Did Microsoft miss yet another boat?

[Mark Kaplan]

Very interesting article. I agree that Microsoft should have been far ahead of this and yet again was not. Amazon will now take the lead on these devices in business as well as home which it already has. Thoughts?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyo...soft-alexa-for-business-cortana/#4895744a2160

 

[Laura Knotek]

That's an interesting article.

I feel that the main problem is that Microsoft missed the boat by focusing too much on enterprise rather than on consumers.

Microsoft just got lucky in the 90s when consumers adopted what they were using at work for home use. However, nowadays enterprises adopt what consumers are using, rather than the other way around. Microsoft's mindshare by consumers is that of a stodgy, old-fashioned company whose products are only for work.

Amazon is huge with consumers, and the folks who already use Amazon products at home would have a more favourable opinion of using those Amazon products at work as well. Amazon has the cool factor Microsoft lacks.

 

[Mark Kaplan]

Agreed but now they will fall behind in the business side too. They have Cortana on every single desktop in most companies. There should be a Cortana device like the Harmon Kardon that could be leveraged in conference rooms and such to start SfB calls and meetings. Show presentations ect. Amazon will now use Alexa to accomplish this far before Microsoft realizes what has happened.

 

[Pairadyce]

If you could dial a specific number through the Invoke, they could make a strong push to replace conference room phones (and give Cisco a run for their money) and then work towards integrating the Invoke as a meeting space tool where someone can walk in a room and say:

• start the scheduled meeting
• is the room booked
• reserve this room for me
• invite ____ to this meeting

They really need to get Cortana on the multi-user pathway to achieve this though. Cortana needs to recognize a business entity as well as the users associated with that entity. If they ability for "Hey Cortana" can truly recognize a unique individual, then they could get to this. Though I'm not sure this is their roadmap for the service. Nice to imagine a company with a phone system managed by Cortana... no more remembering extensions, book meetings and reminders by voice, presence recognition.

 

[Vincent McLaughlin]

Unfortunately, this seems to be the issue with MS. It's not that they don't develop exciting technology, but fail to implement anything that seems to excite consumers. If MS doesn't change course and start focusing on the average consumer, as well as the enterprise sector, the increases in stocks that Satya and MS's Board seem to focused on will start to drop again. Without consumer support, their enterprise doninance will drop, too. Just must thoughts on it. So much potential, with no really support for their own consumer products.

 

[Manus Imperceptus]

MS should concentrate on getting Cortana to all their customers instead of getting it/her to a small corner of the business market...

Jeez! There is NO difference between consumer and business; all business customers are consumers in their off-time, and will demand what they're used to/comfortable with...!

 

[MetalFan777]

I think its too late now. People know this is spying programs now. And I start to be glad we dont have it in Norway. If it ewer comes to Norway I will uninstall it.

 

[fatclue_98]

I agree with Laura wholeheartedly. The image most people have of Microsoft is that of a staid, stuffy company that provides their computers at work. There's nothing cool about it and it's probably too complicated for them. All they know is that they have to call the geek with the pocket protectors every time the desktop goes on the fritz and they don't want to deal with that at home.

We're enthusiasts here, we know the difference.

Sent from my Lumia 950XL on mTalk

 

[IdleMind]

I think Cortana would be nice to have in a conference room, along with Windows Hello. You can walk into a conference room that's scheduled for a meeting, and when WH see's a meeting attendee enter the room it knows to begin the meeting. Cortana AI can be used to perform functions you might do on the touch pad usually found in conference rooms. Like open documents, bring up the whiteboard, email meeting notes to attendees, add someone to the call, etc. Just some thoughts.

 

[Gregorius Magnus]

I don't know. To me, hearing any kind of AI for business is rather something running down the product. I believe, an AI of any kind would automatically become business if used that way. What on Earth is an Alexa for business, and why can't I arrange conference calls with an Alexa for home? And if Microsoft it's focusing on enterprise, why should it bring anything quite like Cortana for business? Shouldn't it bring something like Cortana for Home?

 

[deadonthefloor]

Microsoft Bot Framework is their AI for business play.
Rather than being the company that brings everything to the table, they are a platform company first.

The bot framework allows other third parties with industry specific knowledge to light up a conversational canvas in ways that seem fitting.

If MS were to invest in doing the endpoint work instead of enabling developers to do so, they'll lose the third party developer ecosystem.

As it stands, Cortana is already in business. With o365, cortana will automagically attempt to schedule meetings from emails, if a meeting is mentioned in the subject or body of an email, with all the recipients.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com...ling-Customer-Meeting-with-Cortana/ba-p/64364

Foolish question.

 

[BaritoneGuy]

I agree, Cortana is already in business. We have turned it on in our O365 tenant. We are also testing calender.help which is scheduling with anyone.

We are also playing with things I can't talk about.

 

[GreyFox7]

Yes, the boat sailed without them. They haven't shown they can catchup in any markets in quite a while so you may as well put a fork in it, they are done. They keep leaving gaping holes for others/partners to fill but it just doesn't happen anymore. If they can't do it on their own and they can't get participation, there is no path to success.

 

[Vincent McLaughlin]

I agree, there isn't a difference between the two. I think the difference is what is focused on for business use. However, in the age of being always connected that line has been blurred. Many people use their personal devices at work and for work. Microsoft seems to not understand this. That's why thy keep dropping the ball with the products that appeals to the average consumer and not just enterprise and business consumers. It has to be something that people will want to use outside of the office.

 

[Adventurer64]

My employer deploys iPhones (which I decline) and now iPads because everyone likes their iPhones. To make matters worse, our IT dept is deploying the cheapest dell latitudes with low res screens, non-touch, etc. Junkers that MS should ban. The user experience on our corporate laptops running windows 10 is not very good. I'm still running an older latitude with win7 cuz I don't want win10 without touch on a low res screen. I use touch extensively on my SP 2017 and can't switch back and forth with Windows 10. At least with Windows 7, I'm not reaching for screen. Now I see apple stickers taped over Dell logos in protest, execs included. I'm guessing iPad Pros or Macs are just around the corner.

 

[Adventurer64]

Oh, no one is using Cortana at my employer. Heck, I've lost count of how many people I've helped minimize Cortana on their task bars.

 

[naddy6969]

“My employer deploys iPhones (which I decline) and now iPads because everyone likes their iPhones.”

Why would anyone decline a free phone? Nose. Spite. Face.

 

[Adventurer64]

“My employer deploys iPhones (which I decline) and now iPads because everyone likes their iPhones.”

Why would anyone decline a free phone? Nose. Spite. Face.

Because I don't like iphones and also don't want to carry two phones. I can still access my work email through a web app, so no need to load another pocket with an iPhone. Plus, I have unlimited everything on my TMo account and better international service. So, it's really not costing me anything to do business on personal phone.

 

[Daniel Stevenson Sutton]

I use Cortana as a front end to Azure at work on a daily basis. I integration with Skype for Business, Teams and Planner would complete the deal but otherwise I would say they are on track.

Although I use voice control at home, I would never use it in the office and I think it should stay that way. Cortana's typed interface is sufficient for sure.

Really you have to think about user behavior too: I work in a technology analysis firm, so my peers are very much "tech folk". I Cortana through Azure querying our basic data, so our analysts can simply ask a question about a metric and there it is...how many use it? Of course none, it works, been tested to high heaven, but its not the normal user behavior so they wont do it. I doubt alexa can break that.

 

[Daniel Stevenson Sutton]

Agreed. Love the schedule system. I hate organizing meetings and that just makes it easier, add your meeting rooms as email addresses you don't even need to find a room. Perfect