Microsoft's Ray Ozzie is quiet behind the scenes

If you follow Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Ray Ozzie, you know that the guy is secretive, soft-spoken and is a master of getting things done behind the scenes without drawing too much competitive oversight from the industry. What has he delivered for the world's largest software maker? So far, Ozzie has been long on vision and planning, but the fruits of all that labor are still in the middling stage.

Don't expect that stage to remain the same forever, though. Ozzie appears to have the wherewithal to ensure Microsoft morphs from a software company to an Internet services company (in some form) as the days of locally-installed software decline and the days of network-based computing rise. The first sign of this is Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), which lives entirely (for the most part) inside a web browser -- no software needed. There are outsiders like Google Earth and Google Desktop, sure. But, Google's entire revenue base comes from customers "inside the browser", not working on installed desktop software.

It's true that Microsoft is not yet an advertising-supported business (like Google), and its strides to get there are taking baby steps in my opinion. It's far behind the competition here, but it will get better most likely. Meanwhile, Ozzie's belief that the industry is changing from software to services is already being exemplified by companies like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). Microsoft's sluggishness in moving toward an ad-supported business model (for consumers, anyway) can be attributed to its fixation on its massive on-premises software business.

Can Microsoft successfully make the transition from software company to "software services" company along with receiving a portion of its revenue from advertising? The company has a long way to go and massive changes are needed in its business model. Ozzie, though, is probably the best person to transform the software giant.

Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 5-2-07