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Redmond's "smart client" onslaught officially has begun. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that Siebel has developed — with Microsoft's aid — a new technology called "Siebel Smart Client," which is designed to build on top of the Microsoft .Net Framework and integrate with the Office System 2003 family. "Siebel 7.7 will allow users to link Microsoft Office Outlook(r) 2003 records to data in the Siebel database, and the Siebel Exchange Connector will allow users to synchronize calendar information, contacts and to-do lists between Siebel 7.7 and Microsoft Exchange. Additional calendar options will be available via the Outlook View Control embedded in Siebel 7.7," according to Microsoft's press release. Read More on What Else Siebel Announced So Far This Week All this hoopla begs the question: Exactly what isa smart client, in Microsoft parlance? It it simply a new name for "fat client"? Rich client? A desktop product that embeds the .Net Framework technologies? All of the above? Currently, Microsoft defines Office XP as the "premier" smart client. But Office 2003 surely will usurp that title, come the official product launch on October 21. Here is Microsoft's working definition of smart client dating back to July 2002: In one of its white papers published this summer, Microsoft provided additional specifics on the attributes that qualify an application or piece of system software as "smart." According to the latest Microsoft thinking, software must:
In the past couple of months, Redmond's spent a lot of time and energy to fine-tune its smart client message. This summer, Redmond kicked off what it's calling its "Smart Client Readiness Program," aimed at independent software vendors. Microsoft wants these vendors to develop applications that run on top of and/or embed Microsoft's various smart-client technologies (specifically, the Office System 2003 family, the .Net Framework and Windows Forms technologies, and the .Net Compact Framework). Get More Info on Microsoft's Smart Client Readiness Program for ISVs Although Siebel is one of the biggest of Microsoft's new smart-client partners, it isn't the first. In August, Microsoft announced a deal with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young to develop a customized smart client based on Office 2003 on the front end and SAP on the back end for Indian businesses. Read More on the Cap Gemini Smart Client Deal Here Office-centric solutions won't be the only smart clients, either. Microsoft is expected to market its forthcoming Longhorn version of Windows as a smart client, in its own right. Microsoft also is pitching its Windows Mobile platform based on Windows CE .Net as a smart-client solution.
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