How is Microsoft Impacting Your Business?

Is Microsoft relevant to your business?

It's become fashionable in recent years to make jokes at Microsoft's expense, but the fact remains that Microsoft is still a big name in business computing, and its products could be doing more for your business than you realize.

There's no doubt that other platforms can offer your business plenty of flexible solutions too, but is it time to forget about Microsoft altogether?

Let's take a look….

Rise and Fall of Microsoft 

Time was that if you were using a computer, the chances are you were using Microsoft. That was back when most computers were PCs and even laptops seemed space age. 

As computing has grown and changed, Microsoft has struggled to stay relevant.

The increasing popularity of tablets and smartphones has made things difficult for Microsoft.

Coupled with the lack of love for Windows 8 or Vista, the failure of Microsoft's Surface tablets to really take off and the bugs in Office 2011, there's not a lot of enthusiasm for Microsoft these days. 

Yet Microsoft is still relevant. Word and Excel are near ubiquitous when it comes to word processing and spreadsheets, and many businesses make good use of Outlook for their email needs.

Can Microsoft Look to the Future?

As the article "Is Microsoft Relevant Again?" points out, Microsoft needs to look for the future. Some attempts at that have been more successful than others. 

For example, when Microsoft released its Surface tablet as a viable alternative to the iPad, the reception was generally lukewarm, with the move towards a bigger tablet seen as somewhat retrograde compared to the light and easy to use iPad.

On the other hand, Microsoft's Cloud-based offering, Azure, provided real flexibility for building and deploying applications in the Cloud.

Although initially very Microsoft-centric, Azure was developed over time to play well with other applications, allowing for the building of flexible and useful hybrid Cloud setups.

Microsoft has taken a useful step forward in developing Excel, Word and PowerPoint apps to run on the popular Apple operating systems, making the familiar Office apps available to use on a smartphone or tablet.

What Microsoft Can Do for Your Business

 So, just what can Microsoft offer your business?

Quite a lot, as it turns out:

• Standardized applications - one thing about Microsoft applications is that they all look very similar, making it easy to switch from one to another without a steep learning curve;
• Shareability - because office is so commonly used, you can share a .doc or .xls file with confidence that the recipient will be able to read the file;
• User friendliness - Microsoft applications are generally easy to use and learn, making them a good choice for everyday tasks;
• Reliability - no one ever said Microsoft was without its problems, but for the most part its applications run reliably;
• Infrastructure - your business needs computing infrastructure, and Microsoft can provide that, from a Windows operating system that you can build on to Outlook for quick and easy email access.

There are no bones about it - Microsoft isn't perfect. But it is relevant, and can provide your business with a useful infrastructure and products that you can use.

With Microsoft applications becoming available for other operating systems, there is potential for Microsoft to stay relevant by offering more connectivity and interoperability.