Microsoft to Craft Titan as On-Demand Platform

By Renee Boucher Ferguson
November 29, 2007

Microsoft wants Titan to challenge Salesforce.com's on-demand development platform.

The question is, How long will it take Microsoft, a slow-moving technology behemoth if previous releases are any indication, to catch up with Salesforce.com in a market Salesforce created?

While Microsoft has based its Titan marketing campaign on the software's multitenant capabilities, CEO Steve Ballmer said in July at the company's Worldwide Partner conference that Titan will also be used as a platform for on-demand application development.

"[We] will add CRM [customer relationship management], and we will add an application development platform for departments and small businesses called Titan. … In the case of Titan, there's an opportunity for you to build applications that would literally run on our servers," Ballmer said.

"You have to use the kind of declarative programming model, workflow model on which our own CRM product is built, but you can, of course, write your own Titan applications on either on-premises hosted or hosted in our data centers," he said.

Salesforce.com, in less cryptic language, has been marketing its platform capabilities for the past year. In October 2006 the company unveiled its Apex on-demand programming language and platform.

This year, Salesforce.com announced Force.com (dubbed platform-as-a-service), which bundles development "services," including custom user interface and logic building capabilities along with database and integration capabilities. Force.com also includes AppExchange, Salesforce.com's application marketplace that's been compared, by the company mainly, to eBay and Amazon.com for the business world.

Read more here about the introduction of the Force.com platform.

At its partner conference this summer, Microsoft said it's building its own marketplace, expected in 2008, that will be an online environment where partners can showcase their company, applications and templates to customers, who can, in turn, download functionality and rate partner efforts. Ditto for AppExchange.

What Microsoft will offer with Titan is an on-demand, multitenant application development platform. What's not clear yet is how mature those capabilities will be.

Eric Berridge, CEO and co-founder of BlueWolf, an on-demand system integrator with close ties to Salesforce.com, has watched Microsoft's Titan release closely. He said Microsoft has made a wise move in building Titan, but the company has a ways to go in the on-demand development world.

"The reason Microsoft came out with Titan at all is a defensive move against Salesforce.com—period," said Berridge. It is a good first step and a very wise move. But I don't know if they know if they can take it to the platform level. If you look at the customization capabilities in the on-premises version [of Dynamics CRM] it never evolved to the level of flexibility that other CRM packages have, so there are some decisions Microsoft will have to make."

Berridge said that while Titan will be compatible with .Net, Microsoft's development environment, there isn't a lot of flexibility in the platform. "You can't configure an application in a multitude of ways without jumping into a programming environment, and that's limited to the CRM data model," he said.

"There are no [custom] objects, no UIs. It really keeps programming central to core CRM. And I am still questioning the maturity of [Titan's] core API [application programming interface] set. That's going to be a key component to selling into non-Microsoft accounts," Berridge said.

Ovum analyst Warren Wilson said that despite Microsoft's reputation for being slow to catch on to a few key technology movements, such as the Internet, the company shouldn't be discounted in its on-demand platform initiatives.

"Microsoft is deliberate more than slow. They've been famously slow on embracing the Internet years ago. But when they do [embrace new technology], then they're relentless," said Wilson. "We'll see the same thing with Microsoft's Dynamics applications. The fact that they're slow shouldn't give competitors any false sense of complacency."

Wilson pointed out another tactic Microsoft may take with Titan: using it as the basis for a development platform—both internally and externally—for its Dynamics ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications.

"Microsoft has been careful to avoid speculating on what might follow Titan in terms of its other Dynamics products, but with vendors like NetSuite out there with an on-demand ERP suite, with SAP launching Business ByDesign [on-demand ERP suite], Microsoft has to be thinking about enabling on-demand versions of the rest of the Dynamics family," said Wilson. "And Titan and CRM will offer at least a laboratory for how you do that, if not the actual product foundations."

While Salesforce.com has not taken the direct approach to developing ERP applications (of which CRM is a clear extension), the company has been direct in spelling out the fact that Apex and the Force.com platform are applicable for building not only CRM applications, but ERP-strength applications. At least one vendor, Coda Group, has committed to building out an on-demand ERP suite on Force.com.

Beagle Research founder Denis Pombriant said that market forces will determine whether Salesforce stays in the lead against Microsoft.

"Salesforce is going gangbusters with Force.com," said Pombriant. "They signed a 45,000-seat deal with Japan Post. What was significant about that is the deal excluded CRM; it's strictly Force.com and the applications Japan Post wants to build. The good news for Microsoft is that they've come a long way [with platform capabilities]. They're in the ballpark. But they may be somewhere between one half and one full generation behind."

source:eweek.com

Data Recovery Bulletin

Where on the horizon is Vista?

Hi!

Microsoft sales soar - vnunet.com
VNUNet.com - Jul 27, 2006
‘Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) put in a very good year, and is movingtowards that magical $1bn (£539m) threshold,’ said Ovum analyst David Bradshaw. ‘Microsoft CRM played a large role in the growth of MBS. ’MSN is undergoing a major overhaul of its infrastructure, which has hit itsadvertising revenues. But its dial-up business is gradually dying away becauseof the ubiquity of broadband. What do you think? Email us at.
http://www.vnunet.com/computing/analysis/2161221/microsoft-sales-soar

Where on the horizon is Vista?
CNET News.com - Jul 27, 2006
Included in that is $450 million in product launch and marketing costs as Microsoft updates Windows and Office. Another $450 million is earmarked for growing its overall sales and marketing strength. And $500 million will go to online-services investments, including its AdCenter ad-serving tool, its search engine, Office Live, Live. com and its CRM Live service. A further $1 billion is for development of "high-growth products, and new products and services,"--an umbrella for all kinds of new ventures. That leaves about $300 million in general corporate spending and potential acquisitions, Liddell said. One of the usual questions that is likely to be less pressing this year is what Microsoft plans to do with all its cash.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016-6098922.html

