Microsoft On Schedule for Big Launch November 30

Published: November 8, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft is gearing up for a huge product launch on November 30. That's when the company will officially announce the business availability of a whole raft of new products, including Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange Server 2007. Microsoft has spent years working on these products--particularly Windows Vista--and it's almost time to find out if the real-world demand can match Microsoft's hype.

Microsoft signaled things are on track Monday, when it announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of its Office 2007 suite, which includes applications for Windows-based desktops and servers. RTM marks the final stop in Microsoft's product development cycle before general availability. With the RTM announcement for Vista and Exchange Server 2007 expected any day now, all hurdles will be cleared for Microsoft's "Big Thursday" announcement on November 30, which is when the company says it announces the availability of the next releases of Windows, Office, and Exchange.

"We've crossed the development finish line, and the team deserves to celebrate," said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division. "The 2007 Microsoft Office system RTM completes the most significant improvements to the products in more than a decade."

Office 2007

Office 2007 brings several notable enhancements. One of the biggest is the adoption of an XML-based file format, Microsoft's "Open XML" format, as the default file format, which is expected to make it easier to share Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint slides. The adoption of XML will also make it easier to build applications and Web services that can consume these files, and the new XML format also features built-in compression. While there had been some concern about interoperability with other XML-based formats, in particular the Open Document Format (ODF) used by OpenOffice productivity applications, Microsoft committed to the open source community that it will work to build connectors.

Hardcore Excel junkies will undoubtedly flock to the new capability in Excel 2007 that lets users run spreadsheet calculations on the server. With some Excel spreadsheets getting very large and unwieldy, this capability to harness the power of a server to run recalcs is expected to be very useful.

Microsoft also overhauled the user interfaces of its Office 2007 products with a new "ribbon" interface, a multicolored tabbed bar that lets users organize commands around specific scenarios or objects, and which will replace traditional toolbars for many tasks. Microsoft introduced the ribbon as a way to simplify the process of navigating the product and issuing the many new commands. To give you an idea, the first release of Word had about 100 commands, all of which were navigable through the menus. Office Word 2007, by comparison, has more than 1,500 commands, so you can see why Microsoft was eager to make these commands easier to find. The new ribbon interface will be used in Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and parts of Outlook.

Other enhancements in the suite include new "SmartArt" clip art, a better way to remove unwanted comments or other tracked changes, a new "live preview" function that let's users preview editing and formatting changes, a new "to-do" bar in Outlook, a new "instant search" function that also scans attachments, and others.

There will be eight versions of the Office 2007 suite (officially the "2007 Office suites"). Six of these versions--including Basic, Standard, Home and Student, Small Business, Professional, and Professional Plus--will be making comebacks from the previous release of Office, while two versions, including Ultimate and Enterprise, are new to the suite. A matrix explaining exactly which Office products are included in each package is available here.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be in New York City on November 30 for the big launch. The next day, people in the U.S. and Canada will be able to download a free, 60-day trial of Office 2007 products. At any time, they'll be able to activate the licensed version by visiting a retailer or going on the Web. People in 13 other countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America will be eligible for the free trials soon after December 1.

You won't find Office 2007 on the shelves of your local computer retailer until the beginning of 2007, which is when Windows Vista is expected to become available to consumers. Companies and organizations with volume licensing deals with Microsoft will be able to download and order CDs of Office 2007 and Vista on December 1.

Office SharePoint Server 2007

Another member of the Office 2007 team that should definitely not be overlooked--especially by business users--is Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft's strategic Web portal platform. Many of Microsoft's emerging technology plays, including its service oriented architecture (SOA) and Web services strategies, hinge on SharePoint Server, so it's important to keep an eye on this emerging product.

The 2007 release of the SharePoint Server solidifies the product as the hub of Microsoft activities. The product (and its sidekick, SharePoint Designer 2007) includes new business process workflow templates that let users decide how to apply workflows to their content.

Organizations concerned about archiving content (e-mails, Word docs, spreadsheets) and managing it according to new regulatory guidelines have several more options with SharePoint Server 2007, including enhanced content policies and auditing, the capability to directly upload to a records repository, and richer e-mail retention and archiving options. Meanwhile, PowerPoint junkies (you know you're out there) will revel in SharePoint's new Office PowerPoint 2007 Slide Libraries capability, which is supposed to make it easier for users to share their PowerPoint slides.

SharePoint Server 2007 also gains new tricks when it comes to business intelligence. Key performance indicators (KPIs) created in Office Excel 2007 and reports generated by SQL Server Reporting Services can now be displayed as dashboards within SharePoint.

In addition to SharePoint Server 2007, the Office 2007 suite includes several other server-based programs, including Office Forms Server 2007, Office Groove Server 2007, Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, and Office Project Server 2007.

Exchange Server 2007

Last but not least, Exchange Server 2007 is almost here. The newest version of Microsoft's flagship e-mail server software features enhancements in numerous areas, including easier setup, improved security, new reliability and business continuity features, better anti-spam and antivirus support, improved support for SSL, improved support for SenderID, and better integration with Active Directory.

Exchange Server 2007 is one of the first Microsoft products to go native 64-bit, which will allow it to exploit the full memory enabled by X64-based systems. Performance will be further improved by the expansion of the role-based setup options, whereby only the bits needed for Exchange Server 2007 to function in a given role, including Edge Transport, Hub Transport, Mailbox, Client Access, and Unified Messaging, are installed.

Exchange Server 2007 will make it easier for mobile users to get access to their inbox while they're on the road or out in the field. Additionally, they'll gain the capability to search their inbox from a device, to perform a self-service "remote device wipe," to read HTML mail, to flag messages, and other enhancements.

Administrators also gain from new management capabilities in Exchange Server 2007. The new server will feature a new Exchange Management Shell, built entirely on PowerShell, Microsoft's new command-line shell and scripting language.

Exchange Server also plays a central role in Microsoft's "unified communications" strategy, and will gain new capabilities for getting faxes and voice mail on the desktop. The new server also enables users to access their e-mail from a phone with Outlook Voice Access, which is a feature of Exchange Server 2007.

These are just some of the new features to hit Exchange Server, which has been perhaps Microsoft's most successful business product and the product that gave scores of Windows shops the reason to buy their Windows NT server. The product has truly grown up into an enterprise-strength collaboration tool. For a complete list of new features (at least those available with Beta 2, which weren't expected to change much), check out www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/features.mspx.