Microsoft Unveils LOBi to Unite 3rd Party Apps with Office

Published: June 21, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft, perhaps buoyed by good early feedback of its "Duet" product that turns its Office suite into an interface with SAP's ERP applications, has designs on doing something similar for other business applications. At the Tech Ed conference last week, Microsoft announced its strategy for a new line of business interoperability (LOBi), tools for further transforming Office into a front-end for Microsoft's own products, as well as making it an interface with third-party ERP, CRM, SCM, and business intelligence and content management systems.

LOBi will build on, and help to tie together, various products coming out of Redmond in the coming year, including Office 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007, both due out in October; Exchange Server 2007, a second beta of which is due out next month; and Office Live Communications Server "12," which is due out next year.

More specifically, Microsoft described LOBi as "a future set of capabilities" in SharePoint Server that will work together with Microsoft Office client applications, including the new Office Business Application (OBA) services that Microsoft is introducing with Office 2007.

Microsoft says the point of these new OBA services is to extend Office into three main areas: business intelligence (BI), unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), and enterprise content management (ECM). The OBA technology will do this by providing Office 2007 products and users with new capabilities, including: workflow; search; the new "Business Data Catalog;" a new user interface; new XML-based Office formats; and the new "Web Site and Security Framework."

The LOBi tools within SharePoint Server will work with these OBA services to enable "deep structured process integration" between the Office client applications and the Big Three application areas (BI, ECM, and UC&C). It will also provide people with the means to update transactional applications from within Office, as well as the capability to take "structured business processes" and data offline. Microsoft says a technical preview of LOBi for Office SharePoint Server will be available at the end of 2006.

Microsoft sees LOBi and OBA playing roles in shaping future UC&C applications, including providing a single inbox for all forms of communication, enabling telephone-based access to e-mail and calendar information, and generally breaking down the barriers that separate people and teams of people. In terms of ECM, Microsoft's vision encompasses delivering--or at least hooking into--a single content-management framework that follows one set of rules for things such as workflows and compliance policies. The LOBi and OBA technologies will play similar roles in BI, where Microsoft sees integrating disparate systems and making information easier to access and digest as the main issues. Expect Excel to play an increasingly important role in BI, as well.

Getting employees to actually use the applications their companies put in front of them is a big problem, and LOBi is part of Microsoft's strategy to fix it. "LOBi for Office SharePoint Server provides a clear path for developers and industry partners to solve one of the biggest problems facing IT: making business applications that end users actually embrace because the interfaces are familiar and in the context of where they do their work," says Lewis Levin, corporate vice president of the Office Business Applications Group at Microsoft.

Levin pointed to Duet, the joint development project with SAP that turns Office into an interface for many mySAP activities (see 'SAP-Microsoft Collaboration Produces 'Duet'"). Microsoft is also taking a similar tact with its own Dynamics suite of ERP applications, and made significant strides in hooking Office into its premier ERP suite, the former Axapta (see "Dynamics AX 4.0 Takes Step Toward Unified ERP"). "By building LOBi on Office SharePoint Server, we allow customers to get started today creating Office Business Applications and then grow with LOBi when it becomes available," Levin says.

Obviously, Microsoft doesn't (yet) own the entire stack of business applications, and relies on partners for servicing the specialized needs and niche requirements of its customers. To that extent, Microsoft last week announced that its LOBi strategy has the backing of 15 software vendors and systems integrators, including Above All Software, Accenture, Approva, Epicor Software, GE Fanuc Automation, Hyperion, i2 Technologies, K2net, Open Text, Panorama Software, QAD, Rockwell Automation, UGS, Wonderware, and Workday. Obviously this list is going to need to grow considerably if Microsoft's LOBi strategy is going to pan out. However, the company's more mature OSA strategy already has the backing of 900 vendors, according to Microsoft.

Tom Jenkins, the chairman and chief strategy officer for enterprise content management (ECM) software developer Open Text, said LOBi could make his company's products more useful. "LOBi supports the complementary business solutions we're delivering to address ECM requirements in key vertical and horizontal market segments," he stated in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. "The result is better solutions that pull together content from across the entire enterprise to address challenges such as legal discovery, corporate governance, or e-submissions in life sciences, while giving users faster access to information where they work today: Microsoft Office."

An executive with systems integrator Accenture said LOBi could help companies in supply chain businesses. "Our clients are always looking to extract more value from their inventory planning investments," says Narenda Mulani, who works in Accenture's North American supply chain practice. "With the introduction of LOBi, our supply chain clients can benefit from greater interoperability, between their enterprise planning systems and the Office interface."

For more information on LOBi and OBA, visit msdn.microsoft.com/office/tool/OBA/default.aspx.