We’ve just heard a talk about ActionBase in Office 2010 and still don’t know what it is.
UPDATE:
Though it’s not at all clear from the conference video. ActionBase is a non-Microsoft product, not a part of Office 2010 or any upcoming Microsoft product, or indeed the VBA class called ActionBase.
The ActionBase Class is the base for all SmartTag actions in Visual Studio Tools for Office. You’d use it in VBA code for Word or Excel. This class has been in Office VBA since 2005 and will continue to be supported in Office 2010.
Go to http://actionbase.com/ and you’ll find ActionBase from a Microsoft Gold Certified partner that’s described as
“ActionBase is a Human Process Management System (HPMS) managing ad hoc, human centric, unstructured processes usually handled in email and documents. With ActionBase anyone can initiate, effectively track and govern an entire process. ActionBase completely integrated into standard MS Office applications and provides end-to-end real-time visibility and a complete audit trail.”
We’ve just heard a talk about ActionBase in Office 2010 and still don’t know what it is. There’s a link to the talk here – a WMV file.
One thing about early Microsoft announcements is they have a lot of broad jargon and a certain amount of déjà vu. And so it is today with an announcement about ActionBase – a new part of Office 2010.
According to a Microsoft spokesman ActionBase is a ‘Human-centric Business Process Management System’ – which could mean almost anything.
It is a ‘single place to manage human-centric processes’ using mostly Outlook, Word and Sharepoint.
What is a ‘human’ centered process anyway? Are there Robot or Alien centered processes in Office that we’ve overlooked?
From what we can surmise, ActionBase seems like an extension of the existing Sharepoint and Exchange Server systems to give managers new ways to grab relevant documents and emails related to a particular project.
If that’s the case then ActionBase may turn out to be a fancy name dreamed up over a marketing lunch for more Sharepoint and collaboration technologies.
Speaking of collaboration; we’re told that ‘Office 2010 is all about collaboration’. That’s no different from ‘Office 2003 is all about collaboration’ or ‘Office 2007 is all about collaboration’ – déjà vu all over again.
ActionBase may turn out to be really good and useful, but usually when the announcement is so non-specific and jargon filled, the final product isn’t that exciting.
One really interesting thing about the short talk is that Google was mentioned by name. Rarely does Microsoft mention a competitors name at all – usually it’s ‘the other guys’, ‘some other companies’. Instead we’re told:
“Google is lately talking about the Google Wave. ActionBase and Microsoft is the real wave for the enterprise”.
As with all Microsoft collaboration tools, the main aim is to keep organizations tied to Microsoft. You can bet that ActionBase requires Microsoft server and desktop tools to make it happen.
