Jim Brown

One-to-One: Microsoft - Helping the World Innovate?
July 25, 2008

I had the chance to talk with ... Don Richardson at Microsoft recently about their Innovation Management solution to understand how Microsoft it helping companies innovate. Don is responsible worldwide for PLM, but has also been spending a lot of his time on the front end of product innovation. Microsoft has assembled a solution framework to help companies develop and deliver new product innovation using their existing Microsoft tools. Pretty compelling when you consider the lower ROI of Microsoft solutions (particularly when many companies already have corporate licenses). On the other hand, this is not an "off the shelf" solution that you install. But Microsoft is using their own experience with innovation to help others define their path, and providing guidance and tools along the way.

What do they Do?
So you know Microsoft, and you probably know most of the tools involved in their Innovation Process Management (IPM) solution. If not, check with your IT group and they probably do. Tools include:

• SharePoint
• XML Server
• Project Server
• Portfolio Server
• Project
• Rights Management Server
• InfoPath (for forms)

Not an exotic list of solutions, by any stretch, and much of it is in house in the big Microsoft shops. It is really how Microsoft has aligned the solutions and laid out the processes that provides the added value. After all, Microsoft should know a thing or two about innovation. They know about physical product innovation as well as software, don't forget that Microsoft has a line of peripherals and of course the Xbox gaming system. Many of us don't think about that aspect of Microsoft as we sit at our desks writing a blog in MS Word on a Windows Vista machine (Vista 64 actually, I am trying it out on a new convertible tablet PC.) But Microsoft has to walk the innovation talk on their own as well. 

Back to the solution. The biggest part of it is SharePoint, that is where the portal comes in and the majority of the process is defined. If companies need to add some new software, extending the use (or adding) SharePoint might be the largest part of it. Well, SharePoint is the biggest software component. The biggest component is the IP that Microsoft has developed and is sharing with their customers (see flowchart below for the process flow, and where some of the infrastructure solutions come into play.)


Source: Microsoft

What do they Offer?
Don explained that their big customers are starting to pull them into conversations about "how Microsoft innovates." This solution offering is one way that Microsoft is showing the world that they are good for more than Office and Windows. As Don puts it, this shows Microsoft customers how they can get more business value out of their software and their relationship with Microsoft.

Microsoft has a solution, but don't expect to see an IPM solution on the shelf anywhere, or even on a price list. It is more of a guide and a set of tools that help companies down the path to better innovation. But they have trained people on it, and the best part of it is that they don't charge for it. The only cost is the infrastructure, which may already be in place. Hard to beat that. And don't look for a full PLM solution, either. Microsoft partners like Dassault Systemes and Siemens PLM (and others like Aras that I posted on a while back) will still be the solutions of choice in those areas. Microsoft envisions their solution delivering the projects to PLM for product development and engineering.

Who do they Work with?
Who doesn't Microsoft work with? And they also work ... well ... with Microsoft, which is a big benefit. They have a few proof of concepts of this solution out and running in other companies already, and are getting a lot of traction in conversations. Again, don't expect somebody to knock on your door and try to sell it, but you should realize that Microsoft is taking a seat at the table in regards to innovation. And unlike other areas like PLM, they are sitting at the table directly as opposed to working strictly through software partners. They will, of course, work through their implementation partners because Microsoft is not geared up to offer systems integration and consulting projects.

So that's what I hear from Microsoft, I hope you found it useful. What do you think? What else should I have asked them?

Posted by Jim Brown on July 25, 2008 | Comments (0)