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May 31, 2001 - Microsoft is tossing a party
at Chicago's United Center. The occasion? America's favorite
alleged monopolist is introducing a new version of its Office
suite Thursday--easily the most widely used software on the
planet.
(Think Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and more.)
The host will be none other than Microsoft
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, a strapping 6-footer with a
bald pate and a booming voice.
Ballmer is expecting about 4,000 of the
Redmond, Wash.-based company's closest friends. Of course,
the free beer and food will be a draw. Likewise the software
rebates, T-shirts, pens and other freebies.
Ballmer himself is an attraction. The 45-year-old
Detroit-area native has run the world's biggest software company
since founder and Chairman Bill Gates handed him the joystick
18 months ago. He has been known to work stadium-size crowds
of Microsofties into motivational frenzies.
He'll have to work harder this time.
Office XP is the first in a string of new
Microsoft products rolling out in a difficult economy. Among
the offerings is an important update of its Windows operating
system, due Oct. 25.
Ballmer is coming to Chicago to fire up
the company's small army of business partners to sell software,
despite a looming recession and the tech industry's deepest
funk in at least a decade.
That takes more than eXPerience (the term
behind Microsoft's "XP" moniker).
Some would say it takes eXtraordinary chutzPah,
eXtreme Pushiness, eXaggerated Purpose.
None of which Microsoft has ever lacked.
Think about it. The company is pitching
Corporate America on installing costly desktop software even
as businesses chop budgets and lay off computer jockeys.
Microsoft's pitch, of course, is that new
software will make employees more productive.
That's a stretch, says Richard Arns of Chicago
Research and Planning Group, whose members control $75 billion
in annual tech purchasing at Fortune 1000 companies.
Those deep-pocket buyers are looking to
cut costs and create new channels for sales. They're not interested
in fiddling with new desktop software.
Notes Chris Le Tocq of Guernsey Research
in Los Altos, Calif.: "Companies believe they're already
getting productivity from their desktop users."
So what's at stake for Microsoft in changing
their minds?
Plenty. Desktop-applications software generates
more than one-third of Microsoft's $25 billion in annual sales.
Lately, its once mighty growth curve has gone flat.
That's why Microsoft is dispatching its
top guns--Gates to New York, Ballmer to Chicago, others around
the country--to trumpet Office XP.
Here in the Midwest--a region that generates
more desktop software sales than any other area for Microsoft--some
900 tech companies rely heavily on the success of Microsoft's
offerings.
Start with Avanade, a Chicago-based joint
venture of Microsoft and Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting).
Avanade helps big firms link desktop software with back-office
systems.
Genisys Consulting in Elk Grove Village
is among scores of local independent consultants that customize
Microsoft software for business clients.
Spirian Technologies, a Chicago firm that
automates software installation and monitors desktops, looks
to Microsoft for about 25 percent of its business.
"If you're going to ride coattails,"
says Spirian CEO Alan Wasserberger, "Microsoft's are
pretty good ones."
Indeed, Office XP is expected to generate
sales despite the weak environment.
One reason: a new Microsoft licensing program
for businesses that buy software in bulk. To qualify, customers
must buy their Office upgrades by Oct. 1, whether they plan
to install new software or not.
"At the end of the day," says
Le Tocq, "Microsoft's going to make a substantial amount
of money."
So, why not log off and indulge in
some eXtracurricular Pleasure? Ballmer's United Center kick-off
starts at 3:30 p.m., but even latecomers still have a crack
at downloading a free beer.
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