercial and technical aspects of innovation - and how Microsoft can help.
Registration is quite full, but if you register soon you should still be able to secure a spot.
Click here to register.
You're a developer, architect, maybe even CTO at a software company. You're constantly challenged to decide should we innovate, increase support in existing products, change our roadmap, start from scratch...
You've got a lot on your mind, it's not easy. I know because I go out with my team to speak with lots of partners and am starting to really understand the many challenges you face.
A recent paper released by IDC helps provide justification for those that work a bit harder, innovate a bit faster, and work with Microsoft a bit closer.
The software industry is facing growth rates of 7.7% up to 2010 but competition and customer expectations are increasing. It's not easy, but we're trying really hard to help technical people innovate and stay ahead - this paper shows those efforts are paying off for our partners.
Read the paper here.
Technorati tags:
ISV,
Partner,
UK,
Innovation
Technically speaking, it's the introduction of new things or methods.
Innovation is a topic I've debated with many people, including professors at Instituto de Empresa (translated), colleagues, and in my own head. It's a tough one, who innovates and who doesn't? Does innovation matter if you're profitable and forecast growth? Is innovation too risky for established companies? People often debate if Microsoft innovates and to me that question is irrelevant. Microsoft is a platform company and well over 90% of our business is done through partners. In some cases we make the call to step back and deliver the end product (XBox, Zune, etc) but most of the time we bank on partners delivering innovative products into the market.
So the real question is not does Microsoft innovate, but does Microsoft enable their partners to innovate?
You might ask, does innovation even matter? I think the FT says it best:
Innovation used to happen by chance, if it happened at all.
Not any longer. Today, the world's most forward-thinking companies see innovation as an engine for growth and, therefore, something that must be strategically managed and securely harnessed. It is the new currency of competition. It is the key to organic growth and wider profit margins. It is, in short, the Holy Grail of business in the 21st Century and companies must keep innovating if they are to keep growing. [link]
So why is our team focussed so heavily on partner innovation? We see it as the key competitive advantage to software partners and we want to do everything possible to ensure Microsoft's partners are successful today and tomorrow. To put it even more bluntly, your success is our success.
What do you think: does Microsoft enable our partners to innovate?
post by Paul Murphy
What is this blog? This will be a technical voice to the 4,000 independent software vendors (ISV's) and 6,000 custom development software (CDS) partners in the UK. The target audience for this blog will be developers and architects within those organizations and our goal is to provide you with specific resources and insight to help you and your companies succeed with innovation.
