Martin Veitch

Wake to MSNBC. Check home email via IE, switch on Pocket PC. Even before that Windows signature tune chime begins the office day, I have interacted with Microsoft a few times. At work I use Office. Save a file and it sleeps on a Windows server, click on a link and you're on MSN, open a message on Hotmail, play an audio file and Windows Media Player pops up.

Little wonder that such omnipresence has attracted the interest of regulators keen to soak up tax euros and dollars on never-ending quests for Elysian level playing-fields. However, though I have long maintained that the regulatory inquiries into Microsoft, and for that matter, Oracle/PeopleSoft and others passim are daft, I do believe that a dominant force requires checks and balances, and the most powerful balance of all is the potential for buyers to shop elsewhere.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has recently shown signs of a preference for railroading through changes that suit its bottom line better than its good name. The most pernicious of these was the news that it will not patch IE except for XP users.

Microsoft today is uncharacteristically prone to missteps. I think it needs to change and here are some ways it should start.

Learn from IBM on product support. IBM earns fortunes from maintaining ancient systems rather than announcing euthanasia strategies. Microsoft wants you to upgrade to a new system because it wants to offer a more secure product and it wants your money. Users should decide what level of security they can live with and pay Microsoft to maintain the product as well as possible.

Open up code. Microsoft has three open-source projects, a clear acknowledgement that opening up is the new way to build a software ecosystem. It needs to do more, however, to develop budding products like SharePoint and CRM.

Play it straighter. You can't say you've had merger talks with SAP and then say you've no plans to offer high-end enterprise apps. Microsoft is in business to make money and stockholders would kick it hard if it did not compete wherever possible. So just say that and if the hand-wringers don't like it, tough.

Buy more. On a related point, Microsoft should be buying up more software firms. Which other business demands lists of suppliers running into dozens? Microsoft should become more of a one-stop shop for software, yet it still has only minor positions in ERP, CRM, security, storage, content management and many other fields.

Ignore Linux. By getting involved in competitive arguments and sponsoring research, Microsoft is losing focus. Linux is a threat to some of its business but - like comparing Waterstone's to secondhand bookshops - the whole model is so different to Microsoft's that there's no point in drawing comparison charts.

Feel our pain. Microsoft has made big strides in usability yet its software still crashes to the sight of dialogues written in what looks like Basque and blue screens. Why?

Buy Newcastle United. Bill Gates should splash out to create a new force that would change football dynamics.

Unfortunately, one of the above is highly unlikely to happen, but I'd like to see at least some of the rest in a new Microsoft. What would you change about the company?

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