ARN

Microsoft partner: Office 365 app dev model to change, expand

Newsgator, which builds enterprise social software for SharePoint, says it will be able to do much more with Office 365's next version

External developers will be able to build much more sophisticated applications and tools for Office 365 once Microsoft releases the next upgrade of that cloud-hosted communication and collaboration suite, according to a Microsoft partner.

NewsGator, a company that makes enterprise social software primarily for SharePoint, finds Office 365's current application development platform limited, but is looking forward to its expansion.

"The current version of Office 365 is very limited with respect to its ability to support third-party applications and software," said NewsGator's CEO J.B. Holston in an interview.

However, the Office 365 application development platform will change "fundamentally," he said. ""For the next version, there are a number of things we'll be launching that are really interesting -- value-added services that will fill some interesting gaps around Office 365 out of the box in the social space."

Microsoft declined to comment about what may be in store for Office 365 and its APIs (application programming interfaces) and tools for external developers. However, on Monday, after Holston spoke with IDG News Service, the company announced that it has begun the Technical Preview for the next version of Office, code-named Office 15.

As part of the Technical Preview, hand-picked customers are testing early versions of Office 15 and provide feedback to Microsoft, the company said in the blog post.

"With Office 15, for the first time ever, we will simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio," the post reads. A public beta for Office 15 is slated for the summer.

Holston is also very interested in how much the next rev of Office 365 will appeal to large enterprises, because in his view the current version was designed primarily to appeal to small and medium-size businesses. NewsGator focuses on primarily on Global 2000 companies.

Juan Carlos Perez covers search, social media, online advertising, e-commerce, web application development, enterprise cloud collaboration suites and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: IDG, Microsoft, Visio
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the ARN comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: applications, cloud computing, collaboration, e-mail, internet, Microsoft, software, Software as a service
ARN Directory | Distributors relevant to this article
ASI Solutions , Bluechip Infotech , Compucon Computers , Dicker Data , Express Data , Express Online , ICT Distribution , Impact Systems Technology , Leader Computers , NewLease , Synnex Australia , Topstar Computer International , XiT Distribution , Xpress I.T.
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events.
ARN Distributor Directory
Find distributors by name | vendor | location
Channel Deals
/deals/aca-pacific/439_qlogic-reseller-promotion-bonuses-on-hba-and-s
ACA Pacific

QLogic Reseller Promotion. Bonuses on HBA and Switch Purchases. Ends June 30th, 2012

More details »
ARN Vendor Directory
Find vendors by name | category

iAsset is a channel management ecosystem that automates all major aspects of the entire sales,marketing and service process, including data tracking, integrated learning, knowledge management and product lifecycle management.