Groove purchase may lead to stronger Microsoft presence in Massachusetts

In a restored Beverly factory turned high-tech park, the elevator directory still lists the company as Groove Networks.

But the sign in its reception area reads Microsoft Corp., which recently renewed Groove's lease at the Cummings Center. And there are hopes its offices eventually may become a full-fledged development center for a giant company with a small New England presence.

Ray Ozzie, the Groove founder who is now Microsoft's chief technical officer, is doubling as the lobbyist-in-chief within Microsoft for expanding the company's footprint in Massachusetts. So far there are no concrete plans, though Ozzie insists ''there is great openness in the organization" to capitalizing on the region's technology talent.

''What you're going to see is, as we move from version to version of our products, there will be more creative thought given to 'OK, well, what could we do in that Boston facility?' " Ozzie said. ''Clearly, Microsoft would like to take advantage of the resources and talent offered by the universities in Massachusetts, whether it be MIT or Harvard or UMass. We think it's just a tremendous hotbed of talent there. And so, yes, I'm virtually certain that we will expand it, but I just don't have things to announce at this time."

One year after Microsoft disclosed its agreement to buy Groove, the company operates as a subsidiary of the Redmond, Wash., corporation. Groove's collaboration software, which enables knowledge workers to collaborate within and across organizations, is being featured in Office Enterprise 2007, a new premium version of Microsoft's Office suite for businesses. It also continues to be sold as a standalone product under the Groove brand.

Most of Groove's workforce has remained. Groove has 178 employees nationwide today, and plans to fill 10 open positions. That's down from 199 employees at the time of the Microsoft acquisition.

Those numbers don't include 10 Groove employees who have transferred to jobs at Microsoft, four of whom work on Ozzie's so-called CTO team. And a number of Redmond-based Microsoft employees are spending time in Beverly to speed Groove's integration into Office, helping, for example, to translate the product into 32 languages.

With Ozzie spending the bulk of his time in Redmond on a larger Microsoft portfolio, Groove is now run by general manager David Scult, who reports to Chris Capossella, a Microsoft corporate vice president who grew up in Boston's North End. Ken Moore and Eric Patey, members of the Groove founding team with Ozzie and his brother Jack, run the Groove development team in Beverly, reporting to Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft senior vice president of Office.

Marc Olson, an Office veteran named group product manager for Groove, commutes frequently from Redmond to Beverly to help the Groove team navigate Microsoft.

''What I try to bring is the Redmond perspective on what it means to be Office," Olson said. ''Shared value is more important than any single product feature."

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.