I have written often regarding the fact I think many companies, including Microsoft, are not reading the tea leaves correctly. They see what is happening but because of their closed environmental thinking they are missing changes that are occurring outside the upper floors and it is happening very fast.
Some missed the speed of acceptance of the smartphone, the tablet, and the power (that could be) of apps.
I had and experience this week that brings to the front what I think of as an example of the Microsoft Enterprise focus mistake.
I had been teaching Excel at a company that is considered to be in the top thirty of the largest companies in the country. During a break in a class a student asked about office 365. His question was; "is the package a full version or something light?" My answer was it is a full version of Office Professional, at least to my knowledge.
I explained that I use it, I have been very happy with it, and I recommend it to others. I also had to explain I just discovered that Excel Enterprise version did have some advanced tools one of which was something called Power View.
Along the same line I have recently had this discussion with an enterprise consultant who brings to the plate an in-depth knowledge of Business Analytics. I am one that convinced him to try the Office 365 subscription which he did and likes. This person also has used Tableau and Spotfire and is now looking seriously at Excel with all it’s recent changes. He might be a bit distressed to find that he can’t get all the tools either.
Is he deprived? How insane is it that. Where outside consultants, instructors/trainers, bring to the enterprise the new exciting tools, there are some we cannot have. If left up to the internal reaches of the company it will be years before they see them. And years before they subscribe to stay ahead of the game.
To augment my point; The conversation about Office 365 (with this career employee of the un-named company) is that his company is using Office 2007 with no plans to upgrade. Because of the nature of their business they could be considered power Excel users. This person wants to buy the subscription on his own and bring the new tools into play. He, and many others, want to LEARN! Microsoft’s Enterprise advantage is not an advantage.
There is an indication here that focusing on the enterprise just might not be to Microsoft’s benefit. The enterprise, as we are seeing, is being consumer driven, outside as well as inside. The increasing rate of acceptance of the ‘latest and greatest’ by the consumer, is far exceeding the rate of acceptance inside the enterprise. IT is scrambling to keep up.
Bring it to the people!
In a world of BYOD we could be seeing BYOS - Bring Your Own Software. Or apps in the case of the tablet and phone.
This employee got the point. To grow I need to learn more and you know this just might be fun. What is new now!
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