Business Applications and Services

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

In Dec. 2007 Microsoft shipped PerformancePoint Server 2007, which combines Business Scorecard Manager 2005, ProClarity Analytics, and a set of new features (previously referred to by the code name Biz-Sharp) for financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting. Also in Dec. 2008, CRM 4.0 was released to manufacturing; the product became generally available in Feb. 2008.

Office Suite, Visio, and Groove

The Office suite and the Visio business diagramming product received major releases in late 2006. These versions do not require Windows Vista, but they do require Windows XP SP2 or later, and thus are not supported on Windows 2000. The products will probably next be updated in an “Office 14” wave of releases in 2009.

(See the illustration “Office and Visio Overview“. For an overview of earlier Office versions, including service pack release history and life cycle support dates, see the chart “Past Office Versions“.)

Office Suite

Microsoft’s most widely used client application for business, the Office suite, supports document editing, data access, e-mail, presentations, and collaboration. It ships in multiple editions which include combinations of the following applications:

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