By Kevin Hart
Several weeks ago I viewed the online launch of Microsoft Lync 2010. Lync is part of Office 365, formerly Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), and it helps businesses enhance productivity by delivering an integrated communication experience (think Instant Messaging and Presence, audio/video/web conferencing, and enterprise software-based Voice over IP).
During this online product launch, one of the Microsoft VP’s, describing Lync, stated that today’s productivity equals unified communication, enterprise search, collaboration, content management, and business intelligence (BI). This is a common theme from Microsoft and echoes similar messaging from their earlier Future of Productivity delivery regarding Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, SQL Server 2008R2, and Visual Studio 2010 – all products we use and/or will be upgrading to soon here at Answers Systems.
What struck me about the VP’s statement is its relevance to software development in general. Software solutions are typically about making people more productive, but they can no longer simply be about allowing people and businesses to efficiently conduct transactions. Solutions must provide communication platforms to easily facilitate communication among system users and outside parties. They must incorporate easy to use, powerful search capabilities. Perhaps more importantly, solutions have to provide means for collaboration and Business Intelligence. Collaboration not only for internal users of the solution, but for your business partners. Finally, powerful Business Intelligence – not only a place for analysis, but injecting information into the solution where users need it most to influence their decisions.
These capabilities are as important in the solutions for the trade performance management market as they are for any other market. Planning is underway for them starting to find their way into Answers’ Contract Pro® solution.
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information technology