I just bumped into the SharePoint Conference 2011 on the Internet today ( http://www.mssharepointconference.com/Pages/default.aspx ). I remember not too long ago that this conference was the Office Developer Conference (maybe 2 years back) and now I see not one reference to Microsoft Office in the site for that conference. I find that pretty amazing and pretty sad.
I then searched the Internets for “Microsoft Office Conferences” and got nothing but old conferences from 2008 and earlier.
I don’t know about you, but I find that really unfortunate and I guess we have to accept that the next step will be Microsoft Office Excel, Access, Word etc. to simply become a subset of Microsoft SharePoint officially and lose their identity as a group or even as anything more important than InfoPath (which I have never found any use for) or OneNote (which is a great end-sure tool for ONE purpose BTW) and other minor Microsoft technologies.
I don’t think I’m just being a pathetic old man when I say that I don’t exactly think this is a good thing for anybody (including Microsoft IMHO). I am seeing more and more interest in getting better results out of Excel lately (especially around PowerPivot) and data and I am actually finding renewed interest in Access and Access Services.
Unless these products can get some kind of separate identity away from “under” the SharePoint umbrella though, I think a lot of good opportunities for business will be lost and a lot of people will just go away before somebody realizes the strength of the the products and their fundamental function and potential contribution in today’s business environment.
But I guess I’ll go back to being an “Old Fart” 🙂 and watch.
Dick
Dick Moffat's Spreadsheet and BI Blog 
re: Office becoming a subset of SharePoint
I hate it when I’m told exactly HOW to use a piece of software. Why can’t I just use it the way I want to?
Amen..
This is a derivative consequence of re-centralization as well as fear of spreadsheets. Maybe also a large organization vs small-to-medium organization phenomenon. I work for a global financial services company, and there’s been a clear message against any new Excel or Access based applications. Several legacy ones still, but 5-year plan to shift everything possible to browser-based.
Tangent: giving advice to a young person interested in business app development, it’d almost be criminal to steer them towards Office rather than Java.
I think when MSFT subsumed Office within SharePoint’s domain that was the unofficial announcement that MSFT no longer cared about small-to-medium size customers who MSFT may figure (with good reason) will go on buying Windows PCs and Office for years to come whether or not MSFT provides any indirect support in the form of seminars.
“Tangent: giving advice to a young person interested in business app development, it’d almost be criminal to steer them towards Office rather than Java.”
Too true.
“I think when MSFT subsumed Office within SharePoint’s domain that was the unofficial announcement that MSFT no longer cared about small-to-medium size customers who MSFT may figure (with good reason) will go on buying Windows PCs and Office for years to come whether or not MSFT provides any indirect support in the form of seminars.”
But ironically I believe that large companies are the ones that would get the most out of the capabilities of these two Office technologies. When corporate decision makers finally realize that waiting for IT to develop every single solution for every department using brwoser tools (and with the inevitable priority of Enterprise applications) is just not ging to work, they’re going to ask what alternatives they have – snd by then Excel and/or Access (and the skills required to use them) will be gone away……
But if MS could find the stones to promote these technologies even though they are admittdly not “Cool” it would not only help them with keeping clients in their camp but would also help companies be more Productive and Efficient. What a concept 🙂 ..
Sorry – how stupid of me to think like that. Just confirms what and old fart I am once again. Me bad….
Dick
Makes me laugh that WordPress’s technology told me I already said this when I went to post this last reply to Harlan 🙂 … See – I’m even repeating myself now !!!
Dick
But there are still oddities. Whilst I worry that PowerPivot is going to migrate more back towards SQL Server, there was a huge investment by MS in that user-end technology.
Hey Bob …..
Yes I don’t get that at all. Ive worked PP into a major app this last few months, and with the exception of not being able to programatically drive a PP Update All with VBA, it’s been a huge benefit to the app.
PowerPivot seem caught in a Limbo between SQL, Excel and SharePoint with the latter two MS Product Groups not responsible for it so not making the best of the product. Too bad because it’s a big benefit to all three products IMHO.
I am interested to see how PowerPivot evolves and how it fits in the plans for Excel 15. I’m worried that it won’t be as integrated as it could be. A shame if that happens.
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