Microsoft Talk

Prototype Technologies Set in Workplace Scenarios Illustrate Vision For a More Productive Tomorrow

Microsoft Corp. today announced the opening of the Center for Information Work (CIW), an immersive setting that allows Microsoft to explore how productivity could be improved in the future. The CIW highlights advancements in prototype software, creating an evolving model for a highly productive working environment.

Located on Microsoft’s Redmond campus, the CIW represents a companywide effort to build a prototype of one view of what productivity technology could look like five years out. It uses familiar workplace situations to demonstrate concepts for improving how tomorrow’s workers will manage information overload, access important data to make decisions, and stay connected when away from the office. Sony Electronics Inc. Business Solutions and Systems Co., Intel Corp. and Acer Inc. have worked with CIW to create one look at how future technologies will work together to make information workers more efficient and productive.

“Over the course of the last century, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the formation of the global work force. The changes have been fueled in large part by improvements in technology and changes in business processes,” said Jeff Raikes, group vice president at Microsoft. “To help our customers remain competitive in the face of such changes, we continue to advance software in ways that will help them boost employee productivity and broaden options for mobility. Some of these innovations are represented as prototypes in the Center for Information Work.”

Engaging Customers

Approximately 1,000 customers are expected to tour the CIW each month. The tours provide customers with the opportunity to interact with technologies currently being examined by Microsoft and its CIW technology participants. Microsoft encourages feedback on the prototypes because it will help guide which technologies will move toward reality and which will need refining to better address real business problems customers face.

“Employees today use enterprise data to drive business strategy, integrate and create business processes, and collaborate with co-workers and partners,” said Thomas Gruver, group marketing manager for the Center for Information Work at Microsoft. “At the Center for Information Work, customers can see the kind of active thinking we are putting into productivity solutions and tools and how those solutions address the need for more productive, mobile and efficient business processes.”