Office Business Applications

Office Business Applications (OBA) are applications that leverage the platform capabilities of the Office system, to bridge the results gap currently existing between line of business systems and end-user productivity tools. Office Business Applications allow users to increase productivity by providing a seamless and integrated end to end user experience from their desktop to data in ERP, CRM, SCM, and other business systems.

Office Business Applications help businesses unlock the value of their line-of-business (LOB) systems and turn document-based processes into real applications. OBAs leverage the power of the Office Business Platform, that is, the clients, servers, services, and tools that comprise the 2007 Microsoft Office system to solve business problems. People typically perform significant additional work outside of the formal processes of a line-of-business (LOB) system as they collaborate with other people via phone and email, obtain information from multiple sources in the form of documents and spreadsheets, and switch between online and offline modes for meetings and business trips. OBAs help simplify this interaction by fitting within the informal processes that information workers actually follow. Applications and documents can be extended to add enterprise-specific features, and LOB systems can be seamlessly integrated with the Microsoft Office system to make the LOB system much more accessible.

Office Business Applications are made possible by key platform capabilities, called OBA Services, in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. These consist of: workflow, search, the Business Data Catalog, a new, extensible user interface, Microsoft Office Open XML Formats, and the Web Site and Security Framework. These services can be used to extend Microsoft Office system investments in business intelligence, unified communications and collaboration, and enterprise content management, as well as other business applications by ISVs or corporate developers.

For more information, please refer to the list of resources and links on the right.