In the past couple of days tech giants Microsoft and Google both made aggressive moves to securing more of your intranet business. Both announcements from the two avowed corporate enemies did not directly involve competitive services, but the indication is clear: the employee audience is an increasingly bigger priority for both.
The Microsoft chiefly targets the health sector – specifically health companies that are looking to bolster their communications and collaboration technology for employees.
Microsoft has launched a new healthcare offer called Knowledge Driven Health Plans, “the company’s shared vision and solutions framework for the health plan industry.”
See Microsoft targets healthcare
Under Microsoft’s vision and solutions framework, health plan employees are able to connect islands of information for improved collaboration and knowledge delivery, driving more informed decisions. The solutions based on this framework span key business areas, including care management to business intelligence, enterprise-wide project management to risk management and risk compliance, and member-centric communications. Industry customers around the world are realizing business success under the Knowledge Driven Health Plans vision and solutions framework.
Horizon Healthcare Services Inc. (Horizon) recently deployed Microsoft BizTalk Server to provide translation and orchestration services for its provider portal applications and HIPAA transactions. With Microsoft’s technology in place, Horizon has achieved improved visibility into transactions, increased first-call resolution of support requests, and it projects a 50 percent reduction in cost of ownership.
In short, Microsoft is repackaging existing business software and solutions for the healthcare sector with an eye to employee collaboration and communications tools.
Google has unveiled two new intranet services that expand on previously announced but scaled-back solutions including the new, smaller, faster Google Mini.
As the Motley Fool put it, “Google is the king of Internet search. Now, it looks like it wants to be the king of intranet search.
Google Mini integrated hardware/software search appliance now searches multiple sites and can help businesses create an instant intranet by searching the contents of shared Windows file systems. Starting at just $1995, new features for the Mini include: Access to more, fresher content The hardware itself is event smaller than the original and now can fit under the desk of your intranet administrator. What is refreshing is that both companies have spent recent years focusing most of their energy on the Internet, customer-facing space. There appears to be a reinvigorated focus towards the ever-improving and increasingly vital intranet space.