When the managers of a Danish manufacturing company arrived at Microsoft's main campus here on an overcast afternoon recently, their expectations were as unclear as the weather outside. They wanted technology to eliminate the hassles created by their disparate business systems and streamline their operations. They just didn't know how -- or if -- Microsoft could help them do these things any time soon.
Then they stepped inside the Center for Information Work (CIW). The center is Microsoft's showroom for some of the technology innovations that the company expects will reach information workers in the coming years. This vision is of software that seamlessly links and offers instant analysis of sales projections and inventories, both in-house and through the supply chain. It's also software that increases IT security through new methods of user identification and enables mobile employees to stay connected in real time, even if they are half a world away.
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