When Microsoft watchers talk about "deeply integrating," or "tying," (or insert any other "bundling" euphemism of choice here), they almost always use it in reference to desktop Windows.

Bundling Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and other sundry Microsoft technologies into Windows has gotten Microsoft in antitrust trouble all around the globe. And already, the European Union's antitrust commission is itching for its next fight with Microsoft over Windows Vista, and allegedly is looking toward the company's plans to integrate Internet search, its "Metro" PDF-like technology and antispyware technologies Microsoft is planning to bundle into Vista as potential problem areas.

But what about the rest of the Microsoft product line? Has anyone noticed that Microsoft is bundling more and more previously standalone technologies into other products? And in those cases it is not outright bundling, the Redmondians are more "innovatively integrating" technologies from different Microsoft product units, in the name of working "better together." Examples?

Windows Live services: Microsoft is launching new Windows Live services almost every day. But peel back the covers and it becomes clear that many of these services embed elements of other Windows Live services. Microsoft's plan is to incorporate Windows Live Contacts, Windows Live Identity and Windows Live Storage (currently known as MSN Storage, we believe) into almost all of its Windows Live properties. It also is moving toward embedding Windows Live Search, AdCenter, presence, mapping and mobile services in its individual Windows Live point products.

Microsoft Dynamics' ERP and CRM wares: At this week's Convergence conference, Microsoft showed off its user interface of the future for its CRM and ERP products. That "roles-based user experience" integrates elements of Vista and Outlook 2007. And going forward, the Dynamics products are going to be more tightly tied to other Microsoft technologies and products, including Windows Workflow Foundation, SQL Server 2005 and SharePoint Server 2007.

Visual Studio tool suite: With past versions of Visual Studio, Microsoft has gone out of its way to make development easier for individuals writing applications on Windows platforms, for Windows platforms. But with "Orcas," the next release due out in 2007 (last we heard), Microsoft is planning to build more hooks into its development suite that will more tightly tie it to other Microsoft products, including its forthcoming Expression designer tools; Office 2007; and the WinFX technologies (Windows Presentation, Communication, and Workflow Foundations) that are part of Windows Vista.

Microsoft execs are quick to note that other third-party vendors are free to integrate their wares with Windows Live, SQL Server, SharePoint and Visual Studio. And many already do so.

But you can be sure that Microsoft's own products will integrate best and most tightly with other Microsoft products. Do you believe that Mendocino, the Microsoft-SAP bundle of Microsoft Office and SAP back-end technologies will be as water-tight as the Microsoft Office-Microsoft Great Plains or the Microsoft CRM-Microsoft ERP integration the company is working to deliver? We don't, either.

We recently had a chance to ask Microsoft Business Unit Jeff Raikes whether Microsoft was getting more aggressive about this whole "innovative integration" push. His answer?

"We're the only company that can bring together structured and unstructured information for better user productivity," Raikes said. Not IBM, not SAP, not Oracle. Raikes' logic: Because Microsoft has a strong presence on both the desktop Office side, as well as the back-end business-process part of the business, it is in a unique position to unify the two.

So is integration/bundling a bad thing? For Microsoft-only shops it's nothing but a positive. For Windows consumers with whom we've spoken over the years, it's considered a plus. But for the vast majority of IT operations that run heterogeneous computing environments and are more interested in intra-vendor interoperability than inter-vendor integration, this kind of tight bundling could prove to be more of a hindrance than a help.

What's your take? Should Microsoft's competitors and antitrust regulators be setting their sights on the synergies in other parts of Microsoft's business beyond Windows Vista? Or is integration between Microsoft's Office, ERP, CRM and other back-end products more of a positive than a negative, in your view? Talk back below or write me at mswatch@ziffdavis.com and
let me know what you think.