PDC 2005 is over and it is time for some thoughts on what was unleashed in the Office/SharePoint space. I will not even try to sum the various new features. One there are simply too many, and two, other bloggers have already done a marvellous job doing that. But it is without any doubt that the Office/SharePoint product teams have done a great job moving the platform, the products and technologies a major step forward. Congratulations to all of them. Having the privilege to know a bit more about the inside of what is going on there in Redmond, I know these guys have been working very hard to deliver all of this at the PDC. Thank you Fitz for having done again a wonderful job of coordinating the content in the Office track. Thanks to all of the presenters for delivering that content. The expectations were high, you met them without any doubt.

I guess a number of people will go home (or are already home) with mixed feelings about the new changes and features in Windows SharePoint Services and the Office Server (that is SPS). A lot of companies invested heavily in filling up the gaps and holes of the current version, delivering services, providing solutions and software in a very horizontal way. We all know that there are many holes to fill in the 2003 version and thus, a lot of opportunities for ISVs and services companies. But what next? No doubt, there will be a lot of internal meetings in companies all over the world the next weeks discussing how to respond to all of this. Some will see new challenges and opportunities, others see there current solutions melt away as Microsoft is delivering that specific functionality out-of-the-box. It is probably time for many companies doing SharePoint stuff, to reflect on where to go from here. My advise to them is not to panic. Yes, Microsoft is filling up the gaps and to me, there will be less demand from customers to extend WSS or SPS in a horizontal way to deliver something that 'Microsoft should have done'. Good example of this in the current version is item-level security or security trimming of the UI. To me the real opportunities are in the building of vertical solutions on top of the WSS platform. Solutions for the medical sector, for finance people, for record management, name them. Find a vertical, understand their business first, investigate how all of the IW stuff you saw on PDC can be leveraged to build a solution that can help them. Some companies will build these solutions again and again and will benefit from the rich re-usability features in SharePoint, others will package their solutions as applications one can buy and easily install on top of an existing WSS infrastructure.

I was having dinner (my last one in LA :-)) with Lars from Navigo Systems discussing all of this. These are the guys that have made the Ontolica product, giving users the much needed search support in version 2003. Something what many assumed they should have received from Microsoft. They have filled a gap and were and still are very successful in doing so. Of course, in Office 12, the majority of what the Ontolica product is covering is in the platform itself. Do they sit around and curse Microsoft for doing it? Hell not! They find new opportunities by focusing more on the verticals. And they have great plans for next year. Way to go Lars and good luck in your mission!

So, the gates are open, we all have a good feeling what to expect, let's start planning those great solutions on top of all of this!