Ray Ozzie Has Been Assimilated

Unbelievable.  According to Computerworld, Ray Ozzie was quoted at Goldman Sach's tech conference as saying,

"Ever since the [dot-com] era, technologists have been trying to see how much of the Office experience we could take up into a browser and make usable in some form," Ozzie said. "Yes, there's Google Docs & Spreadsheets, there's ThinkFree, Zoho -- there are a variety of different instances of people taking the tools and kind of replicating them up into a Web environment... In the pure Web model, the trade-offs are fairly substantial. You have to be online to use them."

This runs counter to the November 1, 2005 internal email from Ozzie and Gates stating that the next disruptive wave in computing was the "Services Wave" and they better get it right or else.  However, Microsoft are now singing a different tune.  To clarify his earlier comments, Mr. Ozzie said,

"The way that I view the services opportunity related to productivity is really about more than just taking what's on the PC and putting it up on the Web.  I think there are high-level scenarios that if you consider you've got software on PCs, services in the cloud and devices -- mobile devices -- as the power that you can work with, and you try to envision the value of productivity and what you're trying to offer, you end up with a different result."

Ok, enough bluster on my part.  What this is really telling me is that the Microsoft Live strategy will integrate tightly with the desktop applications and SmartPhone technology.  Taking shots at Google by saying Docs and Spreadsheets are weak because you have to be connected is just plain silly.  Wireless connectivity is ubiquitous.  (Now - if I am in Outer Mongolia with my laptop, then I might want my Excel in order to do my DCF's, but that is a remote scenario!) 

Reading the tea leaves on this, I feel even better about Salesforce.com.  I have been a bit concerned about the entry of CRM Live as it would compete squarely with the SMB business that is the lifeblood of Salesforce.com.  Now it appears that Microsoft is trying to a) tie in their legacy desktop strength, and b) add in cool new features such as mobile devices and "services in the cloud" for their Live strategy. 

In other words, they are trying to one-up the industry standard by out-featuring them while maintaining a strong umbilical cord to the core Windows/Office franchise.  In other words, they're building the Zune of CRM suites.

Keep buying CRM shares.

Comments

[dennis]

seriously? the zune of CRM suites? okee dokee... it would be interesting to take a poll of all the salespeople and see which apps they spend the majority of their time in today. It's outlook, bar none. So, CRM being an extenstion to outlook is the strategy... SAP is already drinking that kool-aid. ORCL will over time. SFDC, they get interesting when they get bought by google and bring a different business model to enterprise applications...

[tjrsfca]

Agreed that Microsoft's super-strengths come from a) the monopoly on the desktop OS and Office suite b) their developer network, and c) the decisive advantage in cash on hand.

I think it would be wise for Microsoft to launch a SaaS CRM product and leverage their natural monopoly on the desktop. However, Ozzie's comments seem to indicate he is thinking of more than that (e.g. mobile devices) while dissing the SaaS concept (e.g. the "you have to be online" comment).

I have a sneaking suspicion he is under pressure to include the vast array of Microsoft products in the CRM Live which will result in a product that does many things ok but nothing particularly well.