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Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio came to a similar conclusion. She told the E-Commerce Times that improvements to Active Directory, in particular, will push organizations to take the plunge. "People who need to implement Active Directory in a meaningful way benefit significan...

To put it less verbosely, Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio told the E-Commerce Times that the new platform is Microsoft's best-ever OS. Forrester analyst Rob Enderle agreed, calling Windows 2003 Server a sharply improved offering that many likely will see as the compan...

Practically, there is no such thing as a key relationship with a small business,except perhaps for a startup vendor. But as a constituency, SMBs represent50 percent of the IT marketplace, according to Yankee Group senior analystLaura DiDio. With that kind of clout, selling to the SMB sector as a wholecan be, in itself, a key relationship...

Publisher 2003: A new design application for creating marketingcommunications FrontPage and InfoPath combine what Microsoft describes as "the world'sfirst" graphical XSLT (extensible stylesheet language transformations)editor. XSLT acts a bridge between an XML database on the back end anduser-input features on the front end. Hitting the Right Note Much of the analyst buzz surrounding Microsoft Office System is focused onOneNote. Though it might seem like a small add-on, rather like Notepad isattached to Windows, this program points to a new paradigm of front-endcomputing. "OneNote has been developed to address tablet computing," Rob Enderle,research fellow at Giga Information Group, told the E-Commerce Times. "It fits thetablet metaphor and enables users to categorize, search for and find theirthoughts better than with pen and paper." Unchanging Market Share Meanwhile, although Sun's announcement coincided with Microsoft's, Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio said Microsoft's key competitor is not StarOffice. "StarOffice will have appeal for the SOHO [small office and home office] market, but the overall market share won't change appreciably," she told the E-Commerce Times. Microsoft's marketshare of the office productivity field is at least 90 percent. "Microsoft's biggest competitor is itself," DiDio added. "With the economicdownturn and the quality of Microsoft's earlier products, the challenge willbe to get customers, even those who would absolutely love to migrate, up andrunning. Customers simply might not have the cash." DiDio predicted a 15 to 20 percent adoption rate during the first year, andshe emphasized that the fate of Windows Server 2003 will play a part in Office System's penetration curve. Enterprises still using Windows NT 4 on the back endmight see Server 2003 as a compelling upgrade opportunity, and they could scoopup Office System at the same time to realize the full potential of a more unified system. New Paradigms While the commercial fate of Office System remains to be determined, thereis universal agreement that Microsoft is aiming high with this product. "This is a pretty important and substantial release," Yankee Group senior analyst Dana Gardner told the E-Commerce Times, "because it really changes the file structure and the ability of files to be shared. Given the wide adoption of XML in this product, Microsoft has given its software developers the opportunity to use Office applications as front ends in a way they didn't have access to before." Giga's Enderle noted that Office System is the first version of Office thathas gone through the advanced security testing adopted by Microsoft nearlytwo years ago. "Substantial work has been done on Outlook," he said. "It is more reliable and less susceptible to network problems." Backward Compatibility However, though network integration and streamlined information flow are positive developments, a question of compatibility exists. Microsoft is including server elements in its Office System beta 2 distribution -- but those elements will not be included in the final product, and enterprises will have to purchase them separately if they want a full upgrade of the front and back ends. Microsoft Office System is backwardcompatible with previous servers, however. "The server upgrades are required to achieve the system's full potential,but [Office System] is, by itself, a vastly improved product," Enderle noted.

"If a corporation is having success with AOL, it's going to take a compelling argument to get them to change, especially if it means paying for a license," Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio told the E-Commerce Times. "There may be a period of wait-and-see here as well." Enterpr...

"Microsoft smells blood, because Sun is stumbling," Yankee Group software analyst Laura DiDio told the E-Commerce Times. However, she added, the two companies are evenly matched on the rhetorical battleground. "Sun has had its pens dipped in acid for longer than Microsoft has." ...

First, Europe is in the thick of a targeted open-source movement that worksagainst all sorts of proprietary software vendors. Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio said she believes that academic and government organizations are embracing open-source solutions most vigorously...

Yet, in the end, many do not expect Microsoft's efforts to translate into a kinder, gentler company. "That's not their way," Yankee Groupanalyst Laura DiDio told the E-Commerce Times. "They got to be the number one software manufacturer by being aggressive. That's not going to change."

Apple has drawn high marks from analysts like the Yankee Group's Laura Didio, who recently told the E-Commerce Times that the company achievedtrue innovation with its Jaguar operating system What is more, the company's Rendezvous offering helps devices that have IP (Internet P...

But Office v.X has sold only half as many copies as expected -- about 300,000,as opposed to the 750,000 anticipated by Microsoft -- according to Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio In response to the sales shortfall, the two companies announced a limited-time pricereductio...

"There is a much larger group that is installing Linux and installing Macs alongside traditional Windows desktops," Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio told the E-Commerce Times in an earlier interview. "We are seeing more diversification, but it's very controlled. It's for certain specialized applications."

"You can't underestimate the distraction factor," Giga Information Group analyst Laura DiDio told the E-Commerce Times. "When executives are traveling to depositions and making court appearances, they're not focusing on new products and taking care of customers." The highest-p...