微软收购Yammer背后的玄机

    微软（Microsoft）正在以12亿美元的价格收购企业社交网络工具Yammer。Yammer相当于一个企业版的Facebook。这次收购表明，全球最大的一批企业在使用和选择软件的方式上出现了重大变化。

    《华尔街日报》（Wall Street Journal ）认为，微软收购Yammer表明，“微软可能想借此弥补它那无所不在的Office办公软件存在的缺点。”实际情况远不止如此。一位权威性不亚于风投大师彼得•莱文的人士指出，不管是支付工资、监控顾客信息还是制作电子表格，用于各种用途的企业软件正在经历一次前所未有的复兴和“充分的复苏”。【彼得•莱文是风险投资巨头公司安德森-霍洛维茨（Andreessen Horowitz）的普通合伙人，该公司曾经投资过Facebook、Twitter和社交游戏网站Zynga。】

    他这番话的证据何在？从上个月以来，包括甲骨文（Oracle）、Salesforce和微软等科技巨头已经花了22.5亿美元用于收购Vitrue、Buddy Media和Yammer等新兴社交软件公司。这股收购热潮标志着企业软件正在迅速演变，而科技巨头也不遗余力地想要跟上这股潮流。微软、甲骨文和SAP等公司开发的那种授权式的商业软件就算还没有完全过时，至少已经开始走下坡路。眼下和未来时兴的将是那些基于云计算、简明直观的“软件即服务”式的应用程序，而且还要带有社交组件。这些应用的构建者是一批颠覆性的年轻公司，包括网络存储应用Dropbox、在线协作应用Asana以及上周刚被微软收购的Yammer。

    当然，一切都是钱闹的。据研究机构高德纳公司（Gartner）的数据，全球企业软件市场的估值约在2,800亿美元，差不多等于希腊全年的GDP。

    一场企业IT革命已经悄然拉开大幕。这场革命具有以下5个特点：

    1）企业软件的人性化：一旦从小用惯了Facebook这些直观的多媒体网络的一代人成长起来、进入职场，会发生哪些事呢？要知道，他们所习惯的那些软件都无需培训，马上就能上手。突然之间，传统的企业软件，比如Excel上那些变态的电子表格相比之下显得那样原始。今天的企业用户喜欢的是好看又好用的用户界面。包括Dropbox、Yammer和Box在内的新一代商业软件越来越朝着这个方向发展，同时也能提供企业一向要求的安全性和合法性特征。

    Microsoft is snatching up business social networking tool Yammer - a.k.a Facebook for the workplace - for $1.2 billion. This acquisition hints at a major shift in the way the planet's largest companies use and choose software.

    The Wall Street Journal notes that the Yammer purchase shows "Microsoft may be trying to plug holes in its ubiquitous Office software." It goes much farther than that. Enterprise software - the tools used by companies to do everything from process payroll to monitor customer leads and make spreadsheets - is right now in the midst of an unprecedented renaissance and "full-blown reawakening," according to no less an authority than Peter Levine, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital gurus that have invested in Facebook (FB), Twitter and Zynga (ZNGA).

    The proof? In just the last month, enterprise giants including Oracle (ORCL), Salesforce (CRM) and now Microsoft (MSFT) have shelled out $2.25 billion forsocial business upstarts like Vitrue, Buddy Media and Yammer. The spending spree reflects the fact that enterprise software is swiftly evolving and tech's titans are fighting to keep up.

    Going - if not quite gone - are the clunky, licensed business products once churned out by the likes of Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. Up and coming are cloud-based, intuitive, software-as-a-service applications with social components created by a host of young, disruptive companies ranging from Dropbox to Asana and - until last week - Yammer.

    And at stake is one whopper of a payday. According to research firm Gartner, the global enterprise software market is valued at $280 billion, roughly equivalent to Greece's annual GDP.

    A silent revolution in enterprise IT is already underway. Here are five hallmarks of the new wave:

    1) The consumerization of enterprise software: What happens when a generation raised using intuitive, multimedia networks like Facebook - tools that are accessible from day one, no training required - enters the workplace? Suddenly, traditional enterprise software, like those monster spreadsheets on Excel, seems positively archaic by comparison. Today's business users expect a sexy, easy-to-use user interface, and the next generation of business software - think Dropbox, Yammer, Box - increasingly obliges, while also offering the security and compliance features traditionally demanded by enterprises.