REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 2, 2005 — More than 800 attendees from over 40 countries converged today at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond for the first Microsoft
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Office System Developer Conference. The groundswell of interest in this event confirms that software developers recognize the array of valuable solution development possibilities enabled by the tight integration and advanced XML and Web services support in the Microsoft Office System.
Those attending the three-day conference include professional developers and software architects from systems integrator, independent software vendor and enterprise customer companies. They will learn more about how they can use Extensible Markup Language (XML), Web services and Microsoft’s development tools, combining and extending the components of the Microsoft Office System to create powerful solutions that address customers’ complex challenges.
Richard McAniff, corporate vice president for Microsoft Office, will deliver the opening keynote presentation at 8:45 a.m. today; and Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will provide a special keynote address at 10 a.m. Friday that will be available for viewing via live webcast at http://www.microsoft.com/seminar/events/series/officedeveloperlive.mspx .
Today, more than 1 million developers are building solutions that integrate with the Microsoft Office 2003 editions. And already, more than one-third of these developers are building solutions that utilize XML. Nearly 200,000 developers are using Visual Studio®
Tools for the Microsoft Office System 2003. In the past 15 months, more than 70,000 partners have been trained to build, customize and use Microsoft Office System-based solutions. More than 50 of these partners specialize in helping developers and ISVs deploy the Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework, an integrated set of tools, technologies and architectural guidance that uses XML and Web services to extend the Microsoft Office System in their operations.
KnowledgeLake Inc.’s latest release of the Mozingo product family offers a scalable document management solution for imaging and workflow that extends the capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint®
products and technologies. Mozingo uses the XML capabilities of Microsoft Office System to provide a data-interoperable solution that enables customers to automate business processes and increase information worker productivity.
“Maximizing the capabilities of XML with the Microsoft Office System applications such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Office InfoPath®
2003 will elevate Microsoft to new levels of information worker productivity globally,” said Ron Cameron, principal and chief architect at KnowledgeLake. “KnowledgeLake products work seamlessly with Microsoft’s XML technology to allow users to manage unstructured information and replace traditionally paper intensive-processes.”
Similarly, Workshare Technology Inc. offers Workshare Professional, a suite of Document Integrity Solutions that works seamlessly with the Microsoft Office System so customers can manage the entire compliance life cycle of high-value documents with the applications they use every day. “As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we’ve received excellent support in how to leverage and extend the Microsoft Office System to add value for our joint customers,” said Barrie Hadfield, chief technology officer of Workshare. “This week’s conference really underscores Microsoft’s strong commitment to its top development partners and the advances we are bringing to the market.”
The Microsoft Office System provides an innovative platform of XML-based programs, servers, services and tools that enable organizations to build business solutions using a traditional client/server infrastructure or a Web services architecture based on the Microsoft .NET Framework. In addition to supporting XML integration with familiar desktop applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint® , the Microsoft Office System offers solution development opportunities around such products as Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Microsoft Office Project 2003, Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, Microsoft Office Visio®
2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
“The rapid growth in technologies being built on the Microsoft Office System and the overwhelming number of developers and architects from across the globe who sought to attend this week’s conference demonstrate that our partners are recognizing tremendous business value from the XML support in Office,” said Adam LeVasseur, group product manager in the Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft. “We’re excited about expanding the Microsoft Office System development community by providing additional tools and resources to help our partners succeed in what many analysts predict will be a $100 billion market for business productivity solutions that could be addressed by building on the Microsoft Office System.”
In addition, a growing number of developers and partners are embracing Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System to incorporate the power and productivity of Visual Studio .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework into their business solutions. In his Friday keynote address, Gates will demonstrate Visual Studio Tools 2005 for the Microsoft Office System, highlighting elements such as the action/task pane, simple and complex data binding, and the full advantages of Excel’s calculation and presentation features. With Visual Studio Tools 2005 for the Microsoft Office System, developers of Office-based solutions will gain the complete power of the .NET Framework, including a familiar coding experience, managed controls, improved deployment and maintenance of solutions, improved security, and the natural ability to consume and expose Web services directly from Excel, Word and InfoPath documents and templates.
About the Microsoft Office System
The Microsoft Office System is an easy way to help more people use information to positively impact their business. Through a system of familiar and easy-to-use programs, servers, services and solutions, users can connect people and organizations to information, business processes and each other — helping ensure that they derive the most value out of information. The Microsoft Office System consists of the 2003 editions of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Microsoft Office Project and Project Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Office FrontPage® 2003, Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, Microsoft Office OneNote® 2003, Microsoft Office Publisher 2003, Microsoft Office Visio 2003, and the Microsoft Office Solutions Accelerators. Enabling technologies, such as Microsoft Windows®
SharePoint Services and Microsoft Windows Server (TM) 2003, enhance the features and functionality of products in the Microsoft Office System.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
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