October 11, 2006

Microsoft offers Office integration for backend apps

Office Business Applications [OBA] is non-vendor specific

With the release of Office Business Applications (OBA) Reference Application Pack (RAP) this week, Microsoft in essence is acknowledging that they are on to something big in the enterprise market.

Microsoft is calling this the second generation of OBA and is in response to wide acceptance of the first generation.

Like Duet, a product partnership with SAP that offers up the Office suite of products as a standard interface for SAP backend applications, OBA RAP will do the same, but this time not tied to any vendor's backend system.

Josh Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting, said that OBA is significant because Office is certainly one of the better interfaces around for knowledge workers.

The release of the OBA reference for building the front end to a supply chain management system will demonstrate that a company can build a procurement process with a combination of Outlook, Word, and Excel and do everything they want, said Greenbaum.

OBA addresses the disconnect between business process and business practice, according to Tim O'Brien, director of platform strategy group at Microsoft.

"While entering a purchase order is automated, negotiating the final price with a customer happens in IM or Outlook," said O'Brien.

While the supply chain application released this week could be adopted as-is, it is really meant more as a reference guide for developers and architects on how to build an OBA to implement collaboration scenarios in a supply chain context.

By way of example, O'Brien said a typical procurement scenario might be importing a Rosetta.Net schema into Office in order to design the form, making it look any way you want it to look.

OBA RAP is available now as a free download on MSDN and is meant to work with Office 2007, due out later this year.

Read more about applications in InfoWorld's Applications Channel.

Ephraim Schwartz is an editor at large at InfoWorld. He also writes the Reality Check blog.
Close

On Twitter now

Applications

Powered by Twitter

On Twitter now

additional resources
White Paper - How to Improve Delivery of Advanced Web Applications

White Paper

Virtual Workforce: The Key to Expanding The Business While Cutting Costs

Get the independent advice and expertise you need to support a virtual workforce.

Go inside:
The three-step approach to making a virtual workforce a reality.
The four flavors of client virtualization technologies.
The three key initiatives that solve IT challenges.
Download now »
White Paper: Successfully Secure Your Wireless LAN With Wi-Fi firewalls.

White Paper

Addressing Linux Threats Leveraging Fewer Resources

The increase in Linux popularity has increased the frequency and sophistication of malware attacks. Read this 2 page white paper now to learn how you can protect your Linux environment with real-time protection that is certified by all major Linux vendors.

Download now »
White Paper - The 2009 Handbook of Application Delivery

White Paper

The 2009 Handbook of Application Delivery

Ensuring acceptable application delivery will become even more difficult over the next few years. As a result, IT organizations need to ensure that the approach that they take to resolving the current application delivery challenges can scale to support the emerging challenges. This handbook elaborates on the key tasks associated with planning, optimization, management and control and provides decision criteria to help IT organizations choose appropriate solutions.

Download now »
White Paper - Is Your Backup System Outdated?

White Paper

Mid-range Storage Considerations

A common misconception is that mid-range storage requirements are dramatically different than that of a larger enterprise. Mid-range storage users may require less capacity, but they have similar functionality and management requirements. This ESG paper examines mid-range storage needs and reviews a new solution that adjusts size while retaining value, performance and functionality.

Download now »

Applications Newsletter

Stay informed of the latest news and technologies around application, project and performance management.

White paper

Turn Your IT Department into a Lean Machine

Like any valuable resource, IT is a terrible thing to waste. But by applying the same lean techniques that have been used to streamline manufacturing processes, IT departments can reduce costs, improve performance and better manage resources.

Download now! »

Podcast

Economy Makes Automation a Must-Have Tech for 2009

Stephen Elliot, vice president of strategy for CA's Infrastructure Management and Data Center Automation business unit, explains why difficult economic times drive the need for simplified management capabilities and advanced automation tools.

Listen now! »

White paper

What You Need to Know About Virtual Infrastructure Management - Now

According to a recent study CA conducted with 300 CIOs and top IT executives, 64 percent of respondents say they've already invested in virtualization, and the other 36 percent reported that they plan to invest in virtualization.

Download now! »

Webcast

Leveraging Virtualization and Process Automation

In this video learn about process automation in a virtualized world. How CA and VMware are enabling enterprise datacenter automation.

View now! »
©1994-2010 Infoworld, Inc.