Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has formed the Interoperability Customer Executive Council to identify areas for interoperability improvements across its products and the overall software industry. Customers are working in increasingly heterogeneous IT environments and asking for a greater level of interoperability from their IT vendors. Microsoft is committed to building bridges across the industry to deliver products to its customers that are interoperable by design.

The council, hosted by Muglia, will meet twice a year in Redmond, Wash. The council will have direct contact with Microsoft executives and product teams so it can focus on interoperability issues that are of greatest importance to customers, including connectivity, application integration and data exchange. Council members will include chief information officers (CIOs), chief technology officers (CTOs) and architects from leading corporations and governments. Representatives from Société Générale, LexisNexis, Kohl’s Department Stores, Denmark’s Ministry of Finance, Spain’s Generalitat de Catalunya and Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), and the states of Wisconsin and Delaware have joined as founding members.