May 11, 1999, Volume 2 - Number 7
Microsoft Answers Its Wakeup Call
The buzzwords of the moment, e-commerce and knowledge management, are popping up in yet more initiatives
Microsoft was asleep at the wheel on the “information superhighway”when the Web was on the rise, but the company shook itself awake and soon became more powerful than ever. It used huge cash reserves to take stakes in a vast range of emerging markets, develop Internet Explorer to match Netscape’s Navigator, and also engineer exclusive marketing deals with every major ISP to offer Explorer as the default browser.
Microsoft is apparently determined not to miss the e-commerce boat. In case you missed the media blitz, the company outlined its new Microsoft Commerce Platform strategy, which includes several key features — the most significant being BizTalk, a cross-platform, XML-based framework aimed at letting businesses integrate applications and perform transactions over the Web with trading partners and customers.
Some say Microsoft’s e-commerce strategy may be too ambitious. “It’s so far-reaching that I think it will be a challenge for the company to succeed with everything it’s attempting to do,” says analyst Erica Rugglies at Giga Information Group Inc. Rugglies believes that although the company has begun early standards work, it’s going to be difficult for the parties involved to agree on standards in such a broad framework.
Rugglies believes, however, that BizTalk may address the standards problem, although encouraging its adoption will be a challenge. “If Microsoft can get its Microsoft Network (MSN) partners to use that software and can propagate the BizTalk XML standard across MSN,” says Rugglies, “more merchants could reach profitability online.” Of course, Microsoft will be going head to head with the AOL/Netscape team, which comes to the table with an array of media properties and an XML commitment, in addition to commerce and software products.
Microsoft rarely gets credit for innovation. However, few companies are better at taking an idea and running with it, and no company fights as hard or as ruthlessly for the smallest slice of market share. BizTalk may give Microsoft the traction it wants in the e-commerce market.
— E. Bermingham
Humming Along
In what may seem like an unusual move, Hummingbird Communications Ltd. announced its acquisition in March of PC Docs Group International Inc. On the surface, you might think this match an odd one: Hummingbird’s expertise lies in business intelligence (BI) involving structured data, while PC Docs specializes in knowledge management (KM); that is, of unstructured data such as documents. But Peter Auditore, vice president of U.S. marketing for Hummingbird, discounts any apparent surprise factor: “PC Docs is a good fit for Hummingbird’s future vision, which is to become a knowledge management company.”
Specifically, Hummingbird plans to incorporate its BI expertise with that of PC Docs to develop an “enterprise knowledge portal” that the company claims will offer a comprehensive view of all business information, including that contained in document repositories, email servers, groupware systems, data warehouses, and Web servers. Auditore remarks, “I think we’re one of the first companies that provide easy access to structured and unstructured data. I don’t think anyone else can do that right now.” He adds, however, that Hummingbird will remain loyal to its BI roots: “We’re not claiming that we’ll be doing all of knowledge management; it’s too broad an area.”
Although Auditore notes that Hummingbird began its portal initiative when it introduced BI/Suite last year but shied away from the term “portal” at the time, the acquisition is clearly the result of changing tides. More companies are consolidating to offer single solutions that can fulfill a variety of users’ needs (see “Brio Goes Upscale,” April 20, 1999), portals are in vogue (see “Enterprise Knowledge Has a Face,” March 30, 1999), and the need to bring unstructured data into the information supply chain has gained momentum. The PC Docs acquisition reflects the convergence of these three factors. As Auditore explains, “A lot of customers are telling us that they don’t just want BI front ends. They don’t just want query tools and OLAP clients. They want a complete solution.”
To that end, Hummingbird didn’t stop with its acquisition of PC Docs. It went on to purchase two other companies in March, Leonard’s Logic — makers of Genio, a data transformation and exchange tool that will provide those services in Hummingbird’s portal architecture — and Context Inc., a financial services software company that provides an entry into the financial vertical software market. “We’ll be acquiring a number of more companies this year and next year,” promises Auditore. “That’s the way you get big in the computer business.” — D. Cheshire
Continued in News and Analysis Part II >>>
In Brief
- Centura Software Corp. announced it will acquire Raima Corp. The combined company will offer an extended microdatabase product line with cross-platform support for a range of operating systems and APIs.
- Ardent Software Inc. has joined the Meta Data Coalition and will support its Meta Data Interchange Specification (MDIS); besides the notable exception of Oracle, the data warehousing industry appears to be coalescing around that spec.
- Chalk one up for customer relationship management: Volume-obsessed Microsoft announced it will overhaul its internal organization to reflect customer segments rather than products and technologies.
- ORB vendor Iona Technologies Inc. has made its HomeBase Enterprise JavaBeans toolkit available for free download from www.ejbhome.com As part of a new application server strategy, the company will integrate the product with its Orbix ORB in the near future.
- Double play: SAP and PeopleSoft Inc. will both use Microsoft’s recently announced BizTalk XML implementation as an integration framework for their respective business-to-business e-commerce initiatives.
- PeopleSoft also announced a strategic partnership with Informatica Corp. in which it will package the latter’s PowerMart data mart/analytical application software with the PeopleSoft Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) analytical application suite. PeopleSoft had previously announced that Information Advantage Inc.’s MyEureka will provide the business intelligence services in EPM.
