article from Advisor Guide to Microsoft SharePoint

http://mssharepoint.advisorguide.com/

Information workers can use Microsoft Office to access and interact with business applications and create more fluid processes.

Microsoft has revealed a strategy to foster the development of Microsoft Office Business Applications (OBA). Microsoft's goal with the new products and services is to help companies maximize the productivity of their employees through process integration with line-of-business applications.

Because of the collaborative nature of most people's work, integrating business applications with Microsoft Office creates more fluid processes, according to Microsoft Corporation. For example, thanks to OBA, salespeople can access customer information, manage their sales calls in their Microsoft Office Outlook calendar, access product experts inside their company, and easily make proposals.

Microsoft Office Business Applications (OBA) consists of services including: workflow; search; user interface; Microsoft Office Open XML Formats; and the Web Site and Security Framework. Users can take advantage of these services to extend business intelligence, unified communications and collaboration, and enterprise content management as well as other business applications by independent software vendors or corporate developers.

In addition to OBA, Microsoft has announced a future set of line-of-business interoperability (LOBi) capabilities for Microsoft SharePoint. LOBi will work together with Microsoft Office client applications and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. LOBi is designated to let people update transactional applications from within Microsoft Office and more securely take structured business processes and data offline. Developers can get started today creating Office Business Applications using the Microsoft Office System 2007, then expand those capabilities with LOBi when it becomes available.

To simplify the connectivity between the Microsoft Office System 2007 and other applications, Microsoft will offer the BizTalk Adapter pack. This set of line-of-business application adapters underpins connectivity and process integration with line-of-business applications.

OBA services are available for beta testing (via the Microsoft Office System 2007). A technical preview of LOBi for Office SharePoint Server is scheduled to be available at the end of 2006.