Microsoft: Web Services No Threat to Traditional Software Model
FOX News - Jul 28, 2006
Ozzie took issue with technology purists who say Web-delivered services will completely replace traditional computer-installed software. "Software as service" advocates include Microsoft competitors in business and consumer markets, including Salesforce. com (CRM), Google Inc. (GOOG) and thousands of Web start-ups who are focused on market niches. Instead, Ozzie and other Microsoft executives see the emerging industry model as "software plus services.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206057,00.html

From Options Backdaters to M&A Targets
BusinessWeek - Aug 1, 2006
The expenses and taxes related to the higher value of the option must be taken into account. The scores of companies caught up in the backdating controversy include many that are well-known. Among them are Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple Computer (AAPL), as well as book dealer Barnes & Noble (BKS) and home-improvement giant Home Depot (HD). Those accounting issues could have major strategic implications for some of those companies, if the controversy depresses stock prices and gives cash-rich buyers an opportunity to acquire otherwise-healthy businesses at a bargain price. "From a buy-side perspective, there's an opportunity for price negotiation," Aguilar said. Of course, the other side of that coin is that an options-accounting issue may be so large that it's more difficult for a company to be acquired.
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/aug2006/pi20060801_466607.htm?chan=top+news_top+news

McAfee's Bad Options
Motley Fool - Jul 31, 2006
Its IntruShield software, which deals with intrusion prevention and detection, is popular with firms like Acxiom. For consumers, McAfee delivers its software via the Internet on a subscription basis. That strategy has been the hallmark of growth companies like Salesforce.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06073118.htm

See you soon.

In the software crusher

How's things?

Microsoft CRM hits the spot
InfoWorld - Feb 27, 2006
BorckFebruary 27, 2006 I’ve unlocked and loaded Microsoft’s recently refreshed customer relationship management solution, Dynamics CRM 3. 0 Professional, and the preliminary results are quite good. The improvements run broad and deep. Microsoft leapfrogged Version 2, going from a now-dated 2003 debut release to a “Version 3” product that is markedly more mature and usable. Not that Dynamics CRM is teeming with innovation -- at least not by today’s CRM standards -- but current Microsoft customers clinging to the hope of a worthy upgrade will not be disappointed.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/02/27/75533_09PPpreview_1.html

In the software crusher
BBC News - Feb 24, 2006
The big players in the multi-billion dollar market for CRM software have taken note and launched their own on-demand products. Siebel - now owned by Oracle - started offering online CRM services two years ago, while the global market leader in enterprise software, Germany's SAP, announced its own on-demand product at the beginning of February. Microsoft wants a slice of the action too, with the roll-out of its CRM 3. 0 application and tests of its new on-demand "Microsoft Office Live" product. Mr Benioff, for his part, speaks of defensive moves by traditional software giants who worry that Salesforce. com might put "their entire business model.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/business/4735944.stm

PC World - Test Versions of New Windows Live Services Arrive
PC World - Feb 28, 2006
Microsoft introduced its plan to offer hosted services under the Windows Live moniker last fall. Recommend this story?.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124893,00.asp

Apple's Latest Audio Offensive
BusinessWeek - Mar 1, 2006
Ever since Jobs began talking about turning the Mac into "the hub of the digital lifestyle" in 2001, analysts have been waiting for Apple to employ its techno-stylings to revamp the decades-old entertainment center. Who better to enable consumers to listen to music without racks of CDs, view photos without keeping dust-collecting photo albums, or watch movies (be they the home, or Hollywood variety) without VCR tapes, DVDs and the requisite herd of remote controls?Apple has indeed stepped lightly, even as Microsoft (MSFT) and partners dumped gazillions into creating products designed to do many of the same tasks. But Apple's latest devices leave no doubt whether Apple is on the attack -- or that the immediate target is home audio. For all the hoopla over the iPod and iTunes in the past four years, it's almost all been focused on how to listen to music through mediocre PC speakers or via earbuds -- but not in PC-less rooms of the house. ONE SYSTEM, MANY ROOMS. Now, that's changing.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060229_550598.htm

Dear Subscriber to TheStreet.com Stocks Under $10,
thestreet.com - Feb 24, 2006
Now let's take a look at the portfolio and some of the
moves we made this week. One quick note: Ones are stocks we would buy now, while
Twos are stocks we would buy only on a pullback from
current levels. And as a reminder:
-- A Game Breaker is going to change the landscape of an
industry, as Intel, Microsoft and Wal-Mart did in their
sectors. Investors can make big money in these stocks by
getting in before the crowd. -- Inflection Point stocks have a broken business model
that's on the mend but has yet to be recognized by the
market. Investors who recognize a turnaround early can
pocket strong returns. -- Stealth Stocks are often unknown names to the general
public, but can be hugely profitable investments,
especially when they score well in the Alpha component of
our proprietary rating system... We
believe the company is on track to deliver 40% to 50%
sales bookings growth in 2006 vs. 29% sales bookings
growth in the fourth quarter. RightNow is a small player
in the burgeoning on-demand CRM software space, and we
believe the stock will trade closer to $20 a share in
2006. Based on this belief, we are moving RightNow to a
One and believe subscribers who do not have a position in
the stock should considering buying it here. We will not
add any shares unless they fall below $15, given our 30%
gain.
http://www.thestreet.com/k/su/archives/200602241803.html

See you.