Microsoft's unified app goals comes into view
InfoWorld | at | by Mike
Through its fervent adoption of XML, Microsoft is edging closer to crystallizing its long-held dream of building bridges that foster seamless transport of data between its suite of desktop applications and back-end applications. With the delivery by mid-2003 of its much anticipated and newly named Office 2003 desktop suit, the second beta of which is due in March, the company will have established a vital piece of software that could significantly increase XML adoption across the industry.
"Most vendors are becoming much more XML-friendly and consequently it [XML] is changing the nature of applications vendors business," said John Jerome, an analyst with The Yankee Group in Boston . "If Microsoft continues to lace its Office applications with XML, most users will have a more seamless flow of information between the heavy-duty, back-office financial applications and desktop applications like Word and Excel."