Microsoft Solutions For Intranets

12/13/01

Software vendors have decided that Solutions are Chic.  Rather, Software vendors have noticed that many customers prefer to buy solutions rather than piece parts of technology.  This is quite possibly a perfectly normal reaction to years of buying software products where the software cost $100,000 or so and the consulting services (or internal IT costs) to design and implement the software cost millions, took years, and had an average success potential of less than 50%.

For customers who are trying to solve very complex problems with software, often pioneering in new technology areas, canned solutions are unlikely to be the answer.  Small changes to a pre-formatted solution, however pre-engineered to a particular industry segment, are unlikely to satisfy such needs.  But for many customer endeavors the problem to be solved is similar enough across many customer environments (think of applications where state or federal laws mandate process and result, for example) that a solution with simple dialogue- or visual-interface-based customization may be just what the customer needs and craves.

With that in mind – and with far less interest in or dependence on services revenues than an IBM, for example, Microsoft has recently been announcing a series of Solutions offerings.  These solution offerings combine Microsoft’s enterprise software (Windows, Windows Servers, Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers and Office) with prescriptive tools, support and services from Microsoft and partners to solve common business and IT problems. Two were previously announced, the BizTalk Accelerator for HIPPA (this concerns how healthcare insurers and providers comply with a 1996 law that must be provided for by 2002) and the Microsoft Solution for Supplier Enablement (permits suppliers to connect to customers’ e-procurement systems or marketplaces).

The newest offering, Microsoft Solution for Intranets (MSI) combines a variety of existing Microsoft software offerings with prescriptive architectural guides (think industry-specific templates) and services to allow collaborative web sites to be created much more quickly and at lower cost.

What Is It? 

The offering includes SharePoint Team Services. SharePoint Portal Server, Office XP, SQL Server, Windows Media Technology, and Windows 2000 plus a prescriptive architecture guide and product support services and (optional) consulting services from Microsoft and others including Avanade, Compaq, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, and Hewlett-Packard,  plus some “glue” code to support integration. All of the applications, the architecture, and the glue code have been tested together.

What Can You Do With MSI?

	SharePoint Team Services (STS) and Office XP work together to create ad hoc team collaboration Web sites that can be searched and accessed through the SharePoint Portal. The STS Services component of MSI provides knowledge workers with the ability to share team documents and calendars, collaborate on tasks, store contact lists, conduct surveys, and hold impromptu discussions.  (STS comes with Office XP and Front Page at no additional charge.)
	The Windows Media Component is an important part of the offering, permitting the intranet to incorporate on-demand or live broadcasts for virtual company meetings, other virtual meetings, and virtual training.  There is new code included to support these functions.   The offering is one-way (outbound) only, more limited than the two-way offerings provided by some web conferencing specialty products and services...
	MSI also delivers document collaboration capabilities by combining SharePoint Portal Server, Office XP and Windows 2000. Knowledge workers can create and manage documents with the familiar tools they use every day. Document creation, review and publishing to the Intranet are supported by features such as check-in/check-out, profiling, versioning and approval routing.  (SharePoint Portal Server is a separately priced product.)

There is little new code in the Microsoft solutions offerings.  Rather, these are products that combine existing products with skills and support and then market them through new separate initiatives.  For example, MSI is marketed by Intranet Solution Specialists, located in each Microsoft office worldwide. 

The Consulting Angle

These new solutions offerings also feature much more Microsoft involvement in consulting than previously.  Microsoft consultants developed the prescriptive architectures at the center of the solutions and a 160-page architectural guide that tells customers how to analyze existing infrastructures and how to deploy the products across servers, depending on the size of the organization.  It offers different scenarios on how to integrate existing business systems.

MSI does not assume an existing all-Microsoft environment.  (For example, it can co-exist with Notes and SAP, via web parts.)  Many web parts are offered pre-built in the Web Part Gallery; tools are available for building more. 

In tune with the notion that Microsoft sees itself as performing a more active consulting role, they provided the Intranet solution for HR Block themselves and will continue to be involved, on a selective basis, in future customer engagements. Using partners is not a new idea for Microsoft at all, but for the Solutions offerings partners are very active both on their own and with Microsoft. Four industry-leading systems integrators are now offering deployment services and added value solutions for the MSI: Avanade, Compaq, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Hewlett-Packard.

In a Microsoft news release, partner Compaq commented, "We will provide a full range of services -- anything from an initial workshop with customers to a more detailed assessment of customers' actual computing infrastructure," says Tony Redmond, vice president and chief technology officer, Compaq Global Services. "We will then evaluate how these technologies can be introduced into their infrastructure without causing disruption, through pilot and then full deployments. We'll also provide customization services."   

This could add substantial cost (or revenue, depending on your point of view) to the solutions offerings.  Microsoft says there’s lots of “great” out-of-the-box functionality.  They see first generation projects being not very customized (perhaps 90% standard and 10% custom), but second generation projects can end up being 90% customized.  (Maybe solutions packaging is a stalking horse to get products in the door where they then unfold into the usual kind of mainly built-to-order project?)

Who Else Does This?

We asked Microsoft our favorite questions about whom they might be competing with.  They gave the industry-standard answer, “We think it’s unique.”  In this case, they don’t mean that others aren’t offering such products, but rather that no one is combining things in quite this way.   Microsoft does expect other people to move into this space and focus on a solution perspective.  They think it’s important to integrate what you have. 

We (and they) agree that IBM and Sun are important players in the Intranet space, but see those competing solutions as more of a custom approach.  We suspect this is a distinction which will turn out to have not much of a marketing differentiation.  Partners will be interested in selling as much consulting as possible and IBM and Sun are likely to surface frameworks, architectures, or other solutions-like concepts (which they or their partners may be using already) quickly.

Either Microsoft’s solution specialist or a comparable person in the partner sales force acts as the lead – the idea is to ask the customer what the business need is and go from there.  Microsoft doesn’t care whether they take the sale or the partner does – a lot depends on location and local expertise

Microsoft notes that IT managers like the cookbook aspect of the solutions concept – it’s easy to get it right and few new skills are required.  Decision managers like the speed and the solution orientation gives them a feeling of knowing what’s going to happen.

In many cases, what’s going on is simpler than all this. Some customers are just using the architectural guide with Microsoft (and other) products they’ve already licensed or adding some products or adding consulting.  Here, the size of the organization counts.  Larger organizations are more likely to already be licensees and are more willing to sign up for consulting contracts.

The lesser skill levels required to use the solutions offerings are also appealing.  The out-of-the-box approach requires a level of skill somewhere between business analysts and programmers.  Often, the job is assigned to architects who can do customization and minimal programming –  what kind and how much depends on the level of customization desired, but it’s usually done in VB (although it can be accomplished in any suitable language).

Perhaps the best way to think of these solutions offerings is as strategy.  “It’s a direction MS is going in” said Trina Seinfield, Product Manager for Microsoft’s SharePoint Portal Server.  The focus is on not just developing cool sw and products but on a whole package solution with architectures and services, not just technology and tools. “It’s the tip of the iceberg,” she continued.  Microsoft has received a very positive reaction to the Intranet solution from many types of companies.  “Microsoft needs to build trust with customers and gain credibility; we need to show we understand your (customer) challenges and we give you a recipe not just tools.” 

We’d say Microsoft has discovered that customers respond strongly to offerings that go beyond tools, even in the enterprise space, and that we can expect to see lots more solutions offerings from Microsoft, its partners, and its competitors.