Microsoft Teams With EMC To Make Office Docs Easier To Store And Search

As companies find more to store, they need better products, too. Microsoft and EMC last week said they've expanded joint work to design software that closely integrates Microsoft's Office suite with EMC's software for managing the storage of files on servers.

EMC, whose Documentum unit sells software that helps large companies organize and store documents, images, and multimedia files, plans to deliver three products early next year that will let business PC users manage files stored in Documentum using Microsoft's SharePoint Server 2007. The new SharePoint, which can manage storing and searching Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, will be available as part of the Office 2007 suite, due in the first quarter of next year.

Microsoft and EMC have worked together in the past to let users work with Documentum systems from Office apps. The SharePoint deal is an attempt to expand the market for content management software to the desktops of casual users, says John McCormick, EMC's VP of product management. Companies can pay millions of dollars for Documentum installations, used to assign handling rights to PC files, and store them for compliance regulations.

The agreement is another example of Micro-soft positioning Office as a product for managing the flow of documents within companies, says Microsoft general manager Robert Bernard. In May, it teamed with SAP to sell software called Duet that can link SAP's accounting, HR, and inventory software to Microsoft's Outlook E-mail program.