Most readers of this headline will doubt the veracity of such a claim. Surely, the translator bundled with one of the leading integration brokers from Sterling Commerce, Software AG’s webMethods or IBM must have the highest market share.  One could argue GXS’s Application Integrator could also compete for such a title.  Well…Microsoft does now boast over 7,000 customers for its BizTalk Server.  And the new version, BizTalk 2006 R2, has several significant enhancements to its feature set including native support for EDI.  By the way - it is about time!  I am pleased to see that even Microsoft has acknowledged the continued dominance of EDI as the world’s most popular B2B document format.  But I am not referring to BizTalk when I stated that Microsoft’s translator had the largest market share.  I am actually referring to Office 2007.

Microsoft Office 2007 – The Translator 

The newest version of Office is based upon XML standards, specifically the Open Office XML standard.  This new XML standard is a different file format and structure than the previous binary format used in prior versions up to Office 2003.  The older binary formats .xls for Microsoft Excel, .doc for Microsoft Word and .ppt for Microsoft PowerPoint have actually become so well known that many people I know use them as if they were words.  I often see e-mails or on-line chats referring to .xls and .ppt.  XLS is much simpler to type than “spreadsheet” and everyone knows what a “PPT” is.  Open Office XML will challenge the established shorthand with a new four letter naming convention for file extensions.  Starting with Office 2007 .xlsx is the default format used by Microsoft Excel, .docx is used by Microsoft Word and .pptx by Microsoft PowerPoint.  If you are not using Office 2007 yet, you may have received an e-mail with a .docx file that you could not open.   In fact, this is causing considerable confusion across the industry as most users on earlier versions of Microsoft Office do not know of the new file formats.

Fortunately, Microsoft has not abandoned the binary file formats.  Using the “Save As” command or what Microsoft refers to as “Compatibility Mode” a user can save a file created in Office 2007 in the .doc, .xls and .ppt formats, which brings me back to the title of this blog.  I have been using Office 2007 for almost a year now and I must spend, at least, 20 minutes a day converting files back and forth between Open Office XML and the binary format.  GXS is only about mid-way through the Office 2007 upgrade.   And many of my colleagues at other companies have not upgraded to 2007.  The rules of proper e-mail etiquette suggest that one should send the older Office 2003 binary file format by default to avoid frustrating your peers.  As a result, my office software has become a powerful spreadsheet tool, word processor, presentation designer and document translator.   And I am not alone.  Hundreds of thousands of other end-users like myself are translating Open Office XML files to Microsoft’s binary Office file format every day.  By my estimates, the conversion of Microsoft Office file formats is occurring on a broader scale than any other document transformation process making Microsoft Office 2007 the world’s most popular translator.

How Long will Microsoft’s Reign as Leading Translator Last? 

Although Microsoft Office may enjoy top standing today in translation volumes, its reign will not extend forever.  Forrester Research recently conducted a study of Office 2007 adoption amongst North American and Western European businesses.  The study found that 43% of enterprises surveyed have some level of Office 2007 in use.  Furthermore, 93% of respondents stated they will be deploying Office 2007 in the next 12 months.  Adoption is occurring much faster than I would have expected.  However, the looming economic recession may decelerate upgrade efforts for some users.  The tapeworm-like memory usage of Office 2007 necessitates a PC hardware upgrade for many users.  Such non-essential capital spending may be deferred until 2009 or 2010 by corporations suffering from recessionary pressures.  Nonetheless, at some point in the next five years, Office 2007 will enjoy a leadership position on the desktop.  And at such time, translations to the older binary formats will likely drop dramatically.

Open Office XML – The Conspiracy Theories 

There has been a significant amount of controversy surrounding the new Open Office XML standard.  Open Office XML recently became an official ISO standard along with PDF, HTML and the other office standard – Open Document Format.   Remember that standard should always be assumed to be plural even when used without the trailing “s.”   Microsoft has been accused of unfairly influencing the ISO standardization process as part of its plan to promote its own interests.  I actually don’t think it was Microsoft that is really behind the aggressive lobbying efforts.  My conspiracy theory is that the disk drive companies such as Seagate and Western Digital are really championing the effort.  The storage manufacturers have the most to gain from a new office document standard.  For the next five years while there is a parallel set of document formats in use by Microsoft Office applications, end users will need to store two versions of many files - one in the new XML-based 2007+ format and the other in the older, binary 2003 format.  The effect is a doubling of disk capacity required by end user.

Open Office XML has a number of fascinating dimensions to it, both from an industry standards perspective and from a business applications standpoint, but my PR Director has told me that my blog entries are too long so I will not carry on, but instead leave you with some links to research the standards on your own:

• Wikipedia entry on Open Office XML ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Office_XML)
• Forrester Research - The State of Microsoft Office 2007 Desktop Adoption - March 31 2008
• Wall Street Journal - Microsoft’s Office Push Scrutinized by EU – February 8, 2008
• Gartner - Standards Bodies’ Approval of OOXML Doesn’t Change Status Quo – April 8, 2008

Steve Keifer

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