Office 2007 the next platform for Business Applications

If you haven’t checked out the new Office 2007, you should! From all perspectives, especially from a architectural perspective there are quite a bit changes.  What I like about Office 2007 is I can now call it a platform.  A platform meaning that I can build or run applications in this environment. With integration end to end with all the existing products and some additional ones it makes a lot of since to upgrade. Unlike the past this is not a trivial upgrade with some new features. This is an architectural overhaul that addresses scalability, interoperability, extensibility, security and maintainability .
 
On the client side we extend this even further. I will exclude for a moment the user interface features.  There are several options for organizations to enable data stored in office systems. Office systems defined as a Word document, Excel spreadsheet or data on a Sharepoint portal. Now I have ways of extending my data through many means.
 
As an example, let’s say I work for a bank and I am a loan originator. I want to be able to access my daily rate data in the field. As a bonus, I want to be in a disconnected mode with my .Net based POS / LOS. So as a feature of Office 2007 I can build a smart client application that calls the open web services layer of the Excel server. This will expose the data that is stored on the central server. The data got there from the secondary marking teams whom plugged the data into their thick client Excel application which is connected to the Excel server.  So now we have end to end integration with smart client technology, web services and Office Sharepoint Server. Obviously we are only scratching the surface here but wanted to give you concrete example of the uses.
 
I am also excited about the new open XML file formats. This makes the upgrade even more valuable. Now the data in your word or excel documents are highly extensible, platform independent and interoperable. These document formats will open up the flood gates for new styles of applications and consolidation of desperate data.
 
I could write about the server side all for awhile. The most significant server side development is the concept of a unified business platform. We have now joined Sharepoint, WinFx, Office Server and SQL Server 2005 all in a standard way. This is a powerful business proposition for enterprises. Imagine for a moment a framework in which you could build your applications that could enable your business workflows, auditing/reconcilement systems, document management and business intelligence all out of the box. Oh and by the way it’s OK if you have legacy or third party COTS applications because this is all built on Windows Workflow Foundation which aligns with web services standards.
Check out the Public Beta - https://www.microsoft.com/office/preview