Graph technologies will empower future model of enterprise platforms

Unless you live under a rock, I’m sure you’ve heard about one of the largest acquisitions in tech world – Microsoft + LinkedIn. Microsoft’s June 13th announcement to acquire LinkedIn focused on the transformation this $26 billion acquisition would bring to Microsoft.

Microsoft decision to buy LinkedIn site reflects a growing interest to integrate between social and enterprise software. This is one of the most interesting sweet spots that was developed by many PLM and ERP companies.

The overlap between social networks and software companies is becoming more indistinguishable. The lines are blurring across all products, social data and the impact on enterprise platforms.

My special attention was caught by the article – LinkedIn + Microsoft: Changing the Way the World Works. The idea of intertwine between social data into enterprise products is interesting. Here is the passage that speaks about it

… the two of us realized we had virtually identical mission statements. For LinkedIn, it was to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, and for Microsoft it was to empower every individual and organization in the world to achieve more. Essentially, we’re both trying to do the same thing but coming at it from two different places: For LinkedIn, it’s the professional network, and for Microsoft, the professional cloud.

Both of us recognized that combining these assets would be unique and had the potential to unlock some enormous opportunities. For example: Massively scaling the reach and engagement of LinkedIn by using the network to power the social and identity layers of Microsoft’s ecosystem of over one billion customers. Think about things like LinkedIn’s graph interwoven throughout Outlook, Calendar, Active Directory, Office, Windows, Skype, Dynamics, Cortana, Bing and more.

So, LinkedIn graph technologies can empower enterprise products such as Outlook, Dynamics and others for enterprise organization. It means to improve processes and enterprise data management by introducing new type of data processing and graph capabilities.

What is my conclusion? The blurring boundaries of social networks and enterprise software is an opportunity of future platforms.  CAD and PLM companies are coming with a strong “platform play” these days. This is a note for enterprise and PLM architects thinking how to improve the future of engineering and manufacturing workflows. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

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Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of openBoM developing cloud based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups and supply chain.

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