Microsoft promoting XML...
Ballmer pitches Microsoft IT solutions to the government
By Stephanie Neil, PC Week Online
April 18, 2000 1:03 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- Given the guilty verdict handed down here against Microsoft Corp. earlier this month in its landmark antitrust case, it would be understandable if Steve Ballmer, the company's president and CEO, wanted to stay as far away from this town as possible.
Then again, the government is Microsoft's biggest U.S. customer.
So a rainy Tuesday morning found Ballmer here at the FOSE 2000 conference for government IT leaders, talking about how Windows 2000 and XML can help reinvent their business. During his keynote speech, the lively Ballmer talked about e-government, empowering knowledge workers, and the many administrative efficiencies that will ensue once federal and state agencies convert everything to work in a digital world.
As Ballmer put it, "We can't think about empowering the knowledge worker if they still have to rummage around through paper."
The catalyst in transforming a paper-based system to the online world is XML, as well as some of the new security and directory features in Microsoft's new Windows 2000 operating system, Ballmer said. To make his point, Ballmer presided at a presentation of Health eVet, a prototype system now under development at the Department of Veteran Affairs that consolidates patient information within a secure site. It also includes hyperlinks to Web portals, such as WebMD, through SQL Server 7, to do full text look-ups and gain rich content about medications or conditions within the same interface.
Ballmer also highlighted some recent deployment projects that Microsoft is engaged in with government agencies, including the Marine Fisheries Department, which is helping fishermen to get licenses online and capture landing reports via a voice-response system; the Government Printing Office, which is using Microsoft's BizTalk with XML to automate workflow; and Pennsylvania's "PA Powerport" project, a community portal that enables citizens to apply for a car registration online, for instance, and provides tools for getting local businesses onto the Net.
"It will be awhile before we have a U.S. Powerport, but you need to think about how to push what you do online and across government agencies," Ballmer said. |
