Microsoft Creates Customer Interoperability Council

Microsoft, long criticized for technically isolating its products to squeeze out competitors, announced on Wednesday the formation of a group of its own executives and outside IT professionals to discuss interoperability issues.

The company’s Interoperability Customer Executive Council will meet twice a year at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. The council will be led by Bob Muglia, an 18-year Microsoft veteran who is senior vice president of its server and tool business division.

So far, the council’s members include chief information and chief technology officers from Societe Generale Group, a French bank; LexisNexis; Kohl’s Department Stores; Denmark’s Ministry of Finance; Generalitat de Catalunya, the governing organization for Spain’s Catalonia region; Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, Spain’s intelligence agency; and the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Delaware.

The announcement comes as Microsoft is appealing the European Commission’s March 2004 antittrust decision that fined the software giant 497 million euros (US$625 million). The ruling in part focused on interoperability, forcing Microsoft to open up the source code for server communications protocols to competitors in the workgroup server market. The disclosure is intended to allow competing server software to interact with the Windows OS as well as Microsoft’s own server products do.

The European Commission has criticized Microsoft for not providing usable information, at one point threatening to fine the company 2 million euros per day. Microsoft has said its documentation is sufficient, and that the commission’s demands for more documentation could compromise its intellectual property.

The interoperability council will work with Microsoft’s product teams to discuss issues such as connectivity, application integration and data exchange. Microsoft said businesses realize that having compatible software systems reduces costs and means better information access.

Microsoft also said it would work with competitors on interoperable technologies.

-Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service (London Bureau)

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