Ecma Open XML stories

1. Ecma Open XML stories Darren Strange Senior Product Manager Information Worker Business Group UK http://blogs.msdn.com/officerocker

2. Ecma Open XML applications “And that is why Microsoft's collection of propaganda  whores is working over time. That is why the weasel worders, the spin doctors vent their rectums all day. That is why these slimey, stinking, amorphous concgolomarates of cells, mutants of tumors like Darren Strange have their gaseous excrement sent to the press all day.”

3. Ecma Open XML applications

5. “The file format in the 2007 Microsoft Office system—Ecma Office Open XML—has made a huge difference to what we can offer our customers. We couldn’t have built the Fractal Map Add-In for Excel 2007 without it.” Gervase Clifton-Bligh, Vice President of Product Strategy and Development, Fractal Edge Software Vendor Expands Customer Base with Product Built on New File Format • Fractal Edge help organisations visualise complex data through its product, Fractal Maps • Companies had been producing sophisticated reports for years, But when they published them to a wider audience, these employees lacked the skills to interpret or manipulate the information to their advantage. • Fractal Edge recognised that the company could diversify its customer base by offering a ‘lighter ‘ version of Fractal Maps that worked on top of a familiar and well-known application. • Excel 2007 was a natural choice because of the inclusion of the new Ecma Office Open XML file format • Clifton-Bligh explains “Our thinking was that Excel was a broadly distributed application. And, in the 2007 edition, the configuration controls for pivot tables were well known and substantially improved.” • Sharing Fractal Maps only requires one file with Excel 2007 • As an open standard, the published specifications for the new Microsoft Office file formats are available with a royalty-free licence, which means developers can freely access the full documentation and quickly learn how to integrate Office files into their solutions. • Reduced risk of file corruption when manipulating file data • Expansion of the number of users who can use the Fractal Maps solution

7. “Shorter development times have helped us to drive down the seat price of the application well beneath the threshold where procurement teams need to get involved. This means we can increase revenues based on a high-volume model, selling from the smallest to the largest enterprise.” Andrew Wiles, Managing Director, iT-Workplace Software Vendor Reduces Cost of Revolutionary Reporting Tool with Ecma Office Open XML and New Development Environment • iT-Workplace’s vision was simple, by introducing financial intelligence into common applications, more employees would be able to understand and interpret data and, therefore, contribute more to their organisation. • Originally the plan was to introduce reporting into Microsoft Office Word. • However, iT-Workplace built a new solution called Word for OLAP. Its next challenge came in trying to keep up with an enterprise-level company’s procurement model. • Procurement challenges forced the company to review its software roadmap and the overall direction of its business. • iT-Workplace took part in the Microsoft Independent Software Vendor Power Programme for the 2007 Microsoft Office system. • iT-Workplace revisited OLAP for Word and redeveloped it. • The result is a unique application called Intelligencia for Word 2007 that embeds reporting functionality usually only available in Microsoft Office Excel. • Shorter development times • Sophisticated functionality, but little training required • Employees work in a natural medium. • Avoid procurement challenge due to lower outlay for prospective customers.

8. “As an open standard, Open XML is extensible. It can be read by applications and solutions across the world, so businesses can exchange data seamlessly between their software applications.” Robin Glover, Chief Software Architect, Workshare Company Builds Highly Flexible Version of Document-Protection Tool with New Standard • Professionals work with documents that are tightly regulated by privacy rules. They can rely on software, which checks outgoing e-mails for information that might give away sensitive data, helping to protect the integrity of their businesses. • For developers, the file format the software supports makes a significant difference to the programming process. • Binary formats are difficult to interpret and never fully interoperable. Plus, they are very hard to modify. • Automation of document detection and cleaning • Vastly reduce d development time for new iteration of Protect Enterprise. • Smaller file sizes reduce stress on data storage and email bandwidth • Open XML file format offers flexibility to represent everything normally seen in an Office Word document unlike other open standards • Unlike the binary file format on which Microsoft applications have been developed for many years, the 2007 Microsoft Office system now supports Ecma Office Open XML. • Workshare has a suite of products which are currently being developed using binary and the Open XML file formats allowing first-hand understanding of the key differences. • Customer s are now able to adopt an Open XML version of Workshare’s ‘Protect Enterprise’.

9. “Now that Open XML has been ratified as an open standard, businesses   can use it as the basis of their IT systems, safe in the knowledge that the documents they produce will be fully compatible and future proof.” Dan Scarfe, Chief Executive Officer, Dot Net Solutions Mortgage Lender Generates Forms and Letters Faster with XML-Based Document Production Solution • Financial Services Authority (FSA) rules govern the layout and content of key facts illustration (KFI) documents. • Money Partners need to comply with these rules to avoid tough penalties. Until recently, each time the FSA amended these rules, the company had to change each of its 50 mortgage-related documents individually. • Time taken to make small changes to templates was starting to add up. • Money Partners engaged Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Dot Net Solutions and evaluated the software developer’s X-Merge product. The key to its effectiveness lies in the technology on which it is built—international open standard, Ecma Office Open XML. • X-Merge is similar to the mail merge function available in Microsoft Office Word. Unlike ordinary Word mail merge, this system gives them the tools to create more detailed documents quickly. • Day to day users able to manipulate templates without expensive development time. • Throughput of hundreds of documents per minute • Elimination of re-keying resulting in less mistakes • Reduced backlog of document creation

10. Case studies available